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well. American chrome kid is rapidly and steadily supplanting foreign leathers, and is being shipped to England, France, Germany, South America and Australia.

It is interesting to note just here that the increase in the leather output of the country during the ten years ending in June, 1900, was $32,974,790, making a total product for the year ending June, 1900, of $204,038,127.

But when was the making of leather shoes first introduced as an industry into this country?

Shoe Manufacturing in Pennsylvania.

Shoe manufacturing in the New World has its origin in Massachusetts, and that trade has long been of recognized importance in the east. The first shoe factory in this country, located in Danvers, Mass., is said to be still standing. It is a one and a half story building, with an old-fashioned peaked roof, and was used as a residence as well as a factory. The industry was an important one in Massachusetts almost from the first settlement in the State. It started as a necessity, gradually developing as a leading industry. The business was conducted by the families of the sailors, who fished in summer and in the winter made shoes. All ages and both sexes were employed in the industry. The men took to their homes so many pairs of shoes to peg and their wives and families did the necessary sewing.

There were no regular factories, but the leather was taken from the manufacturers to the homes of the sailor or farmer and there turned into shoes. In the fall the manufacturer would go to New York and buy their sole leather and the whole village would be employed all winter making shoes.

While most of the sole leather was bought in New York, the majority of the upper leather was tanned near home, Salem and Peabody being great centers. The principal hides were from South America and were made into Wax and Kip stock. Hemlock bark was plentiful near home and the old-fashioned cog wheels and a stone were used. Some used horse power, some water power and a few steam. A vat was built in the ground, into which layers of tan bark and hides were placed. The time was noted and after a certain period the hides were taken out and split by the old hand method. They were then replaced in the vat, in order to tan the center sufficiently. Acres upon acres of land were used for the tanneries and the traces of many of the old vats are still said to be seen around Peabody.

The shoes made were heavy brogans, and boots for the southern

trade. They were at that time pegged and in due course obtained a reputation for superiority of workmanship. The shoes were packed in barrels and shipped, some by sailing vessels and some over the turnpike roads to Baltimore.

No special skill was developed until the settlement in Massachusetts in 1750 of a Welsh shoemaker named John Adam Dogyr. By superior workmanship he acquired great fame in the trade and materially improved the character of work in that region.

During the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts supplied great quantities of shoes for the army, but soon after its close, the business was seriously checked by importations. In Lynn, however, it revived so that, in 1788, its exports of various shoes were 100,000 pairs. In 1795, 200 master workmen, beside 600 journeymen and apprentices were employed there, and about 300,000 pairs of shoes were sent away, chiefly to southern markets.

The story of the rise of the Yankee shoemaker is an interesting feature of only Colonial development. A great race of shoemakers early sprang into existence in New England and in little more than a century, these hardy American pioneers were leading the world with rapid strides toward perfection in the art of shoemaking.

But what of our own State? Pennsylvania, as a state, is fast taking her place near the head of the column as a manufacturing center for footwear. In the whole record of industrial development during the past few years, there has been no feature more striking and significant than the progress of the shoemaking industry. In the matter of shoe factories there has been a notable increase during the past few years, and in no other section of the country is the business of producing footwear in a healthier condition than it is in Pennsylvania. With very few exceptions the factories have been running steadily for months past, and in many instances large additions to plants and extensive improvements have been made in the way of adding new machinery and otherwise extending and perfecting the facilities for production.

The growth of the industry during the past twenty-five years in Pennsylvania has been remarkable. A generation ago the Pennsylvania manufacturer who produced five hundred pairs of shoes a day would have been considered a marvel as "cock robin" shops, or very small factories in which shoemaking was carried on, on the most limited scale were the rule. The contrast presented between those days of limited output and present-day conditions is a striking one and reflects the utmost credit upon the Pennsylvania shoe manufacturers. When we consider the vast and splendidly equipped factories to be found in many parts of the State at the present time, with their output, in some cases, averaging from two to four

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