The shoe factories that once employed most of Freeport’s population disappeared late in the 20th century, but the Freeport Historical Society is keeping the stories of those workers alive this year.
On April 12, the historical society will dedicate much of its 46th annual meeting to a history of the industry that played such an important role in the town’s livelihood, and that of Lewiston-Auburn, located just 20 miles to the north. Andrea L’Hommedieu, oral historian at the University of South Carolina, will do a presentation entitled “Voices from Maine’s Shoe Industry.”
Freeport Historical Society members, as well as those who want to become members, are invited to the annual meeting, which begins at 2 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn.
The historical society will follow up its look at the Freeport shoe industry on May 14, with the opening night of its new exhibit, entitled “Cobblers to Capitalists: Two Centuries of Freeport Shoemaking.” The opening night festivities will run from 5-7 p.m.
L’Hommedieu will base some of her presentation on the oral histories she gathered in 2008-2011 from Lewiston-Auburn shoe workers. Those same oral histories can be captured in Freeport, but “it’s a race against time,” L’Hommedieu said.
“A lot of those people who went back to the heyday were getting quite elderly,” she said. “I’ll also talk about the infrastructure that supported shoe factories, like heel and leather manufacturers.”
L’Hommedieu said that shoe workers sometimes earned wages based on their abilities.
“Hand sewers could make a lot getting paid per shoe,” she said. “Some women would take them home and sew them there.”
River systems such as the Androscoggin, which flows through neighboring Durham, played the major role in the birth of the shoe industry, as far back as the early 1800s. Then came the steam engine, and the industrial revolution.
Around 1881, the H.E. Davis Co. opened its factory in a building that still stands on West Street, where the L.L. Bean Merchandise Pick-up Center is located. Edmund Buxton Mallett Jr. constructed a shoe factory in the center of town. Mallett then built a larger brick shoe factory adjacent to the railroad on West Street, in what now is Freeport Village Square. His former office, in fact, still stands in the middle of the busy retail shopping area. The Hilton Garden Inn was built on land where Lenox Shoe opened a factory in 1928, after Freeport High School was relocated.
“Davis Brothers and E.B. Mallett were prominent for many decades, basically until the 1950s,” said Holly Hurd, collections manager for the historical society. “Shoemaking was a very big thing in Freeport for many decades. A lot of people talk about the shipbuilding, but the shoemaking was even bigger.”
Renewals and new memberships in the Freeport Historical Society can be made at www.freeporthistoricalsociety.org, and inquiries can also be made by phone at 865-3170. Rates are $10 a year for students and seniors, $25 for individuals and $40 for families.
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