REGION — While taking a stroll through downtown Farmington, one could stop into Divine Footwear or Renys to take a look their footwear. As the elements and normal wear and tear start to set in, so comes the need to replace our shoes and boots with newer pairs. If you are on a budget, you may find yourself in Wal-Mart down the road just looking for something to get you through the season.

Like many things, shoes are purchased in stores now, but the practice of handcrafted shoemaking still exists in many parts of the county in a limited capacity. What once was a common profession in high demand is now a niche market.

The evolution of shoes and the craft of making them has taken many shapes and forms over the years, with the most basic footwear being the sandal, which has been used since the Mediterranean era and often consisted of a protective sole that was held to the foot with leather thongs or cords of various materials. Traditional shoemakers, or cobblers, became staples of the community with time. Before modern manufacturing, cobblers for shoemaking and shoe repair were a common and vital profession.

In Farmington during the first half-century of its settlement, boots and shoes were generally made within the community and shoe shops were soon established during those early years. According to “A History of Farmington, Maine: 1776 – 1885” by Francis Gould Butler, in the early history of the town shoemaking and mending was done in the home with cobblers going from house to house with their tools.

Butler recounted a saying from these cobblers, writing, “From tough old hide, Found in the pit, when the tanner died.”

Butler also covered the growth of the tannery industries within Farmington, which fed into the shoemaking profession. The first men to set up tanneries included Ebenezer Sweet of Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1795 and Samuel Sewell, who set up shop on Wilson Stream near North Chesterville. Numerous tanneries came and went during this time, with the town seeing a decline in the profession between the years of 1850 and 1872, the year J. P. Thwing of New Sharon set up a tannery just outside the town.

One notable cobbler during this time in Farmington was Samuel Knowlton, who was born in Massachusetts in 1764. Knowlton made a living through farming and shoemaking, and Butler wrote that he was “a man of amiable disposition” and “he was always happy with himself, and always strove to make others so.” Knowlton passed in 1844 and had twelve children.

Outside of Farmington, George Henry Bass of Wilton had begun to work in 1876 in the shoemaking business when he joined E.P. Packard & Co. as a junior partner. He became the sole owner of the business in 1879, changing the company name to G.H. Bass & Co., and moved the factory to Wilson Stream in 1887 in order to utilize water power to make more shoes faster.

By the turn of the century, Bass had developed a range of practical and durable outdoor shoes that would become a favorite across America and even the military, with the first Bass moccasins, which were originally designed for woodsmen, becoming the official aviation boot for the Armed Forces’ pilots, in part due to their suitability in cold conditions.

In recent years, the profession of shoemaking has left the hands of traditional cobblers and entered the hands of retail stores and overseas labor. Few cobblers remain, as many confess that education of the trade and profession is often passed on through generations as a family craft.

Tom LaCasse, owner of Tom Finn Shoe Repair, told News Center Maine last year that he learned the trade as a teenager and started working with his father after a couple years in college.

“Even when I came down here in ’84, there were two cobblers here [in Augusta], plus me,” he told NCM. “Two in Waterville, one in Brunswick, one in Bath, four in Lewison/Auburn area. All are gone. They got old and retired and couldn’t find anyone to do it.”

In recent years, another cobbler by the name of Lucas Argrew came to the town of Wilton to continue the trade. His shop, Beyond Shoe Repair, was originally based in Auburn and the 33 year old cobbler moved into Wilton sometime in the fall of 2017. Argrew told the Daily Bulldog he learned the trade in Ohio before taking two years to apprentice under an expert cobbler. His shop opened in 2018, but is no longer in operation.

With time, many professions are lost, but the loss of one shop leaves the opportunity of another taking its place. While the trade of shoemaking has become a thing of the past, there are still tradesmen keeping those ideas alive.

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