James Wheaton Converse

(January 11th, 1808 - August 26, 1894)

When he was six years old, James moved with his parents to Woodstock, Connecticut, and two years later, to Dover, Massachusetts, and from there to Needham. At the age of thirteen he came to Boston, where his uncles Joseph and Benjamin Converse ran a leather shoe and boot business at the corner of Milk and Broad Streets in Boston, and seven years later assisted him to begin business for himself in the Boylston Market. In 1832 he entered into partnership with William Hardwick in the boot, shoe, and leather business. In 1833, he joined Isaac Field in conducting an extremely successful hide and leather business under the name of Field and Converse. James Converse later provided capital needed for the purchase of the Poland and Converse mill in Stoneham and the Boston Rubber Shoe Company.

In 1870, he retired from the business to give attention to his growing railroad, banking, real estate, and other interests. He was a director of the Mechanics Bank of Boston from its organization in 1836, and its president from 1847 to 1886. In 1870, he was appointed receiver of the old Hartford and Erie Railroad, and piloted that corporation through a perilous time. He was president of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company, of the Colorado Smelting Company, and of the Boston Land Company. He had large investments at the West, especially in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was liberal in his gifts to the needy and to educational and benevolent institutions.