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6 Myths and Realities
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51 CHAPTER 6 Myths and Realities By 1898, the Gleason Tool Company was focusing exclusively on bevel gears, which were used in the flourishing bicycle business. Some bicycle manufacturers were now starting to produce automobiles that incorporated bevel gears as well as other bicycle parts. As a result, the Gleason Tool Company was expanding rapidly, with solid enough prospects to erect a new brick building. With Kate, Jim, and Andrew all working effectively, William decided to follow in Kate’s footsteps and travel to Europe to relax and establish new markets for Gleason machinery. After visiting Ireland, he spent two days in London before visiting Manchester, England. “It is very lonesome over here so far from home,” he wrote Kate on October 28,1 but four days later, William was feeling more positive about the trip. On November 1, he wrote, I have been to Hollingsworth’s this afternoon. Churchill has two very bright men here located in Manchester, both machinists, but never seen a gear planer in motion until this foor noon. What we need is a good man here that could go in too the shop and run the machine. If Andrew could be spared there is a big field here but we can talk that over later. I could stay here indefinitely and find something new every day. The heads off departments don’t get to work before 10 and generally take lunch at 1 pm. When they frequently don’t turn up after that event but they generally dispatch a good deal of business in a short time. They don’t know anything about mfg.2 From Glasgow, on November 7, he reported that “our gear planers are becoming well known throughout the country and I believe quite a number of them will be sold the comeing year if business keeps on as brisk as it 52 the life and letters of kate gleason is at present.”3 Three days later, William was in Berlin, where he wrote to Kate on November 11: I arrived here late last night and you can’t have the least idea off the plight I was inn. I could not make myself understood. This city seems to be a festive lot and iff Paris beats it I will be surprised. It is a fine city and I like the appearance off it mutch better than London or Glasgow. If I go to Vienna it will delay me at least one weeck but I think I had better go as they seem very anxious to have me.4 It was a successful trip. The Gleason firm sold $10,135 worth of machines to Germany and Austria and another $18,250 worth to the rest of Europe. By the end of 1898, the firm’s capital was $128,700, and the profit for the year was $10,400. The next year, after taking a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and visiting her Uncle Andrew (her mother’s brother) and his family in New Orleans, Kate celebrated her brother Jim’s wedding to Miriam Blakeney, on October 18, 1899. A trim, brown-haired young Rochester native whose interests ran to gardens, music, and the Presbyterian Church, Miriam had caught Jim’s eye when she was working in the Gleason Company. Their marriage, however , was unhappy from the beginning. In later years, the strain was public. Miriam and Jim maintained separate lives while sharing the same home. They rarely ate together, often arriving separately at the Genesee Valley Club for dinner, and dining at separate tables. At home, the local grocery store would deliver food to Jim’s cook and, later the same day, would make a separate delivery to Miriam’s. The family considered Miriam an exceedingly cold woman and blamed her for the problems in the marriage, but neither she nor Jim seemed to have strayed in search of affection, and they remained married for sixty-two years. Eleanor, meanwhile, was blossoming into a beautiful young woman. She had many beaus, but Kate kept a tight rein on her, allowing her to go out no more than once a week and warning her about men who would marry her for money. Under Kate’s protective custody, Eleanor became painfully shy and nauseous before she went out on dates. The specter of Kate giving her beaus the evil eye surely had a withering effect on any budding romance. With the best intentions, Kate laid the groundwork for Eleanor’s lifelong spinsterhood. She...