Shoemaker

 Whether an ancestor was listed as a cobbler or a shoemaker, it's pretty much the same thing. Isn't it?

My 6 times great uncle. Thomas Bass, (1719-1786) Lived in Norfok VA and Bertie, NC was listed as a cordwainer or shoe maker.

Cordwainer vs. Cobbler vs. Shoemaker
Getting the Lingo Right

Before we get started, we need to know what we are discussing:

• Cordwainer: The English term for shoemakers, which originated from France
• Shoemaker: Artisan who works with new leather to make shoes
• Cobbler: Forbidden to work with new leather. They are the shoe repairmen, who must make their repairs with old leather

While nowadays the terms may be interchangeable, it was considered a major insult to call a shoemaker a cobbler! After all, it is believed that Cobblers got their name from the phrase “to cobble things together,” which meant to work clumsily.

Walking through history

Shoemakers have existed all through human history, whether it’s been:

• Working with cord and leather or grass to create the first sandals to
• Carving out the insides of the wooden clogs used in the Medival Europe (yes, those famous shoes from Holland) to
• Working on leather moccasins to
• Working with new leather to create soft slippers for royalty

They’ve been one of the most important trades in the history of the world.
They even helped with the creation of the new colonies in America:

• In the first American colony of Jamestown, VA, 1607, a cobbler was abroad the ship to the new world. Since importing new materials was expensive, the cobblers were able to get people’s shoes going until the Cordwainers could come to the colony later in 1629.
• Shoemakers and Cobblers were such important trades that they started the first unions in the country! The Shoemakers of Boston, of 1648, and The Daughters of St. Crispin (the patron saint of Cobblers) was the first female union in the US.
• Cobblers were also important because, as they traveled around to the rural towns and cities of the American colonies, they took the news with them as well.
• Eventually, the shoemakers and cobblers were able to settle down in cities and have their clients come to them. They were able to have apprentices and have tiers of labor, which helped lead them right into the storm of the Industrial Age.

Surviving the Industrial Age
Industrialization was not a kind time for many people and the makers and cobblers were no different. The 4 people who helped usher in the fall of these men were:

• 1812: Marc Brunei created a tool to help affix leather uppers to the shoe outers with metal pins
• 1846: The creation of the sewing machine made sewing leather faster and in need of fewer laborers.
• 1850 Thomas Crick created a rolling riveter and cutter for shoes
• 1864: Lyman Blake creates a sewing machine for shoes

Thus the factories were able to mass-produce shoes at cheaper prices, taking the shoes out of the 

hands of the people who had been making them since civilization began.

It was around the 1850s when, as work became scarce, shoemakers had to turn to the lowly art of shoe repair to make ends meet. This was when the distinction between shoemaker and a cobbler began to fade, until today they are almost synonymous to most of the public.
So, What Now?
While shoemakers and cobblers are not common anymore, there are still some trying to keep the trades alive. The recession in 2008 did spurn customers back towards the cobblers to keep their shoes lasting longer as money was tight.

The younger generations, like Millenials and Gen Z, are trying to live a less wasteful society so there 

is a chance that shoes repaired and well-kept will keep the cobblers in business in the future.

Thanks to the Old Timey

So when one kicks off his/her shoes and wiggles their feet in the sand, they can thank a shoemaker for keeping their feet safe from sand-spurs, hot sand, rocks, pieces  of broken glass, rough edged shells, etc.

Today's quote:

What power has love but forgiveness? -William Carlos Williams, poet (17 Sep 1883-1963)

The year without summer and my ancestors

 What tangent might I go off on today? Well, I decided to check on my ancestors who lived through a trying time, meteorologically speaking that is. 1816  is known as the year without a summer .

In 1815 a volcano in Indonesia (as it is now called) caused enough ash to be in the atmosphere that the sun reflected from it, and cold wet weather caused massive crop failures in Europe and the New England states in the United States.

The main cause of the Year Without a Summer is generally held to be a volcanic winter created by the April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa.

Countries such as Great Britain, Ireland, and France experienced significant hardship, with food riots and famine becoming common. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Europe was still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, adding to the socio-economic stress.

North America also faced extreme weather conditions. In the eastern United States, a persistent "dry fog" dimmed the sunlight, causing unusual cold and frost throughout the summer months. Crops failed in regions like New England, leading to food shortages and economic distress. These conditions forced many families to leave their homes in search of better farming opportunities, contributing to Westward expansion.

In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in parts of the eastern United States. The fog reddened and dimmed sunlight such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog", retrospectively characterized by Clive Oppenheimer as a "stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil".

The weather was not in itself a hardship for those accustomed to long winters. Hardship came from the weather's effect on crops and thus on the supply of food and firewood. The consequences were felt most strongly at higher elevations, where farming was already difficult even in good years. In May 1816, frost killed off most crops in the higher elevations of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York. On June 6, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine. In Cape May, New Jersey, frost was reported five nights in a row in late June, causing extensive crop damage. Though fruit and vegetable crops survived in New England, corn was reported to have ripened so poorly that no more than a quarter of it was usable for food, and much of it was moldy and not even fit for animal feed. 

The crop failures in New England, Canada, and parts of Europe caused food prices to rise sharply. In Canada, Quebec ran out of bread and milk, and Nova Scotians found themselves boiling foraged herbs for sustenance.

Sarah Snell Bryant, of Cummington, Massachusetts, wrote in her diary: "Weather backward." At the Church Family of Shakers near New Lebanon, New York, Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816 that "all was froze" and the hills were "barren like winter". Temperatures fell below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze on June 9; on June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7, it was so cold that all of their crops had stopped growing. Salem, Massachusetts physician Edward Holyoke—a weather observer and amateur astronomer—while in Franconia, New Hampshire, wrote on June 7, "exceedingly cold. Ground frozen hard, and squalls of snow through the day. Icicles 12 inches long in the shade of noon day." After a lull, by August 17, Holyoke noted an abrupt change from summer to winter by August 21, when a meager bean and corn crop were killed. "The fields," he wrote, "were as empty and white as October." The Berkshires saw frost again on August 23, as did much of New England and upstate New York.

Massachusetts historian William G. Atkins summed up the disaster:

Severe frosts occurred every month; June 7th and 8th snow fell, and it was so cold that crops were cut down, even freezing the roots ... In the early Autumn when corn was in the milk [the endosperm inside the kernel was still liquid] it was so thoroughly frozen that it never ripened and was scarcely worth harvesting. Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food. It must be remembered that the granaries of the great west had not then been opened to us by railroad communication, and people were obliged to rely upon their own resources or upon others in their immediate locality.

In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as northwestern Pennsylvania. Frost was reported in Virginia on August 20 and 21. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours. Thomas Jefferson, by then retired from politics to his estate at Monticello in Virginia, sustained crop failures that sent him further into debt. On September 13, a Virginia newspaper reported that corn crops would be one half to two-thirds short and lamented that "the cold as well as the drought has nipt the buds of hope". A Norfolk, Virginia, newspaper reported:

It is now the middle of July, and we have not yet had what could properly be called summer. Easterly winds have prevailed for nearly three months past ... the sun during that time has generally been obscured and the sky overcast with clouds; the air has been damp and uncomfortable, and frequently so chilling as to render the fireside a desirable retreat.

Regional farmers succeeded in bringing some crops to maturity, but corn and other grain prices rose dramatically. The price of oats, for example, rose from 12¢ per bushel in 1815 to 92¢ per bushel in 1816. Crop failures were aggravated by inadequate transportation infrastructure; with few roads or navigable inland waterways and no railroads, it was prohibitively expensive to import food in most of the country.

Maryland experienced brown, bluish, and yellow snowfall in April and May, colored by volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

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So I just spent an hour on my private Ancestry tree straightening out (who or how does this mix-up keep occurring on my tree?) various people who were married to their mothers, and had their wives as their daughters born the year they were 1 year old!

There is one widow whose husband was alive and well and didn't die till after her. But she was called his widow on several original sources. But how were their lives effected by the cold of 1816 summer? No idea...

So I started looking at my ancestors from Massachusetts...to see if there were any deaths in 1816. So far, none.

In the Rhode Island (probably Quakers) family of the Swaseys, one daughter was born on May 8, 1814, in Newport, RI, and died Sept. 20 of 1815, same city. It's interesting that the same name was again given to another daughter born on April 11, 1827, who lived till 1853.

That's all that my sleuthing has discovered, since many of the sisters/brothers of my direct line haven't been "fluffed out." That means many nieces and nephews of 'great' generations haven't even been added to my tree. Since I've already got about 7600 people, with quite a few photos also, I have only looked back at the New England ancestors on my father's line. There probably are some as well on my mom's side of the family.

One ancestor did die age 50 in 1816. In North Carolina. He was John Franklin Tate III. His older sister (Casandra "Cassiah" Elizabeth Tate 1765-1851) was born in Cherokee County, NC. That is the area where the Eastern Band of Cherokee now live. The Cherokee were forced to leave their homes in 1838 and join 4 other tribes on the Trail of Tears, forced removal to the Oklahoma reservation. But it's very unlikely my 4 time great grandmother probably had any Indian blood. She was the first born of 9 children, with John III her next younger brother, who was born elsewhere.

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But let's see if I can find just one photo of relations/ancestors looking like the Sepia Saturday posted suggestion.

John LeRoy Webb's wife was Lizzie Hohn. John LeRoy Webb was brother to my own grandfather, Albert J. "Bud" Webb, who had died when my mother was just 2-1/2 years old.

The Hohn Family 1894   Standing L to R: Elizabeth, Theodore, Louis, Emil, Henry ==> Seated parents: Louis & Johanna ==> On lap: John ==> On floor L to R: Paul, Caesar ==> Not present: Oscar (died 1891) & Alexander (born 1896)

From L to R: Alex, Caesar, Paul, Lizzie, Henry, Emil, Theodore, Louis P F

John LeRoy Webb married Lizzie Hohn Webb, and here are lots of men in ties...probably her brothers. Since John LeRoy died in 1938, it's possible this photo was taken after that date since he's not in it....or he was the photographer!

 From Sepia Saturday this week we have...

Women in Suits...hats, and purses, with sensible shoes, and a man.

My photos have an opposite ratio, with only a few women and lots of men!