Saturday, October 3, 2015

A Shoemaker's Shoe

William Henry Bone was a shoemaker.  

From his history, written by his granddaughter Alberta May Blamires it says, : Little is know of his early life except that when he was about eight years old he was playing on teeter-totter with a friend who jumped off while William was "up" and the board fell, breaking his knee. It was set, but healed out of place. It was broken and re-set, but this was unsuccessful, leaving him a life-long cripple. It is not known how much schooling he had but he did have some and later became an apprentice in a shoe shop and became an expert in making fine boots and shoes."

From his daughter Rhoda's history we learn, : It was necessary for everyone to help with work and as Rhoda’s father was a happy cheerful man, she loved to go to the foothills with him to gather sumac which he used to prepare leather for shoes, and oak brush which he split into long thin strips. She would cut the strips into small pegs to be used in place of shoe tacks to fasten the soles on the shoes, as there were no shoe nails."

The shoe shop that William built: "Upon their arrival in Kaysville, Rhoda’s father purchased a two room house at approximately Fourth North and Second West, where they lived until he built a home on property purchased from Jess Dredge between First and Second North and Main Street in Kaysville. This was a brick house that they moved into in 1865. In 1871 extra rooms were added and a shoe shop where people from Kaysville and neighboring towns came to have fancy shoes made. This was a well built house and is still occupied in 1987, one hundred twenty two years."

Naturally a shoemaker must have shoes for himself and because of his childhood accident he needed special shoes.

This is his shoe:



In the possession of Craig Brown, descendant of William Henry Bone through his youngest son Richard Edwin Bone. This was found in the workshop sometime in the 1960s.

It's a rather small shoe--probably around a size seven. Not sure if his other foot was the same size, as this shoe would have been for his leg that was shorter than the other.


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