I have a question

[MaddieM]

Were gum boots worn around 1897 onwards in West Virginia? We call them Wellington boots here in the UK, but I'm not sure if they were around in America at that time? If not, what did people wear on their feet to keep dry in winter?

[JMadonna]

I would say no. Waterproof boots were not widely available until LL Bean developed the duck boot for soldiers in WWII. Until that time I believe leather bottoms were the choice.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Actually, gum shoes were worn much earlier. I have a letter from Ben Helm (who married Mary Lincoln's sister) to his sister Lucinda from the 1850s in which he told her to "provide herself with gum shoes, cloaks &c."

You can see an ad for gum shoes in this 1850 paper:

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/s...nge&page=1

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'm posting in a hurry and just from off the top of my head - hence no guarantee - I think Bud Taft reported him and the Lincoln kids getting gum boots (largest size available) for the President. Also vulcanization is an American invention by Goodyear in the 1830s.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I'm posting in a hurry and just from off the top of my head - hence no guarantee - I think Bud Taft reported him and the Lincoln kids getting gum boots (largest size available) for the President. Also vulcanization is an American invention by Goodyear in the 1830s.

Yes, Julia Taft Bayne does describe Bud going out to get "rubbers" for the President.

[Eva Elisabeth]

PS: I also seem to recall that Wellington ordered to make riding boots of rubber for the soldiers (for the battle of Waterloo?), hence the UK name.

[Anita]

Maddie,
I posted this a few years ago.

If you go on http://chicagohistoryresources.org/wetwi.../comb3.htm you can see a photo of Lincoln's waterproof overshoes described as an India-rubber shoe from Goodyear.

Goodyear seal on overshoes attributed to Abraham Lincoln (CHS 1920.683).
Lincoln's waterproof overshoes, which his wife gave to Elizabeth Keckley, were one of Goodyear's first commercially successful products.

I'm constantly amazed at how one subject leads to another to build a knowledge base. What fun I'm having on this forum!

[MaddieM]

Thanks...you guys are amazing with your knowledge. I knew I could rely on this site to help me.

[L Verge]

Vulcanized rubber ponchos were also used during the Civil War, both as a raincoat as well as a blanket or ground cover.


"Toward the end of the Civil War ponchos were adopted and became prized equipment of Union soldiers. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s 62,000 men were carrying ponchos when they left still-smoking Atlanta in September 1864 to begin their devastating 1,000-mile march through Georgia and the Carolinas. “The troops traveled lightly... . Each man carried a blanket wrapped in a rubber poncho slung over his shoulder, a haversack, a tin cup hung at the waist, a musket and a cartridge box with forty rounds of ammunition.” A soldier packed little in the way of rations, for Sherman’s army lived off the country as it destroyed much of the South’s capabilities to continue the war.

"Sherman’s troops endured spells of freezing weather. Particularly when it is cold and raining, a soldier on the march wearing a poncho is better off than if wearing a raincoat. Greater air circulation under a poncho keeps clothes drier, and having drier clothing results in the wearer becoming less chilled when he stops or sleeps. Sherman’s toughened infantrymen were not burdened with tents."

[L Verge]

I am probably showing my age here, but how many of you remember the term "gumshoe" being used in reference to private investigators?

An old slang term for a detective or investigator (police-affiliated or private).

Shoes in the late 1800s were made of gum rubber - the soft-soled precursors of the modern sneaker. The phrase "to gumshoe" meant to sneak around quietly as if wearing gumshoes.

"Gumshoe man" was originally slang for "thief," but by about 1908 the term "gumshoe" was used to refer to a police detective, and the term has stuck ever since (pun intended).

Sam Spade, the most well-known gumshoe of noir cinema, spent the majority of The Maltese Falcon trying to solve a murder mystery.