[Nebraska-Senior-Blind] I did not know this! - Fwd: Shoes by the Blind

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Hi you all

Did you know of this craft was an option for blind people? I love this story!

RLN



Robert Leslie Newman 
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady at gmail.com>
> Date: September 1, 2022 at 6:04:18 AM CDT
> To: robertleslienewman at gmail.com
> Subject: Shoes by the Blind
> Reply-To: theblindhistorylady at gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> Hello to All:
> 
> For more than a century, shoemaking was thought to be a profession suitable for some blind men. Before schools or training programs for the blind opened in the United States, blind individuals made a living, making, and repairing shoes.
> 
> The blind shoemaker learned his trade from family or friends. Some felt that a job, in the home, where the goods and customers came to the blind was safer. Interestingly, few expressed concerns over the sharp tools needed to cut or poke holes in the leather or wood.
> 
> Jacob Hartman, (1784-1873) was the son of a Pennsylvania shoemaker and was blinded when his three-year-old brother stuck his daddy’s awl in four-year-old Jacob’s eye. Infection set in and left the little boy totally blind. Jacob’s father taught him how to make shoes by the age of twelve, so Jacob could support himself if he married and left the family farm. Shoes were a steppingstone to other professions. Jacob did marry, have children of his own and adopted children from the community who needed a place to stay. One of his later endeavors after leaving the shoe making business was to operate a tavern and hotel. It still bares his name although the original building is long gone. Blind Hartman’s Tavern is located on the original site of his tavern in the 1830’s in Temple, Pennsylvania.
> 
> In the 1850’s and 1860’s, shoemaking was taught at some of the state sponsored schools for the blind because of the success in self-supporting blind shoemakers such as Jacob. By the 1880’s, large factories made shoes in mass, at a lower cost, that put small shoemaker shops out of business. By 1900, a shoe repair shop owned by blind and sighted alike, offered other services, making keys etc., if they were to remain profitable. The Utah State School for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) was one of the last schools for the blind to teach shoemaking to blind men. By 1920, shoemaking was no longer part of the curriculum in any school for the blind.
> 
> Utah had several blind prosperous shoemakers, making, and repairing shoes such as Thomas Larsen (1852-1917) in Pleasant Grove. When his father died in 1866, he needed to support himself and his mother. Ahead of his time, Thomas walked independently around town with a walking stick. Not only did customers come to his home to have their footwear mended, or a new pair made, but Thomas, unlike most blind Utahns of the time, delivered the shoes to his customers. In the late 1880’s, he purchased a small store in downtown Pleasant Grove to conduct his flourishing business.
> 
> William Ditmer, (1858-1916) of Salt Lake City, Utah, was well-known for his shoes and for playing clarinet in the Salt Lake Symphony.
> 
> William Morris, (1820-1900) of Parowan, Utah, farmed and made shoes, a trade he took up after going blind at the age of 44. With these examples, the school for the blind decided to teach shoemaking to the men entering the school in their late teens or twenties.
> 
> William Newton, (1877-1938) was blinded at age six when thrown under a wagon and run over. He attended some public-school classes with his only brother, Isaac, entering at the age of twelve. He relied on others to read and write for him as the family knew of no alternative teaching options for the blind.
> 
> By 1897 when classes for the blind were added at the USDB, William was twenty. Being one of the first blind students, William had few academic classes. For the next seven years, William attended school as many months of the year as his mother could afford him being gone from the family farm near Vernal, Utah. He learned some raised reading, but mostly focused on shoemaking, rug, and basket weaving.
> 
> In June of 1905, he graduated from the program and returned to Vernal. The previous two years, while at home, he made shoes and boots, selling them to neighbors when not working as a roustabout or a day laborer for nearby ranchers and farmers. With younger brother Isaac, who William taught to make shoes, they opened a small shoe factory. The brothers did better than expected their first few years. William’s dreams of self support were in sight.
> 
> When the Western Association of the Adult Blind, a group made up of primarily blind men and women, secured passage of legislation to open two Utah state sponsored workshops to teach trades to those losing sight as adults, they approached William to teach shoe making in one of the shops. Although he wanted to enhance the opportunities of other like him, his business in Vernal was growing and he wanted to stay near family.
> 
> Isaac and William purchased a large brick building in town. The back of the building was a spacious, well-lit work area and the front of the building was the store front, that also doubled as a work area for those assigned to assist walk-ins.
> 
> They hired a half-brother, then a few women from the town. Modern stitching, sewing, and cutting machinery was purchased in 1908. In 1909, they added the making of saddles and horse harnesses. Soon more than twenty women worked for the Newton Brothers Co. in a staff ranging around thirty. Newton Brothers were known for hiring women in non-traditional jobs without training. William wanted to train new employees to his standards. He did not want habits from other shoe manufacturers to upset the unique, nonvisual  procedures he set up to best suit himself.
> 
> As the business grew, William took on management responsibilities and the purchasing of goods. He was able to tell the grade of the leather by touch, better than the sighted staff could with their eyes. His real love was making boots, particularly the special orders for the hard-to-fit foot. Special orders came from across Utah and neighboring states as their reputation of quality, nice-looking, footwear for even large/wide feet grew. He could place a tack on the sole of a boot with his large hands and hammer it in faster, with only one or two swings, than anyone in the shop.
> 
> Although the shop closed in the 1950’s, one can still find boots and saddles made by the Newton Brothers Co. over the internet. William, himself made over 5,000 pairs of shoes and boots during his more than 30 years in business. 
> 
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