Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-08-22
THE MAINE MOCCASIN.
BY No Means Handsome, but Esteemed
by Lum bermen East and West.


by Lumbermen East and West.
Everybody who has ever been in
Maine during the winter among the lum-
bermen and backwoods farmers knows
the bloWn-up looking muddy yellow boots
and shoes these useful and picturesque
dealer in the Swamp. "They call 'em
moccasins. The first pair was made by
q shoemaker in Bangor, and their fame
long ago spread to the West. The shoe
factories of Bangor now turn out an
nually something like 100000 pairs of
moccasin boots and one-quarter as many
shoes, and there are factories out in Min
neSota and Wisconsin that make almost
as many.
A person on first seeing this yellow
and baggy footwear would suppose that it
was made from some strange leather. but
it ism t. The material is just common
leather, but leather tanned in Il way that
is known to only few. All we know is
that salt, alum and some kind of an out
of-the-way oil are the principal agencies
that give the leather its peculiar color and
tieXibility. This leather had been made
years and years before any thought of
using it for boots and shoes. The only
use to which 1t was put up tO1S51 was to
make lacings for mill belts. 1t was made
only at Pawtucket. One day a man
named Baldwin, who was a shoema ker
in Bangor, made up his mind that the
leather was just the thing for winter
moccasins. and he made a few pairs.
They were tried by lumbermen, and
Baldwin proved to be right. Nothing
had ever been offered to the Maine lum-
bermen that filled the bill like Baldwin S
yellow moccasns, and in less than a wear
a big factory for turning out these queer
boots and shoes was started in Bangor.
Other factories sprang UP in Maine. and
the tanning of the belt lace leather made
those who knew the secret of it rich III
q short time, and compelled the increas-
ing of tanning capacity tenfold.
Until 1871 the boots and shoes were
made just as Baldwin made his first pair
twenty years before. Then machines for
cutting and faShioning the moccasins
came into use and revolutionized the bust
ness. In 1855 the fame of the Maine
moccasin having reached the far West
ern lumber regions, a Bangor firm re-
ceived an order for pair from someone
in Dubuque. The order was filled, and
this led to other orders, until when the
war broke out, the Eastern factories
We're shipping thousands of pairs of
Maine moccasinS to the West. The war
almost killed the business. 1t began to
revive soon after the war, and then rival
factories Sprang up in the West. and now
the great demand for this Maine footgear
from the lumber regions of the North
west are now almost entirely filled by
factories at st. Paul, Racine, Minneapo-
lis. and other points.
The value of the moccasins lies al
most entirely in the peculiar way in
which the leather is tanned. The tanning
renders the leather absolutely water
proof, and a perfect non-conductor of
heat and cold The color of the moccasin
is a golden yellow, and fashion has made
them in the shape of shoes as popular in
the town these days, especially in the
summer, as they are in the wilderness
where the snow is thigh deep. New
York Sun.