People and communities
Lumberton’s small shoe shops reached a national catalog
Documented history · Sources compared
Oral history and surviving children’s shoes recover an industry beyond the town’s lumber trade.
Three businesses, not one factory
Elaine Jardine’s historical-society account draws on Caleb Ridgway’s oral history. It places Frank Morton’s shoe business on Chestnut Street in 1877 and describes it as closer to a workshop than a modern factory. A Reid family establishment followed in 1882 near the railway at Main Street and East Landing Street. The account identifies a third operation, Lumberton Shoe Manufacturing, beginning around 1885 under Shinn and Reid.
Small shoes traveled farther than their makers
The third business continued until 1933 and made babies’ and children’s shoes sold through the Sears Roebuck catalog. The society reports that examples remain in its museum collection. These objects offer a way to test and extend the remembered industrial history; this entry does not claim that a particular catalog issue or maker’s ledger has been examined. Lumberton Historical Society, November 2, 2023.
Sources and research limits
Ridgway’s oral history is accessed through the society’s article. Factory dates and the catalog connection remain attributed to that account; the original recording and individual shoes were not inspected.