Catherine Anselm Gleason, or Kate as she was better known, was born November 25, 1865 and died January 9, 1933. She left an estate estimated at $1.5 million. There are several remarkable things about Kate Gleason, first is that she succeeded as a woman in a male dominated market, second is that she did it in the dawn of the twentieth century. She grew up helping her father with his business, the Gleason Tool Co., where they made lathes and planes. As a child she helped with small jobs and bookkeeping after her older brother died unexpectedly. She is hailed as being the first woman admitted to the engineering program at Cornell University even though she did not graduate because she was needed at home to run the business with her father, William, and brothers, Jim and Andrew. She established herself as a capable and knowledgeable saleswoman and helped increase the customer base.
In 1894 she traveled alone to Europe[1] in order to find more customers as the United States was in an economic downturn. It was unheard of for a woman to travel alone to Europe, and yet she did. The trip was successful and “She was a pioneer in establishing overseas markets for products manufactured in the United States, and she had a new sense of her own powers.”[2] Following this the company participated in the Paris Exposition in another bid to increase sales and customers. According to the biography of Kate written by a family member, their location was undesirable at this exposition and Kate found a way to get a better spot. Their father had invented a gear planer which the sons Jim and Andrew later improved. Myths have credited Kate with this invention. According to the legend even Henry Ford enthusiastically spread this false information, “Ford never retracted the comment, however, and it became part of the lore of the machine tool business.”[3] She understood that being memorable and knowledgeable were far more likely to earn her a sale than being forgettable. As such, Gleason is noted to have had a big personality, a take charge attitude, and the knowledge of her product and process to back it up. This certainly worked in favor for the company, “By the end of 1898, the firm’s capital was $128,700, and the profit for the year was $10,400.”[4]
However, when the family reorganized the business in the early 1900’s, things took a turn for her. In 1903 they dissolved the previous company and reformed under Gleason Works, further success came in 1905 when they bought land to build a heavy machine shop.[5] Around the same time, the company sold everything that involved the production of lathes and planes and moved solely into gears. Her brother created a two-tool bevel gear generator, and they found a niche in manufacturing this generator for the automobile industry. Despite all this success, in 1913 her brother Andrew seemed resentful of Gleason’s personality and manner of conducting business, he demanded that Kate leave the family business, or he would. Her father left the decision of what to do up to the three siblings, and her brother Jim sided with Andrew and Kate bowed out but not empty-handed.
In 1906, Kate designs her own home after Alhambra[6] in Brighton Heights and names it after her mother’s birthplace, Clones. When it is finished in 1908 the home becomes a refuge for the woman who would spend the next twenty-five years crossing the globe in philanthropic and business endeavors. Her list of accomplishments is long and includes election to Verein Deutscher Ingenieu[7] as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers[8], in both instances as the first women to hold such a distinction. In 1914 she was named a receiver of the Ingle Machine Company by the bankruptcy court. “When Kate assumed responsibility for Ingle it owed $140,000, and its stock was worthless. Under her careful management, the company paid off its debts, and the bankruptcy was discharged on February 2, 1915,”[9] in two years it reportedly made a million dollars. She did not spend all her time rebuilding machine companies it seems. In
1915 she began buying land in East Rochester including land which eventually she donated back to the city as a park. Her intent was to create a community of affordable homes to stimulate the economy. The hundred home community was known as Concrest. The homes were made of concrete and included conveniences like attached garages, fireplaces, and affordability.[10] Some houses sold and have been occupied for many years by the same families, the houses which did not sell were eventually donated. Gleason donated them to the Rochester Institute of Technology where the Kate Gleason College of Engineering was named in her honor. Simultaneously she was involved in the building and designing of trailer cars. They originally were meant to haul large items, but she saw they could be used for recreational purposes as well. In 1918 she was elected as the president of the National Bank of East Rochester, a position she would hold only until her resignation two years later. Her ancestor Janis Gleason noted that Kate could sign her name to an issued bank note, but still was not legally allowed to vote. The bank was also struggling to collect debts owed and in her time as president she was able to turn things around in the banks favor to a degree. Her interests were elsewhere though and in 1925 she set her sights on France after World War I.
She purchased the Septmonts property in France to rebuild it and put money back into France’s economy. This was part of her philanthropic plan. The purchase of this property endowed her with the title Chatelaine de la Tour de Septmonts. She hired local workers to carry out the reconstruction. Additionally, she brought over a flock of American turkeys to help the French build up their small turkeys and increase agricultural production. In the same note, she encouraged the cultivation of mushroom farms. In another act that endeared her to the local French town, she had a new bell cast for the town and the front pew of the church in Septmonts bears her name.
Before her death in 1933, she was also working on building a resort in South Carolina, had real estate holdings in California before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, and planned to live until she was a hundred. She earned her money from her successful business ventures in manufacturing, banking, and construction as well as her shares of the Gleason Works. Her estate was valued at $1,413, 881.55[11] when she died. Kate Gleason is a memorable woman for her accomplishments in male dominated industries but more importantly for her aptitude at sales, business, and ingenuity in giving back to areas she was vested in.
Bibliography
Figure 1 253 – GLEASON, KATE. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2020, from http://eastrochester.org/Departments/Local-History/Collections/emodule/2139/eitem/2281
Figure 2 Gleason House [Photograph found in East Rochester Local History, East Rochester]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.erhistory.com/images/collection/96_HOMES/109.jpg
Figure 3 0084 – CONCREST HOUSE. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2020, from http://eastrochester.org/Departments/Local-History/Collections/emodule/2139/eitem/1633
Hurd, M. K. “Concrete Houses Alive and Well After More than 80 Years.” Concrete International (05, 2008): 34-8, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F198726848%3Faccountid%3D12085.
Gleason, Janis F. The Life and Letters of Kate Gleason. Rochester: RIT Press, 2010. muse.jhu.edu/book/17398.
[1] Janis F. Gleason. The Life and Letters of Kate Gleason. (Rochester: RIT Press, 2010), 46.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 55.
[4] Ibid., 52.
[5] Ibid., 57.
[6] Alhambra is a Spanish castle located in Granada noted for its red color.
[7] In 1913
[8] In 1914
[9] Gleason, The Life, 73.
[10] Hurd, M. K. “Concrete Houses Alive and Well After More than 80 Years.” Concrete International (05, 2008): 34-8, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F198726848%3Faccountid%3D12085.
[11] Ibid., 123
Lady of History 
Leave a comment