(erielack) Re: Wilseyville, then, Willseyville, later (Now Lestershire)

[Todd Hollritt <thollritt_@_yahoo.com>]

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Endicott-Johnson_Shoe_Factory.jpg (image/pjpeg, 1012x642 324357 bytes, BF: 2.00 ppb)
Endicott-Johnson_Complex.jpg (image/pjpeg, 1018x614 98010 bytes, BF: 6.38 ppb)
Lestershire_Station.jpg (image/pjpeg, 1099x711 111126 bytes, BF: 7.03 ppb)

The next station will be... Lestershire!
  Incorporated in 1892 as the Village of Lestershire, In 1916, the village was renamed Johnson City in honor of George F. Johnson, who led the company that was by then known as the Endicott Johnson Corporation. The station sat within the complex!
 
And what was the company that inspired the name? 
   The Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company ("E-J") was a prosperous manufacturer of shoes based in New York's Southern Tier, with factories mostly located in the area's Triple Cities of Binghamton, Johnson City (Lestershire), and Endicott. An estimated 20,000 people worked in the company's factories by the 1920s, and an even greater number worked there during the boom years of the mid-1940s when, helped by footwear it produced for the military during the war years, it was producing 52 million pairs of shoes a year. During the early 1950s, the work force was still approximately 17,000 to 18,000. Today, EJ Footwear, LLC operates as a unit of Nelsonville, Ohio as "Dickies" Rocky Shoes & Boots, Inc.
 
  AND did you know the Endicott Johnson Corporation grew out of the Lester Brothers Boot and Shoe Company, which began in Binghamton in 1854. In 1890, the Lester Brothers moved their business west to a nearby rural area (And named the town!), which in 1892 was incorporated as the Village of Lestershire. And here's a postcard view of the massive shoe factory being worked by two DL&W switchers! Or did "E-J" have their own railroad to provide local service?  
Todd ~
 
  Note: "E-J" provided its workers the "Square Deal" that consisted of a chance to buy "E-J" built and financed homes, a profit sharing program, health care from factory-funded medical facilities and later (built in 1949) two worker recreational facilities. But the Square Deal was more than an employee benefit program. E-J and the Johnson family also provided or helped to finance two libraries, theaters, a golf course, swimming pools, carousels, parks and food markets, many of which were available to the community without charge. Reminders of the source of that generosity were inescapable.One of the swimming pools was even shaped in the outline of a gigantic shoe sole! But now were geting into the whole Weird NY thing and i'll leave it at that.  :)
 
Todd ~ co-written by Wilipedia, LOL
 
 

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