Hunt Co., TX - History: Woman Cobbler Works On ***************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb by: Sarah Swindell USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************** Woman Cobbler Works On 'My Machinery Is Antique Like I Am' The tapping of a cobbler's hammer, the pounding of pointed steel through old shoe leather--sounds of the past--echo from the dimly-lighted shoe shop where the dignified little lady has plied her craft for a quarter-century. Despite her eighty years, her aim with a cobbler's hammer is still true, and the arm that drives the nails through the heel and sole has an unfailing strength. The faded lettering on the front window of the little shop building at 2310 Lee Street across from Market Square reads "O. W. Winton's Shoe Shop." An aura of antiquity envelops the customer as he opens the door to the magazine-lined shop and sees the elderly woman craftsman working on machinery so old that replacement parts must be custom-built. Mrs. O. W. Winton, who inherited the shoe repair business from her husband on his death in 1957, was seasoned in the trade by working with her husband in his shop from 1945 until his death. He taught her how to handle all kinds of shoe repair work with the unfailing skill of the true professional--and the proof of that statement can be found among her peers locally, who say there is a great deal of difference between a simple shoe cobbler and a true craftsman. "This woman," they say of Mrs. Winton, "is a true craftsman." Born in Georgia in 1890, she came to Texas at the age of two with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Vines. The family settled on two sections of land purchased by Vines south of Greenville. He later entered the cotton business, operating gins in CELESTE, Greenville, Golden, Caddo Mills, and Emory. Although she has spent a great part of her life working at a craft which ordinarily is considered the province of the male, she still recalls the days when she was employed in a vocation which is definitely feminine in nature. In 1911, at the age of twenty-one, she became a model for The Fair, a dry goods store, located on Courthouse Square. It was her modeling job which sent her walking up the stage at the Old King Opera House in Greenville one day, where O. W. Winton, then working as a "flyman" (scenery handler), first saw her as he was lowering a stage setting from the loft. They were introduced by Mrs. Ed Riley, wife of the band director. Winton, a lifelong Greenville resident, began his career in the back of Carsey's Shoe Store. He operated the store for almost two years before starting his own business down the street. Winton and Augusta Vines were married in 1911, and he operated his shoe repair business while she owned a magazine exchange. They had two sons, O. W. Winton, Jr., and Pat, both of whom helped in the shoe shop, and a daughter, Georgia, who worked with her mother in the magazine exchange. During the early stages of Winton's career, there were about ten shoe repair shops in Greenville. Each craftsman hired a minimum of two or three apprentices to help repair and burnish the huge piles of shoes which stacked up on the dirt shop floors common then. Winton and one of his competitors, "Doc" Blankenship, are said to have personally trained at least fifty craftsmen in the shoe repair trade. Ed Shelton, trained by Winton, and J. D. Steger, trained by Blankenship, are now working together at Narramore's in Greenville. Mrs. Winton reminisces about the long-dead days when Greenville's shoe repair shops would remain open until late into the night each Saturday in order to accommodate the farmers in from the countryside, who would pick up their freshly-repaired shoes following the last feature at the movie house. "My machinery," says Mrs. Winton, "is antique like I am." Some of the machines in her shop were purchased by her husband as long ago as 1918. And Mrs. Winton says she plans to keep working in the shop for "as long as I am able." "I think working I can stay more active," she explained. "I broke my hip last November and they wanted me close it (the shop) up, but I said, "No Sir, I'm going back down there." Mrs. Winton not only has antique machines, but she has quite a selection of old magazines and paperbacks to sell as collectors' items. Nailed to the wall above the shelves of stacked books are magazine copies of "Look" magazine which date from when it sold for ten cents per copy (twelve cents in Canada). A May 5, 1942 issue is headed, "What We Must Do To Win The War." An old issue of "Silver Screen," which then sold for a nickel a copy, features a story entitled, "Dorothy Lamour Reveals Easy Ways to be Enticing." The magazines, the machines, and the craftsman are symbols of another age. The magazines have become history books; the machines, relics fit for a museum. But the craftsman, Augusta Vines Winton, retains the values of her age which are still revered in this new one. In her work, there shines through a unique talent resulting in a perfect product; in her eyes, there is that glimmer of pride and contentment. (Photos and story by Rob Meckel) (October 4, 1970, The Greenville Herald Banner)