By PATRICIA JONES
Most frontier towns had a cobbler’s shop, where a shoemaker constructed shoes and boots for the entire family. As a leather worker, the cobbler might also create harnesses or repair saddles. For that reason most cobbler shops were near livery stables.
In the shop are cobbler’s benches for hand stitching, a leather stitching machine donated by the Kochiras family, and solers. Visitors can see several shoe lasts on the shelves, 3-dimensional wooden molds upon which a shoe is constructed. Originally lasts were “either foot” designs with pointed toes, with left and right coming later. All the hand tools, including the hand-carved shoe laths, were used by a cobbler in Cincinnati – Jim Krantz’s great-great-great grandfather.
Shoes were made of durable leather and were worn until holes appeared and they could no longer be resoled, patched, or mended. Fancier, more expensive shoes were made from softer leather and had buttons, laces, buckles, or hooks and eyes. Wealthy women might even have shoes made from fabric, with leather soles. Since all shoes were expensive, hand-made items, a family took care to clean and polish them.
Just inside the door to the right is a model of a shop from the early 1900’s. You’ll notice that the miniatures include a forge, anvil, saws, drill, lathe – many operated by turning the fly wheel on the left.
This is an original Alliance building that sat in the alley west of Ken and Dale’s restaurant on 3rd Street between Box Butte and Niobrara Avenues. It was then moved to 412 Yellowstone and was used as an air base apartment during World War II. At one time, four adults and four children lived together in this building. Amenities included a sink, stool, gas stove, and a hot plate. It was moved to Dobby’s Frontier Town in 2002. The Cobbler’s Shop sits in the western part of the village.