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Farming For A Better Future, page 182
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??"JACOB WWGHr Boot and -Shoemakcrr" ?!n1u Streets
. Upsuirs over W. F. Price'* Store.
T HAVE A LOT OF- ??"■_■ -••■
* French Calf and Kip Skins, on hand,
ATiiitl>eBWBi:ASllofXow*yiIie _
0nk !-"?'< 1i '-r? •"?'J*' 1 ' B'i iTitso SlatiSrfct ' Sole Lrathrr; 3nil trill irake work-in itr&clw'S mvIc,^ cheap as-any hrui-dasi wofkri^n ni ti!v line. I -will-swancH-i inv work to pivc i^rfeet sahsiaciiM^ l;Er Al 111-domr.y-tltrir m ft trhil. ? fQb. .
Boot and Shoemakers
Newly Opened Grocery Store on Court st., Next door to Jones & Smith,
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j0[n Invitation
~I + 1
J. W. WYTCH
other accomplishments included serving as trustee of St. Paul AME Church and the Florence District School for Negroes.
Boot and shoemaking would have been an important occupation before the industrial and commercial manufacture of footwear. Florence had several businessmen of color that operated shops for making boots and shoes, repairing them, and offering bootblacks, or shoe shiners. Two such shoemakers have very similar biographies, Reuben Patterson (c. 1836-1928) and George Washington “Wash” Seawright (c. 1848-1931).
(Top Left) Ad for Jacob Wytch's Boot and Shoemaking (Lauderdale News, Wednesday, May 12, 1880 via Florence-Lauderdale Public Library) (Middle Left) Ad for J. W. Wytch's Grocery (Florence Herald, Thursday, January 27,1898 via Florence-Lauderdale Public Library) (Bottom) 1910 Census Record for Jacob W. Wytch (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Below) Excerpt of 1913 Florence City Directory for Mr. Wytch - Denoted as a Person of Color by * (Ancestry. com, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995) (Below Middle) Excerpt of 1926 Florence City Directory for Mr. Wytch - Denoted as a Person of Color by * (Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
Wylie W Thomas, farmer, b 511 Stanton av
♦Wytch Jacob W (m), grocer 108 E Mobile, h 204 S Pine
Wylie & Staggs (J T Wylie L D Staggs) meats 1412 Huntsville rd
Wytch Jacob W (Charlotte) shoe repr h255 Spring rd
Yarbrough Alton (Florence) mill hd h605 Ironside
_________________________■ ________________________________r
Reuben Patterson was a former slave, loyal to the Patterson family. He was a body servant for Col. Josiah Patterson of the 5th Alabama Cavalry, CSA and son of his master. Col. Patterson and Reuben, originally of Morgan County, relocated to Florence after the war. His loyalty to the Confederacy earned him the moniker of the “most unreconstructed ‘rebel' in this section of the South,” Reuben Patterson went on to work as a cook in hotels and for the Muscle Shoals Canal. The 1913 Florence City Directory lists his occupation as cook living in a house at 315 South Poplar Street. In 1915, the United Daughters of the Confederacy gave him his own bootblack stand on the corner of Mobile and Court streets. He later moved into a building on Tennessee and Seminary streets. The 1920 Florence city directory confirms his change in occupation. Mr. Patterson passed away in 1928 and is buried in the Florence City Cemetery.
(Left) Photograph of Reuben Patterson (Florence-Lauderdale Public Library)
George Washington "Wash" Seawright was also born a slave in Gainesville, . Sumter County, Alabama. He was owned by George Seawright, who , moved to Lauderdale County in ■ 1859. Wash Seawright accompanied
IF Mitchell Malone (Co. K, 7th Alabama Infantry, CSA and Co. F, Roddey's 4th Calvary, CSA) as a body servant. By 1884, Mr. Seawright had opened a boot and shoemaking shop somewhere in Florence "in
a room recently occupied by Mr. Fink over the store
of Mr. Jacobs.” By 1980, his shop was on the Stafford Block of East Mobile Street. The following year, the entire block was destroyed by fire and Seawright relocated to the back of Young & Simpson's Shoe Store. An ad - (4710)