UPDATED
March 27, 2024: Email response regarding an query I made for information from the E-J Tanner and Shoemake Archive:
Thank you for contacting the Syracuse University Libraries. I’m copying our Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) on this message, as this department maintains the papers of members of the Johnson family.
The SCRC appreciates your interest in our collections and your inquiry has been added to our reference queue. We receive a large number of reference questions and answer all inquiries in the order in which they were received. Please note that we prioritize inquiries from current Syracuse University affiliates (faculty, students, and staff).
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Abby Kasowitz-Scheer (she, her, hers)
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Syracuse University Libraries
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Syracuse University
This is the building where I believe the Gallsons lived in 1928/29 in Endicott, NY. Its address is 200 North Street. An early memory of Joan, was going up a flight of stairs to get to their home and at Christmas there was a Christmas tree at the end of the hall.
The Endicott City Directory of 1928 is below. John Gallson is a tanner.
The Gallsons are also in the 1929 Endicott City Directory, although he is a shoe maker then.
While looking in Google at early 20th century maps of Endicott, trying to find exactly where the house may have been, I came across this, also on North Street. the Endicott-Johnson & Co. Tanneries & Shoe Factories.
Below is a Google aerial view with the Tannery/Shoe Factory boxed on the right (currently BAE Aerospace Systems) and 200 North Street boxed on the left.
From what I've read about this company, even though being a tanner was a very difficult and gruesome job, they treated their employees very well. The Gallsons would have benefited from "the Square Deal", which included health care right at the factory. And they also made employees shareholders. There's a lot of information about the company in 1928 and 1929. It looks like in 1929, there was a downturn in shoe sales, so Grampa may have been laid off because he hadn't been there very long. And since Grampa doesn't seem to have ever completed his Naturalization, he left Endicott.
Below is a excerpt from Wikipedia...
George F. and the Square Deal
The E-J story is dominated by George F. Johnson (1857–1948), or George F as he was popularly called, who rose through the shoe factory ranks to become the half-owner of E-J, and its highest executive until his death in 1948.
George F's reign was dominated by his Square Deal version of welfare capitalism that, like progressive movements of the early twentieth century, advocated providing parades and churches and libraries to "uplift" workers. George F's Square Deal consisted of worker benefits even in harsh economic times that were generous and innovative for their time, but also meant to engender worker loyalty and discourage unionizing. The company had a chess and checkers club.
For workers, the Square Deal consisted of a chance to buy E-J built and E-J 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:
Endicott was a community planned by E-J and incorporated in 1906. It was named after Henry B. Endicott (one of the grade schools was named Henry B,) who owned the business that became E-J. Lestershire was renamed Johnson City, New York in honor of George F. All of the tanneries and the vast majority of the shoe factories were located in Endicott with a few satellite locations in Johnson City and Binghamton. The Johnsons lived in Endicott and George F's mansion was donated to the Village after his death and became the public library. Most of the jobs were classified as "piece work." Racks of shoes moved through the factories with "coupons" attached to each rack. When the worker completed his/her operation on the rack of shoes, he or she removed the appropriate coupon which was worth a few pennies. At the end of the week the worker turned in his coupons from which the payroll department calculated pay. The work was hard and the pay was low, but the extensive benefits were offsets. The windows in the factories were painted so workers wouldn't be distracted by the outside. The company needed a large labor pool and initiated a recruitment program aimed at southern Italy and the Slavic countries and so Endicott became a small town with a rich ethnic mix. Many of the sons and daughters of these immigrants graduated from Union-Endicott High School and went on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and successful business people. Very few went to work in the factories.
Source: Endicott Johnson Corporation - Wikipedia
There's also a large document that is VERY interesting about the company and there's alot in it about what was going on with the company in 1928 & 1929. www.ejhistory.org In particular, Chapter 2 "The Rise of the 'Square Deal' " (starts page 37, and page 48 in particular), Chapter 3 "Workers and the Work" (starts page 63, particularly pages 77/78) and interesting pictures starting page 99.
Below are pictures from the document of men working in the tannery in 1930, the year after Grampa would have left.
😀There is also a vast amount of information about the tannery on the historical site for Endicott.
http://tomdef.com/history/Resources/resources.html
🤨After reading up on the Endicott-Johnson Tanners and Shoe Makers and watching this video, it begs the question: Why did the Gallsons leave on July 31, 1929 to head to Ontario. .🤞🤞On March 23, 2024, I emailed "Marlene" at the historical site to see if there's any chance that there's an employee record archive. UPDATE: Marlene isn't associated with this anymore, but she did pass along an email address of a contact from a Facebook page. See UPDATE at the top of the page.
