Carol A. Lipscomb - The Lady Makes Boots: Enid Justin and the Nocona Boot Company

The Lou Halsell Rodenberger Prize in History, Culture,
and Literature

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The
Lady
Makes
Boots

Enid Justin &
the Nocona
Boot Company

Carol A. Lipscomb

Texas Tech University Press

Copyright 2021 by Texas Tech University Press

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic storage and retrieval systems, except by explicit prior written permission of the publisher. Brief passages excerpted for review and critical purposes are excepted.

This book is typeset in EB Garamond. The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39. 48-1992 (R1997).

Designed by Hannah Gaskamp

Library of Congress Cataloging-in -Publication Data

Names: Lipscomb, Carol A., 1946 author. Title: The lady makes boots: Enid Justin and the Nocona boot company / Carol A. Lipscomb. Description: Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, [2021] | Series: Lou Halsell Rodenberger prize in history, culture, and literature | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Chronicle of the life of Enid Justin, female entrepreneur and creator of an iconic Western business, the Nocona Boot CompanyProvided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021012091 (print) | LCCN 2021012092 (ebook) | ISBN 978-1 - 68283-095 -6 (cloth) | ISBN 978-1 - 68283-096 -3 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Justin, Enid. | BusinesswomenTexasNoconaBiography. | BootsTexasNocona. Classification: LCC HD6072.6.U5 L56 2021 (print) | LCC HD6072.6.U5 (ebook) | DDC 338.7/685310092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012091

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012092

Printed in the United States of America

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Texas Tech University Press

Box 41037

Lubbock, Texas 79409-1037 USA

800.832.4042

ttup@ttu.edu

www.ttupress.org

To Richard

Contents

Illustrations

Young Joe Justin, c. 1887

Young Justin family, c. 1905

Justin home in Nocona

Justin clubhouse, 1951

Interior of the H. J. Justin boot factory, c. 1905, with Daddy Joe, Earl, and John

Daddy Joe, employees, and boot-drying racks, Justin Boot Company, c. 1910

Justin family on front porch, with Enid and Julius

H. J. Justin & Sons new factory, c. 1920

Powder River boot, 1923 Justin catalog

Enid Justin, portrait, c. 1925

Nocona Boot Company, early 1940s

Nocona Boot Company factory interior, c. 1930

Early Nocona boot with moon and star, c. 1930

McChesney portrait on 1906 price list

McChesney Gal Leg spur

McChesney-Nocona spurs with silver heart pattern

Enid at ribbon-cutting ceremony of Pony Express Race, 1939

Amon Carter and Enid Justin at start of Pony Express Race

Pony Express riders

Pony Express Race winner Shannon Davidson

Architects sketch of new Nocona Boot Factory completed in 1948

New factory grand opening

Enid observing her employees inside factory

Enid in front of boot display, c. 1950

Enid, Ken Maynard, and horse Tarzan, Fort Worth Stock Show, 1941

Enid with boots on desk

Fancy 1950s boots

Models with Leon A. Harris Jr. at Texas on the Riviera

1Governor Talmadge tries on Nocona boots as Enid watches

1Enid in buckboard for Noconas Chisholm Trail Round-up Rodeo Parade, 1954

1Enid with revolving shoe tree

11960s boots, one with cut diamond shapes, 1969 catalog

1Hereford boot

1Lets Rodeo ad campaign posters

1Bicentennial boot

1Enid with nephew Joe Justin at Vernon groundbreaking

1Spanish boots

1Enid with Jerry Jeff Walker

1NBC ad with Earl Campbell

1Late 1970s exotic skin boots

1Photo of smiling Enid

1Wildflower roper

1Shoe boot

1Enid and Walt Disney, grand opening of the Disneyland Hotel, 1956

1Enids nieces and nephews advertise for the company

Acknowledgments

T elling Enid Justins story has been both an honor and a dream project for this historian. The journey was made even more enjoyable by the many people who helped along the way. My family has been constant in their support and encouragement. My husband Richard grew up in Nocona and provided my first connection to Enid Justin. My Wichita Falls family, Rik, Shaye, Carson, and Dani, and my Colorado family, Clark, Meredith, Liz, and Mason, have been staunch supporters throughout this process. Their most-asked question, Gram, hows your book going? My son Kelly, a writer and filmmaker, always willingly gave his time to consult on this project and offered invaluable advice on questions of content and story structure as well as continual inspiration. He was also my technical wizard. In addition, I wish to thank Kelley Kosar, who used Photoshop magic to improve many of the aging photographs and catalog illustrations included in this book. And thanks also to our extended family, Juan, Monika, and Juan Carlos Zirion, and Jessica and Chris Frazer, who enthusiastically supported my project.

Dr. Donald E. Chipman, friend, mentor, and historian par excellence, read this manuscript, chapter by chapter (some more than once), and offered insightful suggestions along with his editing expertise, an exercise I am sure must have led him to question if his former graduate student would ever learn the proper use of a hyphen. I am also indebted to Dr. Randolph B. (Mike) Campbell, who was instrumental in my taking on this project and offered help and encouragement along the way. And to the late Robert S. Weddle, whose high standards for researching and writing history I always strive to emulate.

The Tales N Trails Museum in Nocona, Texas, is a wonderful repository for all things Nocona Boot Company. In addition to documents, personal papers, catalogs, and photographs, the collection has many examples of Nocona boots, the patterns used to cut them, and an assemblage of early boot-making tools. A recent addition to the boot company exhibit is a life-size animatronic Miss Enid who tells her story in her own voicethat alone is worth a trip to Nocona. I owe special thanks to Museum Director Nell Ann McBroom, who provided invaluable help in locating specific items in the collection as well as alerts when the museum received new acquisitions. While I was working on the book, Enids divorce papers were found in an NBC safe that was purchased by Toby Booth when the company went out of business, and Steve Pickens donated an old metal file box that contained documents relating to Enids salary dispute with the War Production Board in the 1940s. I am very grateful to Nell Ann and the staff and volunteers at the museum and to Noconans who have helped to preserve boot company history.

I also want to thank Tracy Mesler, editor of The Nocona News since 1981, whose unfailing coverage of news and events surrounding Nocona Boot Company preserved much of the history of the company. The News has been in continual operation since 1905, and it was a valuable resource for information on the early Justin Boot Company as well as its successor, the Nocona Boot Company. I owe a special word of appreciation to Nocona librarian Karen Teague, who kept an aging microfilm reader in working order while I scanned the many years of weekly issues. Good news for future researchers: The Nocona News has now been digitized.