The 38-year-old founder, Frank Seiberling, purchased the company’s first plant with a $3,500 down payment – using money he borrowed from a brother-in-law. The rubber and cotton that were the lifeblood of the industry had to be transported from halfway around the world, to a landlocked town that had only limited rail transportation. Even the man the company’s name memorialized, Charles Goodyear, had died penniless 30 years earlier despite his discovery of vulcanization after a long and courageous search.
With just 13 workers, Goodyear production began on Nov. 21, 1898, with a product line of bicycle and carriage tires, horseshoe pads and – fitting the gamble Seiberling was making – poker chips. The first recorded payroll amounted to $217.86 based on the prevailing wage of 13 to 25 cents an hour for a 10-hour day. After the first full month of business, sales amounted to $8,246.
