South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-07-02
SHUTS SHOE SHOP
At TER Al YEARS
William WinSman, Pioneer
CObbler of South Bend, Quits
Work After Wearing Out
Seven Floors.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE)
beside the iron last as he worked-he
moved into the basement at 12S W.
Washington av. A few more years,
two more worn out floors and a few
thousand more shoes to his credit and
Mr. Winsman purchased the property
in which he now lives on Michigan
av., and erected the small building in
The rear in which he has worked now
for 16 years. And he is stopping just
in time to save his third floor there.
for the thick boards are well nigh worn
through now.
That little building with its rusty
stove, Uttered floor and leathery smell
could tell many tale of interest TO
older South Benders. For all these
years. until the last few, when most
of the old coterie passed away, il has
been the gathering place of certain
old settlers who paid daily visit TO the
old philOSOphic cobbler and, in con-
junction with him. settled TO their own
satisfaction all the problems of the
day.
Some of the Old Crowd.
Beside the leather seated bench
there are four chairs in the small room
and never in the old days were they
empty. The last Of the old cOterie to
pass away was Christian pike" Gish,
and among the others were numbered
! Bide Staley, William Lintner, John
Elbel, John Nicholson and Henry
Supy.
There aren't so very many Of Mr..
Winsmans old customers left who will
remember when folks used to go into
the cobbler's shop, have their feet
measured for a pair Of shoes and re-
turn in 10 days or a week for the
STE d.
that's the way they did before the
eastern trade" came in and that is
the kind of work Mr.. Winsman did
when he opened shop here.
when was it that machine-made
! shoes began to take the place OF
handmade ?" asked the reporter.
Machines for Pointed Toes.
ooh, that was about in '92. Pointed
shoes came in then and machines
were necessary to gather in the leath-
er at the toes. The machines were
expensive and it wouldn't pay us cob
bler's to invest in them so we had to
turn to mending. 1 ran a shoe store
for a little while on Michigan St,
where the Streibel & Steinel drug
store is now, and we handled the
| eastern trade. but that didn't pay
either, so I took to the bench again.
But I've made thousands and
| thousands of pairs Of shoes. I still
make my own"
He had on a pair which he made
four years ago. They still look as
good as new and we're half -Soled for
the first time this spring! ooh, for the
days of handmade shoes againD
Mr. Winsman has sold much of the
equipment of his little shop since clos
| ing its doors, but, as he sat on the low
bench which he has occupied for so
many years, he stopped over a wooden
box filled with all sorts of odd-looking
implements and fondling a hammer
as if il were a kitten, he said:
But these are my tools No one
can have them!"
Hammer Worn shiny.
The hammer, it's heavy head worn
bearing about half way up the deep
imprints of thumb and forefinger
from the daily grasp of 80 years.
Henry Supy and I made that ham
mer handle 35 years ago." said its
owner. cit is the hardest hickory, so
hard that we couldn't whittle it with
our knives, but had TO file it, and when
| he used to come into the shop we
would take turns at filing with this
| heavy raSp. Knowing that il seems
| hard to believe that a persons fingers
would wear into the wood like that
even in all these years"
And now that Mr. Winsman has
made his mark, he is going to re-
tire. His wife died some years ago
and he lives with his only child, Mrs
Otto Young, and with her viii leave
| Friday for a long visit in Rome, y.
Y. 1.-The old stamping ground, as he
calls it.