Originally, making boots and shoes was a craft requiring great skill and training. Like blacksmiths, shoemakers had to go through an apprentice system. Shoemakers, who preferred not to be called cobblers (Cobblers only repaired shoes), used leather they usually obtained from a tannery. They cut and stitched the leather out of their shops which were usually their homes or a small shed/shop attached to it. A basic wooden form, called a last, helped to mould the shoe or boot into the proper shape.
The craft was portable. This allowed them to relocate if times were hard. Some shoemakers even travelled from door to door seeking customers. They would measure feet before returning home to make the shoe or boot. Many, however, stayed put. They might not even have a sign indicating what they did. However, everyone in town would have known where to find a shoe or bootmaker.
Shoe and Boot Making in Guelph
During the 1860s, shoe-making was a very popular craft. The census for this decade indicates that in Canada West alone 221 people declared this to be their trade. Of this number, 141 operated out of their home and/or attached workshop. They both made and repaired shoes and boots, although some stressed one over the other.
In 1851, a directory lists around 8 boot/shoemakers in Guelph. In 1867, the number 
had grown to at least 24. Among them, Francis Prest (later partner with Wm D. Hepburn), J.T. Brown and Company and Abel Parker were operating larger shops. This meant they employed as few as 2 or as many as 10 others. John Orme (once partnered with Gow), with a shop on Wyndham Street, had one known employee -Thomas Attow, while Prest and T Brown had a larger workforce. Meanwhile, other shoe and bootmakers such as Robert Allan, Patrick Conway, Isaac Hornby, George Norris, Robert Sunley and William Wheatley worked from their homes.
This number of independent boot and shoemakers was to shrink as technology reduced the need for their skills. In 1870, the Street’s Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory listed 3 major boot and shoemakers. These were:
1. John Cridiford
2. John McNeil
3. Prest and Hepburn
In 1871, however, the census did not mention Cridiford but named the following as boot and shoe factories:
1. John McNeil
2. Hepburn
3. McMillan
Such companies were opting to use sewing machines over hand stitching. This meant they could hire less skilled individuals. It also resulted in shoe and boot making being removed from the list of males-only employment. Boot and shoe factories could now hire women and, in doing so, reduce their expenses. This challenged the conceptions such craftsmen had about their work and their role. It created an environment in which sooner or later workers and employers would clash.
Unions and Strikes
Shoemakers in Guelph did organize. One of Guelph’s earliest unions was the Knights of St. Crispin #202 created in 1869. St. Crispin was the saint of shoemakers. The name, chosen by shoemakers in Wisconsin in 1867, indicates this group harked back to the craft origins of such labour organizations, much like the Knights of Labor were to do. It was formed to fight against the growth of shoe factories.
However, as the trade moved towards mechanization, skilled shoemakers were not seen as essential as they had been previously. With the growth of Boot and Shoe Factories, the Knights of St. Crispin lost much of its ability to bargain for its members. A strike in Guelph clearly illustrates this.
On Tuesday, December 9, 1873, around 40 members of the St. Crispin’s Union, Local 212, went out at the Boot and Shoe Factory of Messrs. W. D. Hepburn & Company. The reason as provided to the Guelph Mercury was the firm was employing “a man unskilled in the business which is contrary to the rules of the St. Crispin Society…”
The owners did not concede to the union’s demands. JT Brown, foreman, stated the person the Knights were complaining about was doing work no shoe or boot maker did – crimping. Brown felt he was well within his rights to hire the man but, when the Knights demanded a meeting with Hepburn, he obliged.
The meeting did not go well. According to Brown in a letter published in the Mercury on December 11, 1873, “Mr. Hepburn’s reply was that so long as he paid the wages, he would employ whom he pleased.” Both Hepburn and Brown said they knew nothing about the rules governing the Knights of St. Crispin’s rules. Moreover, they had never followed them concerning hiring practices.
In the end, the company made no concessions. The union relented and the shoemakers returned to work on December 22. No changes were ever made in the hiring practice that had sent the workers out in the first place.
Unfortunately, poor economic times coupled with increased mechanization in the boot and shoe industry meant employers and not employees had the upper hand in the workplace. The same was true across Canada. The panic of 1873 produced a depression that permeated businesses across the country. According to Leo Johnson, Guelph was hit particularly hard between 1877 and 1880. Recovery was not to occur until the mid-1880s. As for the Knights of St. Crispin – the American organization disappeared in around 1874 after continuously losing its fight against technological advances in the industry.
Hepburn and Company
Hepburn and Company manufactured both boots and shoes. The company was initially operated by Francis Prest. He joined forces with Hepburn in 1867. They offered “hand-made boots and shoes” from their facility on Wyndham Street. By 1871, they had 23 male and 6 female employees over the age of 16 producing boots and shoes for Guelph shops. In 1873, JT Brown was the foreman of the company. He left to form his own company. Hepburn’s remained in business until the early 1880s.
Hepburn and Company were not the only boot and shoe factory operating in Guelph. A few others provided their services during the latter part of the 19th century – some even made it into the early 20th century.
JT Brown and Company
Guelph had two Browns in the shoe and boot business. However, it was John T Brown who ran a boot and shoe factory on Upper Wyndham. A Thomas Brown had a shop in 1867 on Wyndham which repaired and made a few shoes for its customers. Patrick Conway and Joseph Firestone worked for him. William Brown and Company originally had a general store in 1851 that also sold shoes.
Brown’s Boot and Shoe Factory was not established until 1883. By then, Brown had been practicing his trade for several years. He had even worked as the foreman for Hepburn and Company for several years, including during the 1873 strike. Originally from Ireland, he had a large family of 6 children and a wife to support in 1881.
Brown’s Boot and Shoe Factory was a larger facility than the one owned by Prest and Hepburn’s. In 1885/86, it had 22 employees. In 1887, 50 hands worked for Brown. This was the year Brown had been thinking of moving his shop to Berlin (Kitchener). He changed his mind and stayed, surviving into the 1890s. In the OAC Review of 1889, Brown’s boasted they were “The only Factory in the city which enables us to sell below all others in prices as we sell direct to the consumers. Come and see, just one trial will convince you that Brown’s shoes outwear them all.”
McLaren and Company
In 1882, Donald McLaren
operated his factory out of a facility located at the corner of St George’s Square and Wyndham Street. He had purchased it from a Robert McGregor who, in 1873 had bought it from DW Hepburn. McLaren had arrived in Guelph from Scotland in 1862. He came first to Guelph where he set up his business. He remained here only briefly before moving to Montreal to set up a shoe factory.
However, things did not go according to plan. A year after moving to Montreal, he dissolved his business and moved back to Guelph. He set up shop in a three-story building at 162 Quebec Street. This was the true beginning of McLaren & Co.
McLaren’s factory was small. In 1894, while it boasted it was the “manufacturers of and dealers in all finer grades of shoes”, it only lists a workforce of five – two more than the three it had employed in 1891. These were hired to produce “the finer grades of goods…” Although a shoemaker in the 1881 census, he stated he was a leather merchant in 1891. Yet, at least in 1894, a shoe shop run by him was in operation. At that point, McLaren lay claim to producing “fine grades of shoes, handling no inferior goods.”
Other Boot and Shoe Manufacturers
Guelph was home to a few boot and shoemakers. Whether they operated factories or small shops and how mechanized they were remains unknown at this time. Very few have left more than a trace of their existence. Among them are:
- John Cridiford: He is found in several directories with premises on Wyndham Street in 1867, 1868 and 1870
- Able (or Abel) Parker: An Irish, West Methodist, he made boots and shoes with the help of two employees – John Hart and Robert Leith, in 1867 and 1869.
- John McNeil: An 1869 and 1870 directory list him as a boot and shoe manufacturer. In 1871, the shop had a staff of around 15 individuals. Ten males and four females were over the age of 16. One male was under 16. His output annually was around 4,500 pairs of boots/shoes.
- Frederick K. Borsh: In 1891, he is noted as having 4 employees.
- CW Dempsey: Dempsey hired four employees in 1891.
- George Purkins: He gave employment to one individual in 1891.
- James Tindal 1891: He had one employee in 1891.
Several other shoe and boot makers provided “custom” shoes for sale. Among them were:
- LM Abbs at 77 Perth 1882/1883
- George Bell at Hutch’s block, Woolwich in 1885/6
- Samuel Powell at Woolwich near Norwich in 1885/1886
- William Sweeney on Wilson opposite Market in 1885/1886
John McMillan
One individual who did not fit into the factory-made mould but still offered shoes and boots in a factory-like setting was John McMillan. Hailing from Scotland, he moved to Douglas (Belwood) and then to Fergus where he set up his first boot and shoe shop offering customers custom-made products. He then expanded into Elora (1863). His next move, despite challenging economic times – including the influx of factory-produced boots and shoes as well as those produced by the inmates at Kingston Penitentiary, was to open a shop in Guelph in 1862.
McMillan operated a small shop. It was to both manufacture and sell his products. In 1871, he had 2 female employees working for him as well as three males over the age of 16. He was only producing around 600 pairs of footwear annually. By this time, his Fergus warehouse was gone – up in smoke under mysterious circumstances. McMillan had taken out a large policy on this property.
Before he could receive any money, McMillan was forced to declare bankruptcy. His creditors wanted their money and this was their only means of obtaining it. Their suspicion of him and his business increased over the following months. They investigated his economic affairs, discovering he had hidden assets from them.
McMillan was dragged into court and charged with fraud. The sentence was a year in jail. The accounts owing were settled by his creditors. However, they did leave a sizable amount for McMillan.
McMillan exited to an extremely ill wife. She did not have long to live. He did not try to reassemble the pieces of his life but became reclusive. In February 1880, he hung himself from the door of his three-room home at the corner of Gordon and Wellington. A suicide note offered detailed instructions on how to handle the body. His last wish had been to donate it to the Toronto School of Medicine.
Factory Shoes Triumph
In the 20th century, the boot and shoe factories disappeared. So, too, did many of the custom shoe and boot makers. The availability of cheaper machine-made products made local boot and shoemakers almost obsolete and the ability of small factories to survive unfeasible. A few did remain; however, people were now buying ready-made shoes and boots from other countries. The entry in the Guelph Classified Business Directory for 1930 says it all. Under the heading of Boots and Shoes which had previously listed the various individuals and companies involved in producing shoes and boots were these three words: “See Shoes – Retail.”
