[HM56-F]

https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/HM56-F

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Part Of: Legal Series -- Harry F. Miller File

[HM56-F] Group 3: Legal and Personal Business Records (1911-1923)

This folder contains correspondence, agreements, financial material, and other documents covering the years 1911-1923. Almost half of the items are from 1917, the year that Richard W. Kellow succeeded Miller as secretary for Edison's personal interests. The few items for the period after Kellow left Edison's employ in 1921 appear to have been handled by Edison's brother-in-law John V. Miller (no relation to Harry F. Miller) in his capacity as assistant financial executive of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (TAE Inc.).

The documents handled by Miller from 1911-1916 include agreements pertaining to the sale of Edison's interest in the Lansden Co., a manufacturer of electric delivery wagons, and to the lease of cows owned by Edison to the Edison Portland Cement Co.; requests for assistance from son William Leslie Edison and from longtime associate Edward H. Johnson; and a letter from Edison to the Russian government, attesting to his son-in-law John V. Sloane's airplane company's capability of fulfilling an order. Also included are items relating to Edison's real estate holdings at Menlo Park and Silver Lake, New Jersey.

The documents handled by Kellow from 1917-1919 include assignments relating to the recording rights of Henry Ford's band, Ford Hawaiian Quintet, who made a number of Edison disc records; agreements and correspondence relating to Edison's rental of the yachts Yankee III, Rampant, and Hydraulic for wartime experimental work; financial statements and a guarantee of liability for workers' compensation at the Edison Portland Cement Co. (EPPCo) and the West Orange Laboratory; a seventeen-page list of expenses incurred in setting up the benzol plant at Woodward, Alabama, a joint project of Edison and Mitsui & Co.; and balance sheets showing the capital stock and net worth of TAE Inc., the Edison Phonograph Works, and the Edison Storage Battery Co.

The documents from 1921-1923 pertain to the life insurance policies of Edison and his family, the value of Automatic Phonograph Exhibition Co. stock issued in 1890, and the patent rights of the Edison Storage Battery Co. in regard to the starter battery that Edison was developing for the Ford Motor Co.

The correspondents include Edison attorneys Delos Holden and Henry Lanahan; TAE Inc. financial executive Stephen B. Mambert , John V. Miller; EPCCo president Walter S. Mallory and assistant manager Alfred Hallingsworth- Moses; James A. Serrell, owner of the Rampant; and Max Zwickl, owner of the Hydraulic.

Approximately 50 percent of the documents for 1911-1923 have been selected. The unselected material includes duplicates, envelope wrappers and contents lists, documents pertaining to business not involving Edison, and additional items relating to insurance and rent for the Rampant.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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