The Turnbo Manuscripts

by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925


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HER FIRST PAIR OF SHOES
By S. C. Turnbo

Mrs. Jane Nance Adams, wife of George Adams who resides on Barbers Creek in Christian County, Mo. furnished the writer an account of the first pair of shoes she ever wore. She said "I was seven years old when I put on my first pair of shoes which was in 1852. Mr. Elisha Hampton made them for me. We lived then on Cedar Creek one mile above Swansville in Christian County, Mo. The shoes were made round toes and were made of home tanned leather. Before Mr. Hampton had finished making them he said to me ‘Do you want them to screak’ and I answered ‘Yes Sir if you please’ for I was much pleased to hear him ask the question. And he scorched a small piece of leather and put it in between the soles of the shoes, and after he had finished making them he prepared a solution of copperas and blacked them for me and says ‘Here put them on’ and I did and as I walked around they screaked loud and I felt as happy as any girl could feel that put on her first pair of shoes".

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