Fillmore Condit
Fillmore Condit was born in Roseland, New Jersey on Sept. 4, 1855, son of Stephen J. and Catherine Tappan Condit.[1]At the age of twenty-four in 1879 he invented and manufactured a refrigerator door fastener for use in meat markets.[2]According to his own biography, he met his wife Ida Rafter as a customer in his store, and married her in 1881.[3]The couple moved to Verona where Fillmore soon participated in local politics, serving on the Essex Board of Freeholders.[4]
The family moved to California in 1899 for one year, where Fillmore became interested in the oil industry. When they returned to New Jersey in 1901 he was placed in charge of the Eastern District of the Union Oil Co. of California.[5]He also participated in the temperance and suffrage movements. At one time he was the executive chairman of the Anti-Saloon League of America. One of his most popular tracts was called "The Relation of Saloons to Insanity," published by The American Issue Publishing Company in 1910.[6]He spoke at the National Suffrage Day open-air meeting in Montclair,[7]and was one of the speakers during the tour of the "Torch of Victory," circulated under the auspices of the Women's Political Union.[8]
Condit's testimony for a grand jury investigating former Syracuse mayor and Tammany boss James K. McGuire, was successful in obtaining McGuire's indictment on charges of soliciting a campaign contribution from a corporation.[9]Condit was put up by the Anti-Saloon League as a candidate for governor of New Jersey in 1919, but for personal reasons decided to withdraw, obtaining concessions from the Republican Party they would support prohibition.[10]
Condit and his family decided to return to California and settled in Long Beach, where he soon entered into city politics, serving as a councilman and mayor, and succeeded in founding a city hospital there.[11]After Ida died in 1921, Fillmore made a second marriage with Helen Mackinnon 5 Dec. 1922.[12]Fillmore Condit died in Long Beach Jan. 6, 1939.[13]
- ^ Condits and Cousins Family History, see [1]
- ^ Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens and State Guide, J. J. Scannell, 1919, page 94.
- ^ "My Wife and I," Fillmore Condit, Long Beach, Calif., June, 1921, page 6.
- ^ Scannell, page 94.
- ^ See the Political Graveyard: [2].
- ^ [3]
- ^ "Will Address Suffrage Meeting," The Montclair Times, April 18, 1914, page 3,
- ^ "Suffrage Torch to Jersey Today," The New York Times, Saturday, August 7, 1915, page 7.
- ^ "MGuire Indicted When Jerseyman Tells of Graft," New Evening Star, Monday, November 24, 1913, page 1.
- ^ "Prohibitionists Looking to Lane," Asbury Park Press, Oct. 14, 1919, page 2.
- ^ "City Hospital Realization of Fillmore Condit's Dream," The Long Beach Telegram and The Long Beach Daily News, 31 Jul. 1924, page 12.
- ^ "Wedding Bells to Chime for City Official," The Long Beach Telegram and The Long Beach Daily News, Monday, December 4, 1922, section 2, page 1.
- ^ "Death Takes Fillmore Condit, Oil Company Founder and Ex-Long Beach Mayor Passes at 83," Long Angeles Times, Jan. 7, 1939, page 21.