Businessman Industrialist rubber manufacturer
Leverett Candee was born on June 1, 1795 at Oxford, Connecticut, United States; the son of Job and Sarah (Benham) Candee. His father was a veteran of the Revolution, and later a captain of militia and a member of the Connecticut legislature.
After a scanty education in the district school, Candee went to New Haven at the age of fifteen where he soon obtained employment with Capt. Gad Peck, then a prominent merchant in foreign trade.
After a scanty education in the district school, Candee went to New Haven at the age of fifteen where he soon obtained employment with Capt. Gad Peck, then a prominent merchant in foreign trade. His next position was with Root & Atwater, dealers in dry-goods, the beginning of twenty-five years' connection with the dry-goods business. With two fellow clerks, James E. P. Dean and William Cutler, he organized the firm of Candee, Dean & Cutler which took over the business of their employers. Retiring from the firm in 1833, Candee removed to New York, where for two years he was partner in a firm of jobbers and commission merchants in dry-goods. He returned to New Haven in 1835 and entered into a partnership with Timothy Lester and Abraham Murdock in a general merchandise and commission business. Upon the dissolution of this firm Candee was interested for several years in the manufacture of book paper at Westville, Connecticut. This enterprise, carried on under the firm name of Candee, Page & Lester, and, after retirement of John G. Page in 1840, under the name of Candee & Lester, was unsuccessful. Its failure in 1842 wiped out the fortune accumulated by Candee over a period of twenty-five years. Undaunted by failure, Candee turned immediately to the manufacture of elastic suspenders. His interest aroused in rubber, he attempted in the same year (1842) to manufacture rubber shoes. Charles Goodyear, who had just discovered the process of vulcanization, offered him a license to use the process, the license to be confirmed and extended upon a grant of a patent. Backed financially by Henry and Lucius Hotchkiss of New Haven, Candee commenced the manufacture of rubber shoes at Hamden, Connecticut. His first over-shoes were exceedingly crude and the early years of their manufacture were largely taken up with improving the product and building a market. By the late forties the firm was solidly established, and a new impetus to its prosperity was given in 1852 by court decisions which upheld the validity of the Goodyear patents, a famous case in which Daniel Webster appeared for Goodyear. In 1852 the firm was organized as Candee & Company, with a capital of $200, 000, and four partners the Hotchkiss brothers, Timothy Lester, and Candee himself. Candee from the start had been the actual manager and continued, with the exception of one year, as president of the concern. He retired shortly before his death in 1863.
He married Jane Caroline Tomlinson and left one son.
