Boise Cobblers

Historically speaking, shoe-makers have been an essential and yet highly overlooked segment of western society.  In literature and lore cobblers maintain an elusive, secretive, poor, and toilsome character.  The tricky Leprechaun was a cobbler, and quite often in fairy tales the cobbler’s work is completed by slavish elves while he slept.  This personification of the cobbler continued even while shoe-making was one of the crafts that western society required.  So much so that cordwainers, a medieval term derived from the highly specialized work done using leather from Cordoba, Spain, and cobblers, or those who merely made repairs as they worked towards becoming a cordwainer themselves, both arrived in colonial Jamestown along with the earliest settlers. 

The craft evolved with the improvement of transportation, shipping, and industrialization.  As industrial practices became more prominent the specialized craft of cordwaining was also streamlined and mass-produced.  Rather than a master craftsman who constructed every pair of shoes from start to finish, pre-cut articles were constructed in a step-by-step process where individual factory workers were responsible for just one step of many.  Elsewhere however, the craft continued in its original fashion because wherever people and communities flourished, cordwainers followed.  Even to the frontier.

As the great American westward migration began to take hold in the mid-nineteenth century, shoe-makers had become a staple for every frontier town.  A good sturdy pair of shoes was a luxury on the westward trails and they would often wear out before the destination could be reached. By then cordwainer and cobbler had become interchangeable titles as often these tasks were performed by the same individual or his family.  In Boise the first shoe cobblers set up ramshackle shops near the hustle and bustle of the city where travelers gathered to conduct their business.  Trading posts and stage stations along the Oregon Trail, like Fort Boise, that offered a traveler a new pair of shoes would have been a relief to any weary trail blazer. 

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