One way to quantify immigrantsâ contribution to the U.S. economy is to look at the wages and salaries they earn, as well as the income of immigrant-owned businesses, as a share of all wages, salaries, and business income in the United States.
Instead of taking 15 minutes to last a shoe, a sole could be attached in one minute. The efficiency of the machine resulted in mass productionâa single machine could last 700 shoes in a day, compared to 50 by a hand lasterâand lower prices. Jan Matzeliger obtained a patent for his invention in 1883. Tragically, he developed tuberculosis not long after and died at the age 37. He left his stock holdings to his friends and to the First Church of Christ in Lynn, Massachusetts. 1  Famous African American Inventors of the 19th- and Early 20th-Centuries. 2  The History of Shoes and Footwear. 3  Everything About The History of Shoes. 4  Classic Sweet and Spicy Festival Turkey Legs. 5  The Textile Revolution.
The company's first factory was founded in 1898 at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, on the high banks of the Saucony Creek. In 1910, Russian immigrant Abraham Hyde started a shoe company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called Hyde Athletic Industries.