PO Box 65
Woodstock, Connecticut, U.S.A. 06281
Mission Statement:The purpose of this Society shall be to acquire and preserve historical knowledge and materials of Woodstock, Connecticut. It shall promote this history by every feasible means to as wide an audience as possible. |
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Most Sundays, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
By Appointment, Call 860-928-1035
Please call before coming to Palmer Memorial Hall
Directions: The Woodstock Historical Society is headquartered in Palmer Memorial Hall, at 523 Route 169, in the historic hill district of Woodstock, Connecticut.
email: woodstockhist@att.net
WHS Annual Meeting is scheduled for Sunday, February 7, 2010 – potluck and presentation on cordwaining (shoe-making) – see details ------->
Order Form Now Available: "From the Roxbury Fells to the Eastward Vale: A Journey Through Woodstock, 1686-2011", A Special 325th Anniversary Publication. Click Here
Upcoming
Programs:
Connecticut Historical Society Programs - Click Here
For more information about WHS PROGRAMS only, contact
Doug Zimmerman at (860) 974-3020.
Otherwise, please contact the Woodstock Historical Society, email or call (860) 928-1035 (see top of page for email link & hours.)
Upcoming
Events:
Link to most recent event poster
Link to future events list
Documents
for Downloading:
Board Minutes May 2009
Board Minutes June 2009
Board Minutes July 2009
Board Minutes August 2009
Board Minutes September 2009
Board Minutes October 2009
Board Minutes November 2009
Board Minutes December 2009
Woodstock East Congregational Church, 220 Woodstock Rd
Pot luck luncheon 12:30-1:30 Business Meeting 1:30-2:00
Program at 2:00
Presentation and Demonstration: Cordwaining: Handmade Shoemaking (harking back to Woodstock CT’s shoemaking history – see below.)
Please check back later for updates on more programs.
All programs listed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
For a list of past programs, navigate to the "past programs" page.
| About the Speakers: Daphne Board, honorable cordwainer, and Lisa Davidson, honorable beginning cordwainer. Davidson will provide a brief introduction on the history of shoe-making in Woodstock, CT. Board will speak about the process of making shoes by hand, and will bring along hand tools and examples of her work.Board crafts custom-made shoes, from soft-rounded kitten heels to knee-length studded leather boots. Her mother taught her to sew when she was in her early teens. Board spent seven months learning the almost lost craft of shoe-making from two theatrical shoemakers in Canada. After
graduating with a degree in Textile Design from Rhode Island School of
Design, she spent several years making costumes for regional theaters
in New England. She also had a short apprenticeship with a milliner in
London. She now makes shoes by hand in her small studio in Holyoke,
MA, under the name El Diablo Shoes. See examples of her work online at zerkahloostrah.etsy.com. Davidson is one of Board’s students, and is also a resident and businesswoman in Woodstock.
Woodstock’s shoe manufacturing business began in 1833. By 1845, it employed 9,825 men and women who produced more than 5 million pairs of shoes, according to The History of Windham County, CT, 1889. In the 1930s and ‘40s, even factory-made shoes came in different widths, but modern shoes are now sized to fit a generic foot that seldom exists. Board focuses on comfort and style that cannot be achieved on factory scale. She values the process of creation — every shoe is made to measure for a client’s foot before a stitch of leather is sewn onto the last. The process involves cutting a pattern to fitting to a “last” (a wooden model of a foot). POTLUCK LUNCHEON: suggested dishes for those whose last names end in Sponsored by the Woodstock Historical Society
The History of Shoe Making in Woodstock: From a History of Windham County, Connecticut, Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889
“Shoe business was begun in West Woodstock village about 1833 by John P. Chamberlin and John O. Fox. In spite of frequent failures and disasters, it continued briskly under a Mechanics' Association and various private shoe dealers, and greatly facilitated the building up and improvement of the village. Lyman Sessions was a prominent shoe manufacturer, engaged also in trade and various enterprises. Village Corners enjoyed an extensive boom in connection with the shoe business of Amasa Carpenter, who also kept the tavern, built new houses and engaged in trade. So extensively was shoe manufacturing pushed forward that in 1845, 5,651,580 pairs of shoes were accredited to Woodstock, and fifty bushels of shoe pegs. Employment was given to 4,918 males, 4,907 women and girls.” “Enterprise
was stimulated at the growing center, Village Corners, by the opening
of the Central turnpike from Boston to Hartford, replacing the former
route through Thompson. The manufacture of wagons and carriages by L.
M. Deane & Co. was here initiated about 1835. The excellent
character of the work soon won a wide popularity, and the business was
carried on successfully for many years. With these many lines of
business now carried forward, shoe making stood at the head. Peletiah
and Zenas Wight, sons of a veteran tanner and currier in Woodstock
Valley, succeeded to the business of their father and added to it as
early as 1828 the manufacture of the first sale shoes in Connecticut.
Men and women, boys and girls hastened to take advantage of the golden
opportunity thus offered, and soon a large business was built up. Other
manufacturers hastened to follow this example, and sale shoe-making
became a leading business interest, especially notable for the vast
number of hands that could be employed in it. In Woodstock and for
miles surrounding nearly every dwelling house had a room fitted up or
appended for a shoe-making shop. The Wights making a specialty of the
shoe called stoggy, the name was applied to the valley, which was known
many years by the nickname, Stoggy Hollow." A. & O. Hiscox and L.
& M. Hiscox engaged in the shoe business in this locality,
employing about twenty hands each.”
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ABOUT THE WOODSTOCK HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION
The collection includes letters, diaries, manuscripts, maps, books, journals, paintings, textiles (such as clothing, quilts, costumes, and beaded purses), artifacts (such as clocks, spittoons, buttermolds, and trade signs), photographs, photographic slides, glass plate and film negatives, agricultural items (such as ox muzzles), decorative and fine arts, sound tapes, archeological and ethnographic artifacts, furnishings, and other items that date from the mid-1700’s to the present time. Many items in the collection are rare, unique, irreplaceable, and of considerable historical significance. Examples of items in the collection are:
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An original 1776 letter from George Washington and Israel Putnam requesting the release of the Congregational Church minister from his duties so he could serve in the Revolutionary War
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Native American photographs from the late 1800’s-early 1900’s, and artifacts (e.g., a pestle found in Samuel McClellan house and a basket).
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Original pre-colonial maps
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Town records from the 1700 and 1800’s
