CHAPTER XII
The Boy Whose Difficulties Made Him
Determined to Succeed
Among the flood of European immigrants that came to America in the early seventies of last century, was a family from Alsace-Lorraine, named Kindleberger. There were several small children in the family and they were all well used to hardship for they had never known anything but poverty. After three or four years of changing around the family finally settled in West Carrollton, Ohio, where the father obtained work in the paper-mills.
The third in the group of seven children was named Jacob and as soon as he was ten he was sent to work in the mills where he earned twenty-five cents a day. One week he would be on the day shift, and a day’s work meant thirteen long hours. The following week he worked on the night shift which lasted twelve hours. The mills were poorly ventilated, dark and cheerless, and if young Jacob ever lagged behind in his work his ears were soundly boxed or he was given a kick. Enormous quantities of rags were brought to the mills to go through the process which would make them into paper. At first Jacob’s work was to cut the buttons from the rags. This work had to be done very carefully. Not one button must be allowed to go through the machine, or paper would be ruined. Jacob was severely handicapped for doing this work because of his defective eyesight. His eyes were so poor that he could not easily distinguish buttons from rags, so he trained himself to work by touch. As swiftly as he could the half-blind boy toiled away, terrified lest he should allow buttons to get into the machine, but taking his punishment when it came, without whimpering. For a long time his wages remained at twenty-five cents per day, but even that small amount was sorely needed in the Kindleberger home, where there was a constant struggle against actual want.
Jacob was far from happy in those days. His father had not got on as well as he had hoped and was a discouraged man. His mother was overworked and weary with having to look after the needs of so many children, with very little money. At fifteen Jacob was earning only thirty cents a day. He could neither read nor write. The hours of labour at the mill were such that he had seldom even played. There was little for him to do but work, eat and sleep. He had no ambition, for there had been nothing in his life so far but poverty and hardship and it seemed as though he were destined to become, like his father, a discouraged man. Then something happened which completely changed Jacob Kindleberger’s life.
One Sunday evening he was standing with a number of other lads of his own age, near the Carrollton Methodist Church. One lad said, “Let us go into the church and have a good laugh.” They agreed and went in, Jacob among them. But instead of having a good laugh Jacob sat spell-bound as the minister preached. The man spoke about life, its possibilities and responsibilities. He asked his hearers what they intended doing during the next ten, twenty or thirty years. Would they be bigger, better, happier, more useful? As he listened Jacob became suddenly dissatisfied with his life. He felt it was all so meaningless and empty. He seemed to be going from nowhere to nowhere; but what help could he get? He who could neither read nor write. The minister invited those who earnestly wanted God to help them, to come forward, and Jacob got up in his seat and accepted the invitation.
For the first time in his life Jacob went to a school. It was Sunday School and he found that boys half his age could both read and write. They treated him kindly and he felt at home among them but he determined there and then, that he would not be pitied. He would learn to read and write and meet these boys on an equal footing. One thing which greatly helped him was that he made a new set of companions. He had never known such lads before and he did not know that there could be so much kindness and sympathy in the world. Nobody around that church or Sunday School ever said an unkind word, or did a mean thing to Jacob, but when he saw them reading the Bible or singing out of hymn-books, it almost seemed as if they lived in another world.
One boy gave Jacob his old primary books. He taught him his letters and the meaning of words. Jacob’s defective eyesight prevented his making as much progress as he would otherwise have done because he read so slowly and had to hold the book within a few inches of his face. Then his home was crowded and no matter how eager to learn he might be, it was not easy to study. The only heated room in the house was the kitchen and there the whole family gathered. The younger children played and shouted and the only light came from a miserable little oil lamp. Jacob stuck to his lessons night after night. He did his best work after ten o’clock, when the others had gone to bed. He would sit up until his mother thumped on the floor and insisted that he “put those books away and get to bed.”
Jacob got his first pair of glasses when he was nineteen. He was simply amazed at the great difference they made. He said: “I had no idea what I had been missing until I got those glasses. They literally changed earth into heaven. For days I went about in a daze of wonder, just looking and discovering new beauties.” From then on he made better progress with his studies and was soon able to read and write with comparative ease.
When he was twenty-one he entered school, taking his place in the fourth grade. Most of his class-mates were about eleven or twelve years of age. He felt terribly awkward when he first took his place in the class. He was earning his living by acting as janitor and truant officer for the school, but for six hours each day he sat in the class. He did so well with his lessons that in four years he was able to enter Ohio Wesleyan University where he began to study for the Christian ministry.
He had to pay his own way, of course, but this he did by working after classes and on Saturdays and vacations. He began by acting as a salesman for paper and did so well that before long he was earning more than he had ever done in his life. He had a hard time, however, at the university. His eyes gave him a great deal of trouble and he could never read for long at one time. His eyes were not equal to any prolonged strain. One day when he was in college the printed page before him suddenly became blank. After the lecture he went straight to a doctor who told him that if he did not leave college at once he would go blind.
It was a severe disappointment, but Jacob had become used to hard knocks, and he did not lose heart. He left college and secured a position as a travelling salesman at fifteen dollars a week. It was not much, but he determined to succeed—and he did. He travelled all over the United States, Canada and Mexico, and he made friends and did business, wherever he went. So hard did he work at this that he became the most successful salesman his firm had on the road. Then one day a friend told him that there was room for a new paper-mill near Kalamazoo, Michigan. After investigating the situation he decided to try the venture and so he began the mills—just two miles from Kalamazoo—where now stands the town of Parchment.
Success in the new venture did not come quickly. There were many discouragements and setbacks, but all his life Jacob Kindleberger had faced difficulties and they had always served to increase his determination. He worked at those new mills as hard—or harder—than any man on the job. He even shovelled coal in the boiler-room to cut down expenses. He was the first on the job in the morning, and the last to quit at night.
One day on a railway train, he overheard a lady say that she had tried everywhere to get a certain kind of shelf-paper but without success. That gave him an idea. Immediately he began to manufacture that kind of paper and sold it in great quantities. Soon the tide turned and success came. The machinery of the mills was improved and the output of paper increased daily. Homes were built for the employees, and before long Parchment was a good-sized town. A fine school was built, a church, a community house, large playgrounds, and everything has been done with a view to have the people of that town comfortable, contented and happy.
Some time ago in the American Magazine, Mr. W. S. Dutton told of a visit he paid to Parchment and of his impressions. The mills, he said, are among the largest and most scientifically equipped in the world. They represent, at present, an investment of more than seven million dollars. From the large machines, beautiful white writing paper rolls out at the rate of seven hundred feet a minute, and Mr. Kindleberger hopes to have this output increased to one thousand feet a minute.
Jacob Kindleberger has never forgotten the debt he owes to church and Sunday School. As soon as the first house was built in Parchment a Sunday School was started and there is a fine church in the town. For fourteen years Mr. Kindleberger has been the teacher of the Adult Bible Class and no man could be more loved and respected. The half-blind immigrant boy who began life almost without any education, has become one of the most successful business men, and one of the noblest Christian gentlemen, on this continent.