Charles W. Humphreys, the founder of the Minor Rubber Company, grew up in the Albany NY area, and as a young man went to work for The Alling Rubber Company. In the late 1800’s, or early 1900’s, Alling Rubber opened a branch location in Newark NJ, and sent a manager and a few others, including Humphreys, to open and operate the new store. Alling’s business was both retail and wholesale, in the area of factory and mill supplies. The term “factory and mill supplies” was a broad range of products comprised of, but not limited to, workman’s rubber-covered rainwear, such as coats, pants, boots, (original workman’s foul weather gear), fireman and police coats, fireman’s boots, fire axes, fire hose, hose reels, rubber-covered aprons, buckets, rubber and leather gloves of all kinds, water and air hose, batteries, tires and rims for cars and trucks, acid handling equipment, rubber stoppers and plugs; the list goes on and on.

After a period of time Alling Rubber decided to withdraw from the Newark market. Charles Humphreys, not wanting to return to Albany, sought to purchase the operation. The manager of the store interceded on his behalf, and through his specific efforts, Mr. Humphreys was able to acquire the operation, including the lease on the building and the entire inventory. Charles Humphreys, in gratitude to the former manager, named the new business after him. Minor Rubber Company opened its doors for business in 1914.

From 1914 to the mid 1920’s Minor Rubber continued operations from the same storefront on Market Street in Newark as Alling Rubber had done, selling the same products as the predecessor company. During this period of time, however, additional products and services were added. Instead of just selling hose in bulk lengths, equipment was acquired to attach a variety of couplings to the hose, thereby providing a finished product for the customer. Custom rubber mats, and rubber matting, were also added to the product line around this time.

During the 1920’s and into the 1930’s Minor continued to grow, adding more and more items to its line of products. It was also during this time that Minor Rubber became the vendor of choice for rubber-coated rainwear for the fire, police, and postal workers of the City of Newark. In addition, Minor became known as a major source for fire hose in Newark, as well as surrounding areas. It was also during this time that Minor began to move in the direction of fabrication, such as the likes of hand punching gaskets from rubber sheet packing
 
In the early 1930’s Minor moved once again, this time purchasing two adjacent buildings on Williams Street in Newark. The space acquired, it was believed, would leave plenty of room for future expansion. It was during this time that Mr. Humphreys brought three nephews into the business, James, Charles and George, to help grow the business, and through whose efforts, they began to steer the business away from the retail and wholesale trades and further towards manufacturing. They also were instrumental in having Minor become a vendor to the United States Department of War [now Department of Defense] which further allowed a migration away from retail and wholesale goods, and further into the manufacturing business. During this period of time, and especially during World War II, manufacturing became the focal point of the business. An acquisition of a rubber molding facility in early 1950’s, signaled an end to the retail and wholesale trade for Minor Rubber, and those items disappeared from Minor’s product lines completely by the end of that decade. In 1952 Minor Rubber moved to Bloomfield NJ, where our administrative, sales, and distribution operations still operate to this day.

Minor Rubber has a broad range of customers, covering industries from electronics, aerospace, health care, construction, transportation, defense, and off road vehicle applications. Over the years the Company has been involved in numerous applications that were, at the time, on the leading edge of a specific technology. During the 1960’s the United States was heavily involved in manned space flight. It was in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy put forth a challenge to land a man on the moon by the end of that decade. Companies of all sizes became involved in this project, and Minor Rubber was one of them. Minor is proud to say that it was involved in every space program from Mercury to Apollo, having some of its products on virtually every mission launched, including the first lunar landing. Minor Rubber has since that time continued its support of the aerospace industry, and today is a vendor to most, if not all, commercial and military aircraft manufacturers. Minor has also spun off sister companies, created for specific purposes, such as one that produced a special, dissolvable form on which the fuel cells for the Polaris, Poseidon, Atlas and Saturn missiles were built.

In the ensuing years Minor Rubber has grown from being a vendor of “factory and mill” goods, to a manufacturer and distributor of various types of industrial rubber components. Our product capabilities not only encompass several lines of standard products, but has capacity to produce custom, molded, extruded, and latex dip molded products at facilities located in New Jersey, Georgia, New Hampshire, and China.

Minor Rubber was founded by one individual, Charles W. Humphreys, but grew as a family business, and has remained a family owned and operated business to this day. We would be remiss, however, not to mention that Minor Rubber would not have succeeded as it has without the help and dedication of its employees over the years. Many of these people have literally spent their entire working lives at Minor Rubber, some having 40 to 50+ years of service.