[ORTH SHORE BREEZE 
AND REMINDER 
Vol. XIV 
Manchester, Mass., Friday, May 26 
No. 21 
The Romance of Shoemaking 
A Marvelous Tale—The Birth of the Industry in This Land was in New England and On Our Own 
North Shore 
KATHERINE GAUSS 
S a general rule one does not connect romance with 
shoemaking, but it is, nevertheless, a truly marvelous 
tale, this rise of the shoemaking industry in the eastern 
part of New England. From the time of the settlement 
of the first small colonies on these shores, this section has 
corraled the leather business and has built up a system 91 
shoemaking that is far ahead of that of any other country. 
When the early settlers came over from England, 
each man brought with him good bark-tanned leather and 
also four pairs of stout boots. However, with a country 
as rough and rocky as ours was, it was not long before 
this supply was exhausted. On the occasional ships ar- 
riving from the old country, leather supplies were brought 
and even though the colonists took to making moccasins 
of buckskin leather, the total supply of footwear was 
soon exhausted. 
Then the first shoemakers began to put in an appear- 
ance, for truly necessity is the mother of operation as well 
as invention, and these men made the rounds of the ccun- 
try-side, with their leather on their backs, and made shoes 
for the family. Finally these shoemakers were granted 
land in the various towns where they settled and they 
grew quite well-to-do in their trade; finally many of them 
were able to open shoe shops, making the shoes for a 
whole town. 
~The early settlers were jacks-of-all-trades; they 
hunted deer, bear and other creatures of the woods, ate 
the flesh for food, and made the ,pelts into leather for 
articles of clothing. Farmers raised cattle, sheep and 
goats, and ate their flesh, and tanned the pelts into 
leather in pits in their own yards, using the bark from the 
nearby trees. Thus the early settlers began to be their 
own shoemakers. 
In New England it was common for these early 
settlers to combine the occupations of farming, fishing 
and shoemaking. During the stormy weather the farmers 
were unable to cultivate the soil, and the fishermen were 
unable to go to sea, and so they gathered in little work- 
shops, most of them placed at the rear of the dwelling, 
and they made shoes, first for themselves, then for their 
families, then for the neighbors, and if many rainy days 
cr cold days came during the year, oftentimes there would 
be enough shoes to sell to the people of the near-by town. 
Now the early shoemakers’ shop, a model of whica 
is in the garden of the Essex Institute, Salen, was put 
to use about the middle of the 19th century and was calle:| 
a “ten-footer” because it usually measured about 10 feet 
in-length and 10 feet in width. They were generally fin- 
ished off about 6% feet high and the garret, left unfin- 
ished, became a common receptacle for all kinds of litter. 
Usually about six persons could work comfortably ‘a 
this house, which held nothing but the benches, stove and 
shoemakers’ kits. 
These little shops were the meeting places on rainy 
days and in the long winter evenings of the men of the 
town and here many heated questions were discussed 
and many grave situations passed upon. ‘The minister’s 
recent sermon and the latest political news were topics of 
debate. Often one shoemaker would pause in his work 
to read aloud from a newspaper or a book. It has been 
said that tne printers and uie snoemakers of those times, 
were the most learned men of tueir time. Roger Sher- 
man, signer of the Declaration of Independence, studieJ 
from open books as he made s.ioes in one of these shops. 
Henry Wilson, “The Natick Cobbler,” who became vice- 
president of the United States, mastered the rudiments of 
debating by discussing problems of the day with fellow 
shoemakers in Natick shops. 
There were also many good musicians among those 
shoemakers of other days and the fame of “The Musical 
Shoemakers” of Salem still lingers in the minds of the 
older inhabitants. These shoemakers entertained them- 
selves and visitors with music while they worked. One 
day, so the story runs, the manager of a circus then in 
town, heard of the ‘Musical Shoemakers,”’ contracted 
with them for a goodly sum and they closed their shop 
for the summer and went with the circus. 
Shoemaking in the olden days was not always one 
sweet song; through poor ventilation, stale tobacco fumes, 
cramped positions necessary, and foul odors from the 
shop-tub, used for soaking leather, consumption was 
spread with great rapidity and many were the deaths 
amnong those who plied this trade. The shoemakers com- 
monly drank liquors in those days and it was customary 
to serve grog in all these little shops. This habit, too, 
tended to weaken otherwise strong men. 
The manner of conducting the shoe business fifty 
years ago was very unlike the methods of today. In 
those days, when the shoe shops had multiplied all over 
eastern Masachusetts, there was a person known as the 
“bag boss.” A dozen or two dozen pairs of shoes were 
packed in a bag and taken to Boston to be traded off for 
whatever could be got in exchange. As there were no 
steam cars running, the methods of carrying these bags 
of shoes to Boston were as various as the circumstances 
of the ‘bag bosses.” Some took then in a pack on the 
back and trudged off to town, making the trip last two 
days, returning the second day, with the supplies or 
leather gotten in exchange for the shoes. Others took 
the pack on horseback, considering the trip a good day’s 
journey. Others went by stage coach and oftener than 
not, when a bag boss was a man of means, the trip was 
made by private carriage. 
Only within the last thirty vears has come the great 
revolutions. in the shoe business throughout the. country. 
The stitching machine was the first great invention, the 
work of Elias Howe of Lynn. Soon after the installation 
of these machines, the factory system was gradually in- 
troduced. One _ by one the little shoemakers’ shops were 
abandoned, as the factories of the manufacturers were 
enlarged and fitted up so that the work, both of the 
