USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
1 The total number of persons regularly employed on the West End system during 1892 was 4,614.
302
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
conductor, occupy in their relations to the public a most trying posi- tion, and one replete with detail and vexation. It is usually conceded that the street car service in Boston is the best in the world; and from very considerable experience I say without hesitation that the service has been better than the road really could afford to give, and that the officers of the road have usually understood the problems with which they had to deal much better than their critics, and have been every bit as public-spirited.
THE WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE OF SUF- FOLK COUNTY, 1629 TO 1892.
BY FRANK W. NORCROSS.
OF THE " SHOE AND LEATHER REPORTER."
A HISTORY of the shoe and leather trade of Suffolk County will neces- sarily include the whole State of Massachusetts, for Boston is simply the center of a great industrial circumference. The shoe and leather industry originated with the early settlers in the Commonwealth, and its growth and development is creditable to the energy and ability of their descendants. They have raised their calling to a high rank among the mechanical arts. They have popularized their product to such a degree that they have revolutionized the business to the success of which their labors have been directed. Forty years ago few ready made shoes were worn; now few except ready made shoes are worn, and in point of excellence of material and of workmanship the modern American article is not surpassed in excellence anywhere on the globe.
CHAPTER I.
The Cordwainers' Era-Early Shoemakers and the Material They Used-Progress of the Art Previous to the Revolution-England and France Compete for Our Trade -Early Tariffs-Improved Methods.
" Still from the hurrying train of life Fly backward far and fast, The footprints of the fathers, The landmarks of the past."
THE first shoemaker in New England was Thomas Beard, who came over in 1628, in one of the later voyages of the Mayflower. He brought
304
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
with him a supply of " hides of leather " for his use. It was directed that "fifty acres of land should be allotted to him, as one that trans- ported himself at his own charge." The first shoemaker in Boston was William Copp, who owned Copp's Hill at the North End. He was made a freeman in 1640. The General Court passed a law in 1648 "in- corporating the shewmakers of Boston and vicinity, to regulate the trade for three years."
The shoes worn in 1680-90 were coarse, square toed, and adorned with buckles. A pair of boots were expected to last a lifetime. For a hundred years previous to the Revolution no poor person wore any shoes as fine as calfskin. Servants wore cow hide shoes. Calfskin shoes had a white edge of sheepskin stitched into the top edge of the sole; this was kept clean and white for dress purposes. There appears to have been no essential change in the style for nearly a century. In 1629 the " town leaders," or selectmen, ordered shoes made "of large size, at two shillings to two and sixpence a pair, for the use of emi- grants." Shcestrings, as now worn, took the place of the shoe-nose under the Stuarts, and buckles resembling a horse bean came into use in 1688. Boots of large size, and for beaux, of flimsy Spanish leather, russet color, were then much worn in England, but were not approved of in Massachusetts, and not very generally used here, except by Mor- ton's colonists at Mt. Wolloston.
The first attempt towards manufacturing in this country was made in Lynn. In 1750 a Welsh shoemaker, John Adam Dagyr, settled in Lynn, and soon became known through all the Province as the Essex shoemaker. Many persons acquired from him a better knowledge of the art, and obtained the reward of superiority in the increase of busi- ness. A Boston correspondent of the London Chronicle in 1764 wrote that shoes for women were made in Lynn exceeding for strength and beauty any that were usually imported from London.
It was claimed in 1752 that as many shoes were made in Essex county as in all the rest of the State. Lynn carried on the manufacture for three quarters of a century before any marked improvement was manifest. The art was not understood; the workmen unskilled. To attain greater excellence in mechanizing of shoes, the manufacturers sometimes procured choice qualities of shoes from England and took them apart to see how they were made. Up to 1:50 only three manu- facturers in Lynn employed journeymen, although a surplus of shoes were made for exportation
305
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
The tools used by the shoemakers were, the lapstone, an ordinary flat stone from the beach, on which they pounded the sole leather; a hammer; longstick, for rubbing down and polishing the sole prepara- tory to scraping ; "shoulder sticks" of ebony and soapstone for setting up the edges; "stirrup" to secure the shoe on the knees; leather breast plate for protecting the chest while working the longstick ; scraper, "steel," "pretty boy," for shaping the sole to the last ; " fender," "last hook," "rubbing down bone," "lining fork," awl and bristles, blacking bottle, knife strops, pegging awl, tacks, wax, etc., made up the " shoe kit " of the journeyman shoemaker for a century previous to about the year 1810. Shoes were made in little buildings erected in the yards or beside the road, wherein two or four workmen could have " a seat to work." The shoes were bound by women at their homes, all by hand. In the Museum of Roman Antiquities at Mayence, Ger- many, are preserved the working tools of a Roman shoemaker. They are almost identical with those used in New England up to the year 1850.
Considerable quantities of shoes for the use of the army were drawn by Congress from Massachusetts during the Revolution. Immediately after that event the shoe business attracted a larger amount of capital, and increased rapidly. It received a severe check, however, owing to large importations soon after the proclamation of peace. Before the close of the century trade revived and new factories sprang up. In 1788 there was a considerable production of men's shoes in Reading. This town, with Quincy and Braintree, engaged in the shoe manufac- ture soon after the Revolution. In 1488, Lynn exported one hundred thousand pairs of women's shoes. In 1795 there were. two hundred master workmen and six hundred journeymen in Lynn. They pro- duced three hundred thousand pairs of shoes of prunella, silk, or mo- rocco (which was mostly imported), or of neats leather. These shoes were sold to dealers in Boston, Philadelphia, Savannah and Charleston ; some were exported. The largest manufacturer made twenty thousand pairs in seven months of that year. General George Washington passed through Lynn in his trip to New England after the war. In his letters he spoke of the place as "the greatest shoe town of the country." It has so remained to this day. It was estimated that eight million pairs were consumed by four million inhabitants; three-eighths of that number were made in Lynn.
39
306
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
The shoe goods of that date were mostly imported from Europe- lastings, callimanco, all kinds of fancy leather, linings, bindings, thread and nails. Considerable sole leather was imported from England. David Ferris and Zechariah Ferris had large oak sole leather tanneries at Wilmington, Del. They were members of the Society of Friends, and they sold a good deal of leather to Lynn manufacturers, many of whom were Friends also.
By the extended importation of shoes from England and France soon after the Revolution, many manufacturers were well nigh ruined. After the adoption of the Constitution, and at the first Congress that met in 1789, Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, a senator, judge of the Supreme Court, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a shoemaker, who represented the shoemakers in that body, acting upon the advice of Ebenezer Breed, of Lynn, and Stephen Collins, formerly of Lynn but at that time a shoe merchant in Philadelphia, adjusted the tariff on shoes. Raw hides and skins were admitted free. The first tariff was fifty cents on imported boots, and seven cents a pair on shoes. These rates were increased in 1794 to fifteen per cent., with further increase of ten per cent. when imported in foreign bottoms. In 1816 the tariff on men's boots was put at $1.50 a pair! Since 1789 the shoe manufacturing interest has always had governmental protec- tion. Since 1816 the tariff on shoes has been ad valorem, and ranged between 24 and 35 per cent. The present tariff (1892) is "25 per cent. on boots and shoes made of leather."
In 1790 wooden heels began to go out of fashion. Leather spring heels were introduced and were used on women's shoes up to 1853. This was a radical and sudden transition, as heels on shoes had been worn very high. The change made walking very uncomfortable, and, indeed, it is said, many women had to go about " on tiptoes," but gradu- ally they found their level. There has been a moderate heel used since 1853, say one inch to one and a half inch high. Spring heels for chil- dren's and misses' shoes are in vogue now.
The leather used in the soles of shoes was always worked on the flesh side up to about 1800. Then it began to be finished on the grain side, making what was known as "duff bottoms." The pictures of Colonel Trumbull in the rotunda of the capitol at Washington, and the print, "Signing of the Declaration of Independence," shows the kind ยท
of shoes worn by gentlemen in 1726, and for many years thereafter.
30
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
The representation is of a low-cut strap shoe with large buckles. Turn and channel pumps were fashionable.
Boots came into general tise after the Revolution. The Hessian boot was first worn about 1789. Its peculiarity was a white top turned down over the leg. The Suwarrow boot with a tassel on the front leg followed. Then the Wellington, ostensibly the same as worn now, was introduced. The Jefferson boot derived its name from Thomas Jefferson and was much worn during his presidency. It was laced up in front as high as the ankles. After that a side lace boot was in style for men's wear, but inconvenience in lacing prevented its general adoption.
The following excerpts from the memoirs of Col. Arial Bragg, of Mil- ford, give some idea of the methods of the pioneers: He learned the trade from Asa Norcross, worked for him afterwards as journeyman four weeks and made fifteen dollars. Began to make negro brogans in 1795. He borrowed a horse and took them to the city. On Boston Neck he was met by two men who asked: "Have yott shoes for sale?" He answered: "Yes, twenty-four pairs." "At what price?" he was asked. "A dollar a pair!" "Will give you $22.50 for the lot!" The offer was accepted, and with the money Mr. Bragg went into the city and bought leather to make some more shoes. In 1801 he went South with a lot of shoes. He says very little regard was paid to the quality of stock or work on these "shoes for slaves." He could make eight pair a day; his wife could close forty pair a day. He sailed with them to Baltimore in a sloop from Boston, sold the shoes and came home by land. Then he made calf shoes in the winter, and at the end of six months his profits were $350. The business was regularly increased by an addition of one man a year to 1809. In 1819 he states he had brought up eleven children, had no debts, built a factory and house that cost $5,152, all in ten years. He served two terms in the General Court, the last in 1842 as senator; served in the military thirty years, and rose to command a regiment. His sons, Appleton, Fowler, Arial, Willard and Alexis Bragg, were all well known shoe and leather dealers in Bos- ton and New York forty years ago. The two last named, with Capt. C. S. Parsons, founded in 1840 the jobbing house now known as C. S. Parsons & Sons.
Shoes were packed in barrels and large square boxes for transporta- tion. In this way they were sent to all southern cities in packet ships. When unpacked they were flat, and it required a good deal of manipit-
308
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
lation to get them in shape again. Shoes were made with long quarters and short vamps. Up to about 1814 soles were sewed on or nailed with Spanish nails. Shoe boxes began to be made about 1830. Car- tons came in 1840. Both originated in Lynn.
CHAPTER 11.
The First Boston Shoe Firms-Rise and Progress of the Jobbing and Auction Trade-Sketches of the Founders-Gradual Introduction of Machinery.
ONE of the early shoe firms was Perez, Bryant & Co., who had a store on Ann street and another in Savannah, Ga., in 1810. Isaiah Faxon had a shoe store on North Market street in 1812. His sign, a wooden boot, eight feet high, stood outside that store up to 1872, when it was transported to Detroit, and until recently was in use there to designate a shoe warehouse. Samuel Train sold shoes on Merchants' Row. He was afterwards a large shipowner. He used to tell the story that he walked, when a boy, from his home in New Hampshire to Boston, with all his possessions in a pack on his back. He sat down under a tree in Medford and ate the last of the lunch his mother had put up for him before leaving for the city. Twenty-five years after- wards his elegant mansion stood on these grounds, and this tree formed part of his possessions.
The introduction of wooden pegs for fastening soles gave an impetus to the business. Shoe pegs, made from maple, were invented in 1811. The grandfather of Hon. Joseph H. Walker, of Worcester, has the credit of making the first pegged shoes in New England. Up to the time of the invention of the sole sewer, about seven-eighths of the sale shoes were pegged. Shoe lasts, rights and lefts, were first used in 1807. A patent was granted that year to Samuel Milliken, of Lexington, for making shoes with metallic bottoms.
An important invention, a machine for turning irregular forms, was patented by Thomas Blanchard, of Sutton, Mass., January, 1820. He contrived a lathe to make shoe lasts. They had been made previously by hand, were seldom uniform, and always expensive. By the use of this lathe, they were made correct in shape, rights or lefts, and at a
309
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
moderate cost. This, and the machines to make pegs, made shoe manufacturing on a large scale possible. Shoe nails were first made in South Abington, in 1812, by Elisha Hobart; also by Ezekiel Reed, of Hanover. Shoe manufacturing was not established permanently in any town in the State, except Lynn, until near the commencement of the present century. The business was introduced in Danvers by Caleb Oakes and Moses Putnam about 1810. They made coarse bro- gans, which were sold Sonth. Caleb Oakes was the first to send shoes to Baltimore. He accompanied them himself in the sailing vessel, and sold them from the wharf, foot of South Calvert street. During the war of 1812-15, the embargo was in force, and Mr. Oakes took shoes in wagons as far south as Savannah. Georgetown and Topsfield man- ufacturers began to make brogans about this time.
These shoes were known as negro brogans. They were made from coarse finished cowhide leather, sometimes black, but usually finished in russet color. The soles were heavy, and oftentimes thickened by a piece of shingle inserted between the two soles. These shoes were looked upon by the negroes as a badge of servitude, and they were not marketable after the civil war. Women's shoes, called buskins, were sold, but most of the demand was for lasting gaiters. Children's shoes made from sheepskin originated in Marblehead. They were known as roan batts.
As leather was bought in Boston, the shoes were gradually sold there. Jobbing houses sprang up. The dealers were anxious for trade, and used to go out to Roxbury on Wednesdays or Saturdays to meet manufacturers coming into town; also to Charlestown, to intercept them at the bridge.
The first vessel freighted at Boston with a full cargo of shoes was the sloop Delight. She sailed for New York in May, 1818. The shoes were consigned to Spofford & Tileston, No. 19, Fly Market. The members of this firm were from Haverhill; they accumulated large fortunes.
The shoe business had its inception in almost every city with young men from Boston, who went out usually as agents for manufacturers. Haddock, Haseltine & Co. was a pioneer Philadelphia concern. The two senior partners went from Haverhill in 1817. John Adden and John F. Henry went to New Orleans a little later, and were fol- lowed by the Tirrells, who did an extensive business. Up to about 1835 all shoes destined for the Southwest were sent to New Orleans
310
SUFFOLK COUNTY.
and up the Mississippi. The long journey was made by water, or sometimes by teams, over the mountains.
The first wholesale shoe dealers in Boston did business on South Market street. That short thoroughfare had its stores about equally divided between shoe and hardware dealers. Then the shoe men spread out and occupied Broad street on the south, and Fulton street on the north side of Quincy market. The shoes were sold to the South -there were no western markets. St. Louis and everything below it was looked upon as South in those days. Long credits were given; eight and even twelve months' time. Southern jobbers purchased only once a year-in the autumn.
An old merchant furnishes the following experience in the Boston shoe trade :
" In 1833 I went into a wholesale store the largest in the trade. The business amounted to nearly $200,000 a year. This included shoes of all kinds, sole and upper leather, findings, etc. The firm did a barter business, buying shoes and paying in stock, with perhaps a little money or a note at short date, say eight months, We sold the shoes either for note or any kind of merchandise we could utilize in the business, or sell. It was all right as long as nothing happened-but something did happen. In 1837 the whole country broke from Maine to New Orleans. In most cases the firms settled up, somehow, and went on again."
The shoe trade took rank as a leading industry about 1830, caused by a change in the methods of conducting the business. It was formerly the custom to seek a market by consigning shoes to be sold in all the southern cities. That arrangement was remunerative for a time, but on account of competition and increase in trade it became a losing busi- ness. Then manufacturers began to sell their own goods and Boston became at once the emporium of the trade. Dealers who did not have stores secured offices and show rooms in the city.
The pioneer shoe auction house in Boston was T. P. & O. Rich, es- tablished on Broad street in 1825. In 1844 the firm dissolved, Otis Rich retired, and T. P. Rich became connected as special and general partner with the house of Townsend, Mallard & Cowing, afterwards Rich, Cowing & Hatch. Mr. Rich retired in 1868. He was a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Senate in 1859 and 1860, and of the Board of Aldermen four terms. His brother, Otis Rich, served in both branches of the Legislature, and died in June, 1876. The firm, founded by the brothers Rich, continued through the above changes to Henry & Hatch, and is now merged in John J. Henry & Co.
311
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE.
Shoe manufacturers, fifty years or so ago, sold on such long credits that they needed all the time they could get on stock or work. This led them to pay their workpeople in orders on the stores on which they bought groceries and dry goods. These orders were, of course, not as good as money, but work even with this kind of pay was an advantage. The members of a family could assist at closing, binding or making during the winter seasons when work could not be done on the land, and the manufacturers not feeling able to spare the money, as their sales would not be made until the next autumn, found this method of payment a convenience. Some manufacturers had stores and sold to the workmen. These methods ceased something like forty years ago.
A good deal of stock was sent into Maine and New Hampshire to be made into shoes. The farmers and their families worked on them dur- ing the winter and spring, and when they returned one, the money to pay for making was sent with the next lot.
In this way many stalwart young men and active women learned to make shoes. They eventually came to Massachusetts to find steady work, and then commenced the drain from the "hill towns" of New England of their young people. The shoe business wrought a great and happy change in many families. Until that was introduced, the young people in country towns had few or no occupations to choose from except farming and the ordinary village industries, but in the days be- fore machines were invented there was plenty of work to be had on shoes.
The first pegging machine was invented by Samuel Preston, of Danvers. His patent, issued March 8, 1833, was signed by Andrew Jackson, president of the United States. Herrick Aikin, of Dracut, invented the pegging haft that year. Previous to the invention of a machine for making pegs, in 1820, shoemakers cut their own pegs. The peg strip, or ribbon of wood, having one end sharpened, so that pegs could be cut off for the machine, was invented by B. F. Sturtevant, of Boston. The device is still used. A Methodist preacher, A. C. Gallihue, patented a pegging machine in 1851.
John Kimball, of Boston, was an inventor. He began the shoe busi- ness in 1834, and that year introduced the slide block last and metal sole to the trade. In the next thirty years he invented machines for hammering stiffenings and sole shapers. He published a guide for measuring and making shoes, and in 1885 perfected a system of stand- ard measurements. He died March, 1886, aged eighty-five years.
312
SUFFOLK COUNTY
India rubber overshoes were first imported from Brazil in 1822. A few were sent to Boston that year and T. B. Wales sold them.
B. F. Sturtevant was born in Norridgewock, Me. When he was six years old he cut pegs by hand for a cobbler. He was a shoemaker in after life, but in 1850 he came to Boston with a model of a pegging machine. He perfected and introduced it in 1859. He also invented a machine for making peg wood and wooden toothpicks. They are in 11se now. He invented the blower used in tanneries, and the projectile known as the "Swamp Angel," famous during the war. Mr. Sturte- vant received medals for his inventions at the Vienna, Paris and Cen- tennial Expositions.
In 1851 Fogg and Burbank, of Boston, exhibited pegged boots at the first World's Fair in London. This was the first pegged work ever seen in England. No trade grew out of this exhibit, unless it was for the pegs, which, from that date began to find sale in Germany among toy makers. At the New York Exhibition of 1853, C. R. Goodwin, of Bos- ton, showed a machine for sewing the soles of shoes. This was after- wards exhibited at Paris, and several of the machines were sold for $375 each. No steam power could be applied to the machines, and they would sew only 100 pair a day.
The date of the adoption of machinery in shoe factories is only a little more than forty years ago. The roller and splitter were in use in 1840, but that was all. Dies were used for hammering out in 1847. In 1851 a Worcester manufacturer used the first sewing machine for stitching shoes. Elias Howe, jr., of Cambridge, took out his first patent in 1846. Isaac M. Singer worked on this sewing machine in a shop now stand- ing in Harvard Place, off from Washington street, opposite the Old South Church in 1845. He took out his first patent in 1851, and for the chain stitch in 1854.
Die machines were made in 1851. Shoe pegging machines were in use in 1857. Elmer Townsend and B. F. Sturtevant patented one of the first machines which came into general use. Mr. Townsend was an auctioneer at that time on Pearl street. He introduced the shoes made on his machines by selling them at public auction. Steam power for driving shoe machinery began to be used in 1857. During the war it was generally introduced in all large factories. Bancroft and Pur- ington, of Lynn, did the first manufacturing by string teams about 1860.
WHOLESALE SHOE TRADE. 313
The Mckay sole sewing machines wrought another of the revolutions to which the shoe industry has been subject. It was invented by Ly- man R. Blake, of Boston. The first patent was taken out in 1858. An arrangement was made by Mr. Blake with Gordon MeKay, 1 a machinist, to perfect some of the parts, and he engaged to introduce it to the notice of shoe manufacturers. A trial was given the machine in the presence of a number of members of the trade in a room on Tremont Row. Stock was cut in Lynn and brought up to be sewed. This ma- chine was very unlike the machines now in use. Nevertheless it was conclusively shown that it could do the work. Mr. Mckay then pur- chased the machine from Mr. Blake for $8,000 cash, and $62,000 to be paid from future profits. He introduced radical improvements and in 1862 it was put on the market. In 1864 the movable horn was added. Eleven machines were put in Lynn factories, then one each in Phila- delphia and Cincinnati. As it was in war time, and journeymen were scarce, there was no opposition made to its introduction. In 1863 the stock was divided into 50,000 shares, valued at five dollars a share. A royalty was charged on all shoes sewed on the machine and 10,000 shares set apart for those who purchased stamps for shoes. They were entitled to one share for every hundred dollars worth of stamps used. This was called " The Shoemakers' Gift Enterprise." The shares rose from five to seventy dollars each, and paid good interest on the invest- ment. The inventor and owners of the machine made great fortunes. The royalties, paid in stamps affixed to the bottom of the shoes, were as follows: On slippers, misses' and youths' shoes, one cent; women's and boys' shoes, two cents; men's boots, three cents a pair. The income from sales of stamps, $99,157.63, in 1864, increased each year, and reached $529,973.81 in 1873, and so on up to $750,000 a year. One Massachusetts manufacturer paid fifteen thousand dollars in one year as royalty on the use of thirteen machines. At last, in November, 1880, the manufacturers held a mass meeting in Philadelphia, and tak- ing the ground that the patents had expired, refused to pay royalty any longer. A compromise was effected; the manufacturers bought the machines, and the payment of royalty ceased.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.