Surnames: Finkel, Montanye, Scriven
Source: History of the Mohawk Valley - Gateway to the
West - 1614-1925
Covering The Six Counties of Schenectady, Schoharie,
Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer and Oneida.
Volume IV Illustrated; Page
220
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1925
Edwin Vosburgh presents another proof of the fact that an ambitious youth, with the determination to make something worth while of his life, can turn his abilities to good account and attain a generous degree of success, even though he is handicapped by lack of education, funds and influential friends. Left fatherless at the age of eleven, he had to go to work to help support the family when many lads have no more serious thoughts than balls and marbles. Today Mr. Vosburgh is the head of a concern that does a half-million dollar business a year, and what is more, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has won his position by his won unaided effort. He was born in the town of Root, Montgomery County, on the 7th of November, fifty-three years ago. His parents, also natives of that county, were Aaron and Mary (Montanye) Vosburgh. The father, a farmer by occupation, operated a farm in his native county for a number of years, then moved to Fulton County, near Johnstown, where he continued his agricultural pursuits until his death in 1883 at the age of forty-four. The mother died on the 8th of August, 1918, at the age of seventy-two. Edwin Vosburgh was nine years old when the family moved to this vicinity and he continued in the public schools of Johnstown the education he had begun in the district schools of Montgomery County. After the death of his father, two years later, the boy went to work for an uncle on his farm, where he was employed for three summers. He began his career in the leather business by going to work for William Topp, a leather manufacturer of Johnstown, and a few years later moved to Oswego, New York, to accept a position as foreman in a tannery there, He was only twenty at the time, but so well did he understand the work and so mature were his judgments that he held this responsible post for a year or more. Mr. Vosburgh's experience was enlarged by a period of service in a shoe leather factory in Brooklyn after his Oswego position and by the time he reached the age of twenty-one he felt well qualified to embark in a business venture of his own. Accordingly, in 1893, he founded his present business, in partnership with James H. Topp, beginning in a small way in a little factory building whose dimensions were only thirty-two feet by fifty. The two men had a capital of three hundred dollars apiece with which to start operations, but what they lacked in funds they supplied in enthusiasm, courage and knowledge of their business. Early and late they worked in their little factory, making the most of every opportunity to increase their business and studying every method by which they might better their product or reduce the cost of operation. They were rewarded by a steady, healthy growth in the business which, after a time, made it necessary for them to erect the large factory building the concern now occupies at the corner of North Perry and Mathew streets, Johnstown. In 1916, Mr Vosburgh purchased the interest of his partner in the concern and has since been the sole proprietor. The past eight years have witnessed a tremendous expansion under Mr. Vosburgh's management, the business having more than doubled and averaged five hundred thousand dollars a year.
Mr. Vosburgh is the oldest manufacturer of bark tanned and beaverized shearing. in the United States and has one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country. The product is used for sheepskin lined coats, moccasins and slippers by manufacturers all over the Union, although the bulk of his trade is in the middle west, New York and Boston. Some of his shearlings are bought by firms as far away as California, however. When Commodore Perry made his last Arctic expedition he secured the skins for his company's equipment from Mr. Vosburgh, whose goods, therefore, have literally been to the pole. To add to the international features of this business the raw materials are largely imported, the skins coming from South Africa, Australia and South America, although western packers supply a small. amount of domestic product. The history of this man's achievement has not been one of unbroken success and prosperity, however. In 1900, just as the infant industry was getting well on its feet, a fire burned out the plant. It was then that the present factory was put up. It is a building. fifty feet wide and one hundred and seventy feet in length, having three stories and a basement. About fifty people are employed there regularly.
Mr. Vosburgh was married to Inez Scriven, on the 14th of June, 1894. Mrs. Vosburgh is the daughter of the late William H. Scriven and his wife, Mary (Finkel) Scriven, natives of Rensselaer County, New York. For many years her father was recorder for Rensselaer County, but prior to his death he made his home in Johnstown. Mrs. Scriven still resides here. Mr. and Mrs. Vosburgh have two children. a daughter and a son: Lillian Inez, born May 12, 1906, who is now attending the National Park Seminary at Forest Glen, Maryland, near Washington, D. C.; and Edwin, Jr., born April 13, 1910, and a school boy.
Aside from his interests in his business Mr. Vosburgh has been connected with other commercial and financial enterprises as a director of the Johnstown Bank for the past six years and a member of the I. R. Gregor Company of Amsterdam, which he was instrumental in organizing. He is chairman and secretary of the Municipal Civil Service Commission and in various other ways has manifested his interest in the cause of good government and sound civic administration. His political affiliations are with the republican party and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is an official. As a Mason he is identified with St. Patrick's Lodge, No. 4, A. F. & A. M., of Johnstown, and Cyprus Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Albany. He also belongs to the Colonial Club of Johnstown among whose members he has many warm friends.
