Story of a Shoe Store

The Shaw Family bought the shoe shop on Mill Street, Stirling in 1967 from William Cairns and when they closed they donated many artifacts to the Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage. These artifacts are displayed in the shoe shop in Heritage Village. The shoe shop in Mill Street was originally opened by Mr. and Mrs. George Reynolds in 1908. George Reynolds ran a shoe repair business and his wife and daughters ran the store.  

 “We all went there together,” said Wayne Shaw. “It was a four way partnership between Milton and Edna Shaw, and Wayne and Helen Shaw.  Bill Cairns had bought it as a shoe store. He was the shoe repair man. The Cairns sold shoes rather than making them. Their son Ted was a saddle maker and he worked out in a tack shop at the back. He moved his business to a new building on the corner of Front Street and John Street. Harness maker and museum volunteer Glen Floud worked there.

When asked why they thought of shoes and if they knew anything about shoes, Helen Shaw said, “No, not a thing. Wayne’s mother did. She used to work in Eaton’s shoe department in Belleville. She was the only one who had any idea about what your should do with shoes other than wear them.”

“Yes, we came straight off the farm at Ivanhoe,” said Wayne Shaw. “That is where we farmed out there. We were just interested in getting off the farm and we were wanting something to do. The real estate guy suggested we buy a shoe store because it was for sale.”

Their farm was east of the general store in Ivanhoe on Slab street. “We had two farms,” said Wayne. “It was where the Hastings County Farm Show was a few years ago. That was our farm between Slab Street and Kerby Road. It was certainly a change from dairying to shoes.” 

“Wayne was the only real farmer as his dad worked on the rail road,” said Helen Shaw. “I worked in an office in Belleville and his mom worked the shoe department at Eaton’s.

Sales men come round selling shoes in those days. “The manufacturers all had a sales person or most of them did,” said Wayne Shaw. “They would come round with their suit cases and pile the shoes on the chairs and you walked along and picked out the shoes you wanted.