Appendix C1. American Water Supply Company of New England

The American Water Supply Company of New England was organized on April 4, 1908 with a $500,000 capital investment. Luke W. Farmer, an investor involved with several credit associations in Massachusetts, put in a considerable portion of his personal means, the controlling capital stock into the development of the business-Lawrence Luellen and Hugh Moore were stockholders. The company manufactured a variety of paper cups and related products. After Luellen and Moore moved to New York in 1909, Eleazer Cate became president, later succeeded by Frank Dyer, with Luke Farmer serving as treasurer and general manager. The American Water Supply Co. of N.E., as owner and controller of patents and applications for water vending machines, entered into agreements with the Public Cup Vendor Co. in 1909 and 1910, which gave the Public Cup Vendor Co. the exclusive right and license to use and operate these vending machines on steam railroads within the territory of the New England states. The Public Cup Vendor Co. agreed to pay the American Water Supply Co. a yearly fee during the life of the patents, but failed to make payments. In 1915, the New York Supreme Court rendered a judgement against the Public Cup Vendor Co. and ordered it to make payments of $4,196.45. The money was not collected because the Public Cup Vendor Co. had transferred all its assets to the Individual Drinking Cup Company.

In 1917 the American Water Supply Co. brought suit against the Individual Drinking Cup Company in Equity Court of New York in a final effort to collect the debt owed by the Public Cup Vendor Co. Hugh Moore and Lawrence Luellen were named defendants. In 1917 the Individual Drinking Cup Company (incorporated in Maine) transferred to the Individual Drinking Cup Company, Inc. of New York all of its assets. As a result the case never went any further. Luke Farmer, one of the major investors, and executive officer of the American Water Supply Co. died in 1922. The Farmer estate was transferred when the F.N. Burt Company Ltd. Corporation of the Province of Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, New York bought the controlling interest in the capital stock of the American Water Supply Co. in 1923. The executors of Farmer’s estate, Elizabeth Farmer and Amos L. Taylor, had all rights accruing in the pending litigation regarding the agreement in 1909 and 1910 between the American Water Supply Co. and the Public Cup Vendor Co. assigned to them (the Executors). [On January 8, 1924, the Individual Drinking Cup Company entered into an agreement with the Burt Co. giving Burt certain rights in several patents. An exclusive, written license was granted to Burt on May 20, 1924 to manufacture, use, and sell devices. The paper cup business of F.N. Burt Co., Ltd was acquired by The Vortex Manufacturing Co. in 1925 as part of a settlement in an infringement suit brought by Vortex against Burt. The patent rights issued by Individual Drinking Cup Company were thus transferred to the Vortex Manufacturing Company on January 19, 1925-including certain Luellen patents originally granted to the American Water Supply Company.] By 1928, the face value of the original 1915 judgement against the Public Cup Vendor Co. had accrued to $14,479,58. The Individual Drinking Cup Co. was consolidated with the Vortex Co. to form Dixie-Vortex in 1936. Moore et al. were successful in having the 1915 judgement still pending against them in the New York courts dismissed in 1940. The American Water Supply Co. of New England was dissolved in 1941.