looking all the way back to 1920
When looking all the way back to 1920, the number
of horseshoe brands and models are nearly countless. It would be an unbelievable number to project
out how many single shoes have been forged out for our
pitching pleasure. It is probable that the largest single producer has been St. Pierre Manufacturing Corp. St. Pierre first
emerged as a leading shoe producer through their advertising in the 1940 Horseshoe World. Yet, they were listed as early
as 1934 as a pitching shoe producer in the Thomas Directory
of American Manufacturers, as the St. Pierre Chain Corp.
Click to enlarge
The first available pictured ad listed: Standard, TJ.
Octigan, Leader, Good Luck and Royal models. Standard was
a hookless shoe produced in the 1920s by the Standard
Horse Shoe Company of Boston, and sometime prior to
1934, that company was acquired by St. Pierre. The Octigan
was initially a hookless shoe produced by the Octigan Drop
Forge Company of Chicago, IL (1929-1939) and was also
acquired by St. Pierre, at which time the shoe was redesigned
as a hooked tournament shoe and renamed T.J. Octigan.
An oddity to collecting T.J. Octigan is to find one where the
word OFFICIAL is spelled correctly. Even in the ad it is
spelled "Offical."
Leader, certainly one of the most common and easy to
find hookless shoes, is interesting for it is one of the first 2
pound shoes made available for ladies and juniors through
the Sears & Roebuck catalogs beginning in 1935. Royal
models are most commonly found with + and 0 markings
rather than the usual A and B designation, but they are the
more recent models. As the Royals first came out in the
1930s, they were marked 1's and 2's with spike heel caulks
running lengthwise rather than across the points. They were
advertised in the Montgomery Wards' catalogs as early as
1935 and are a good collection prize.
Another model by St. Pierre, which does not show up in
the ad, but has showed up in many private collections/ is the
"Star." The underside clearly shows St. Pierre, Worcester,
Mass. So far there is little dating available for this model
other than they did exist in 1933.
For the more modern day the American model has been
the St. Pierre tournament shoe, which began being produced
in 1967.
So, adding up the many decades and including the many
models, St. Pierre has probably provided more shoes to the
pitchers and more shoes for the collectors than any other
manufacturer.
TRADER NOTES
- Below is a copy of the actual draft of a 1934 patent by J.B.
Smith of Washington. The Oregon HPA museum would like
to have one of these Smith Shoes for their display. If anyone
can help, contact Lee Wallace, 503-623-6535, 505 S.E.
Hawthorne Ave., Dallas, OR 97338.
- A three-way trade can take place if someone has a pair of
Durham bronze Ded-Locks to provide to the Lee Wallace
and the OHPA. In turn, T.J. Durham has offered a new pair
of Durham E.Z. Ringers to the donor.
- In 1922, the Lucky Ringer Company of St. Louis, MO,
manufactured the Lucky Ringer shoe. They were an incredi-
ble model for the brand name covered the entire top side of
the shoe. No Lucky Ringers have been announced in collec-
tion, to this point anyhow. Does anyone have a Lucky Ringer
shoe?
click to enlarge
