Thomas L. Hisgen
Thomas Louis Hisgen (born November 26, 1858 in Petersburg , Indiana , United States , † August 27, 1925 in Miami ) was an American grease producer and politician. He refused to sell his company to the Standard Oil Trust , whereupon Standard Oil tried to ruin the company with dumping prices. Hisgen was nominated for the post of governor of Massachusetts in 1907 by the Massachusetts Independence League . Runner-up, ahead of the Democratic Party nominee , Hisgen became a candidate for the Independence Party in the 1908 presidential election , a branch of the Independence League founded in 1908. Although he traveled the country on a campaign tour, he did worse than expected in the elections (83,628 votes), which marked the end of the Independence Party as a national party. Many of the members then returned to the Democratic Party. Hisgen stayed with the public as a regular commentator on the oil industry.
Life
Hisgen was born on November 26th in Petersburg (Indiana) as the fifth of eleven children of William Hisgen (* 1830 in Darmstadt as Carl Ludwig Wilhelm Hisgen; † 1897) and Margaret Catharine, née McNally. His father was a German immigrant and Forty-Eighter who first lived in Albany, New York , before moving further west to Indiana in 1857 . His mother was from Canada. He attended a small village school and, due to the economic circumstances of his family, had to go to work at a young age to support his parents and siblings financially. Hisgen did a large part of his training in self-study. In 1875, at the age of 16, Thomas and his family returned to New York, where he and two brothers worked as clerks in a clothing store. His father, who had a basic knowledge of chemistry, had long worked on a new and improved axle grease mixture that could be patented and marketed. His father's invention laid the foundation for a family business that Thomas and three brothers founded in Albany in 1888 as the Four Brothers Axel Grease Company .
Thomas L. Hisgen married Barbara Anne Fox (* 1868) and had three children with her. He died of pneumonia in Miami on August 27, 1925 . He was a great-grandson of Daniel Hisgen , a German Rococo church painter.
literature
- Darcy Richardson, Others: Third Parties During the Populist Period. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2007.
- Hisgen and Graves New Party Ticket: The Independence Convention Makes Its Choice in Early Morning , New York Times, July 29, 1908
- The Story of Hisgen and the Octopus , Current Literature, Volume 45, Issue 3, September 1908, pp. 270-272
- Great issues and national leaders of 1908 , photos: WE Scull, Philadelphia 1908; Reprint, Hardpress Publishing, United States 2012, ISBN 9781290674911
- MR HEARST'S CANDIDATE , Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3047, Nov. 18, 1908, p. 3
- John S. McGee: Predatory Price Cutting: The Standard Oil (NJ) Case , The Journal of Law & Economics, Volume 1, October 1958, pp. 137-169, here: p. 162
Web links
- Hisgen, Thomas L. , ourcampaigns.com
- Thomas Louis Hisgen , hisgenfamilyproject.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mark H. Salt (Ed.): Candidates and the Issues: An Official Hand-Book for Every American Citizen: Policies and Platforms of All Parties, with Portraits and Biographies of the Leaders Including the Lives of the Presidential Candidates: An Official History of the Campaign of 1908 ... nc: Charles B. Ayer, 1908, pp. 158-159.
- ↑ Thomas L. Hisgen dies in hospital on pneunomia , Springfield Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, August 28, 1925, p. 1.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hisgen, Thomas L. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hisgen, Thomas Louis (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American grease producer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Petersburg , Indiana , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 27, 1925 |
| Place of death | Miami |