Background
Sidney W. Winslow, Sr. was born on September 20, 1854, in Brewster, Massachusetts, the son of Freeman Winslow and Lucy H. Rogers, and a descendant of Kenelm Winslow, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 1629.
Sidney W. Winslow, Sr. was born on September 20, 1854, in Brewster, Massachusetts, the son of Freeman Winslow and Lucy H. Rogers, and a descendant of Kenelm Winslow, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 1629.
The family moved to Salem, where Sidney attended the city high school.
Later he went to work in a small shoe factory that his father had established. About 1883 he and some associates started the Naumkeag Buffing Machine Company to manufacture machines for buffing leather used in the making of shoes. Soon they secured control of the Beverly Gas & Electric Company and consolidated it with other companies in adjacent towns. In these enterprises Winslow, Sr. was the moving spirit. The capital and credit that he derived from them he used in the development of machinery for the manufacture of shoes, and in 1899, with Gordon McKay and the Goodyear Company, formed the United Shoe Machinery Company, of which he became the president. It manufactured nearly all the shoe machinery used in the United States. Some of its machines were leased, and in the lease was a clause forbidding the lessor to use any other make of machine. Competition was thus rendered extremely difficult, and accordingly the United States government brought suit against the company in 1911, but the Supreme Court in repeated decisions up to 1918 declared in the company's favor. Congress then enacted legislation making it illegal to engage in interstate commerce if machinery was leased on condition that the lessor should not use machinery of a competitor, and in 1922 the Supreme Court ruled the so-called "tying clause" of the United States Shoe Machinery Company illegal. Winslow, Sr. was dead before this litigation was over, but it was his methods that were on trial. Whatever may be said against his methods of dealing with competition, he made valuable contributions to the development of American industry. The plant of the United Shoe Machinery Company in Beverly, Massachusetts, became a model one, providing in manifold ways for the health, comfort, education, and security of its employees. Winslow, Sr. recognized the rights of workers and furthered harmonious relations between them and their employers. He reduced the cost of manufacture by eliminating unnecessary management, and constantly added features making for efficiency, at the same time dispensing with others that caused delay or waste. His activities were not restricted to manufacturing, for he took a prominent part in the financial affairs of New England, and he was one of the principal owners of the Boston Herald and Boston Traveller, important morning and evening newspapers. By investing capital and participating in the management of numerous other business enterprises he became a conspicuous figure in the economic affairs of the nation. He died on June 18, 1917, in Beverly, Massachusetts, after a short illness.
Sidney Winslow, Sr. was a member of the Commercial and Algonquin Clubs, and Boston Chess Club.
On November 28, 1877, Sidney Wilmot Winslow, Sr. married Georgiana Buxton, who died in 1908. They had four children.
