49 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But it was in the last State, at Lynn, that the industry had its real 

 origin and center in this country. 



Philip Kertland was the first person of that craft to locate in 

 what was to develop into the " City of Shoes," coming thither from 

 Sherrington in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1638. He was joined 

 soon after by Edmund Bridges, and considerable of a local busi- 

 ness sprang up. At that time shoemakers went around from house 

 to house and worked up the family stock of leather, but this itin- 

 erant system was soon dropped by the Lynn craftsmen as their 

 business grew into more than a local one. The art of shoemak- 

 ing, however, was not understood and the workmen were unskilled. 

 Occasionally some of the more ambitious ones would send to Eng- 

 land for shoes and take them apart, with a view of learning the 

 wny of making them. But men who had money and were in a 



. v.\ _-- "*> 





Fig. 2. An Eakly Lynn Shoe-shop. These shops marked the intermediate stage in the evo- 

 lution of the shoe industry. With the introduction of machinery, between 1860 and 1870 

 they passed out of use and largely out of existence. 



position to help on such experiments were shy of the shoe busi- 

 ness. They preferred to invest in trade and real estate. The re- 

 sult was that no real progress was made in the business until John 

 Adams Dagyr, a Welsh shoemaker, moved to Lynn in 1750. Dagyr 

 was skilled in the methods employed in England, and he proceeded 

 to instruct all who came to him in the art. His fame spread abroad 

 through northeastern Massachusetts, and it was only a short time 

 after his settlement before a notable improvement became appar- 

 ent in the Lynn product. The Boston Gazette of October 21, 1764, 

 said : " It is certain that women's shoes, made at Lynn, do now 

 exceed those usually imported, in strength and beauty, but not in 

 price." Edward Johnson, of Woburn, in his " Wonder-working 

 Providence," says of Lynn : " All other trades have fallen into 



