Enid Justin

Enid Justin was called the world’s only female boot manufacturer. She was born in Nocona on April 8, 1894 and was the middle child of Herman Joseph Justin (1859 – 1918) and Louanna F. Allen Justin (1865 – 1939). Enid’s father Joe had come to Texas in 1879 after learning the basics of shoe repair while serving as an apprentice in his former home of Lafayette, Indiana. After settling near the Red River on a cattle trail, Joe slowly began to make his own name as a boot maker. He finally set up shop in Nocona where he lived and built a boot factory. The children worked in the factory on Saturdays and after school and learned the business. Enid began working there at around age ten. She was bright and a good student, but dropped out of school at age thirteen to work in the factory with Joe and the older siblings.

Enid married Julius Leo Stelzer of nearby Muenster on August 10, 1915. The couple had one child, Anna Jo, who died when she was a little over one year old in 1918. Enid had left the business to care for Anna Jo. That same year, her father Joe passed away after having suffered a stroke. Julius worked at the factory along side Enid’s brothers.

About seven years after Joe died in 1918, the brothers in the family elected to move the business to Fort Worth. After months of planning, the move took place and the new factory opened in 1926. Enid felt like her father Joe would have wanted the boot business to remain in Nocona, so she remained there and decided to continue making and selling boots on her own, calling it the Nocona Boot Company. She had seven employees. The company was formally organized in 1927 and the named individuals were J. L. Stelzer, E. D. Keller and Jesse B. Thompson. A little later in the year, the charter was amended to increase the capital stock from $10,000 to $20,000.

Enid told of experiencing an extremely slow start, as she felt that some potential customers were skeptical of buying boots made by a woman. To make ends meet, she augmented her meager income by selling coal and taking in boarders in her home. She tells how the oil boom was good for her boot business. Oil workers wore her Nocona boots and soon she began to also acquire a large following among cowboys.

Enid managed to keep the business operating throughout the Depression years while many other small businesses did not survive. She continued to try and expand the various boot lines to cater to what customers wanted. Her personal life suffered when she was divorced from Julius in the mid 1930s. Julius had been acting as President of the company. Her second marriage was to Harry Lee Whitman in 1940. The couple had no children and were apparently divorced around 1945. Enid never remarried after this relationship ended.

In a newspaper interview around 1976, as the Nocona Boot Company was beginning its 51st year in the business, Enid told of her first sales trip west with her sister back in 1926. The Ford Model T they were traveling in lost a wheel in some little town. While it was being repaired the two ladies spent the night in a room on the second floor in some unnamed two story frame hotel. Seeing no fire stairs, they inquired of the clerk what they should do in case of a fire. They were told, “Jump!” The writer tied that amusing story into a discussion of the jump in growth of the Nocona Boot business.

An article in the Wichita Falls Times issue of February 29, 1976 lists her celebrity clients as including Governor John Connally, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Henry Ford II, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Lawrence Welk, Glen Campbell and King Gustav IV of Sweden. Over the age of 80, Enid was still serving as President of the company. The company was grossing in the millions each year with production in its 80,000 square foot factory there in Nocona. Boots were made out of the traditional cowhide, veal, steerhide, calfskin, water buffalo, caraboa, lizard, horsehide, kangaroo, boarhide, sharkskin, ostrich and snakeskin. The article closed with a comment on things not coming easy even after fifty years. Miss Enid added, “Good things never do.”

The company weathered an attempt by some employees to unionize around 1937. The effort to form a union failed and about half the employees were either laid off or resigned. Enid said that the company did not embrace collective bargaining and that it paid fair wages in line with other businesses along with Christmas bonuses at year end.

The company continued to prosper and grow. The Vernon Daily Record in its issue of April 19, 1977 announced that the Vernon Industrial Foundation was nearing completion of a production facility for the Nocona Boot Company. Located at the intersection of Highway 287 and Enid Street, the brick and metal building was set to house boot manufacturing equipment and would be purchased by the boot company upon completion.

Enid was elected the first president of the Nocona Rodeo Association in 1952. That same year, during a conference held in Houston, the Nocona Boot Company gave a set of cowboy boots to the governors of every state in the Union along with leaders of all United States possessions. The boots were to be one of more than two dozen Texas themed gifts to be donated to the attendees. To accomplish the Nocona Boot gifts, 100 pairs of boots were to be shipped to Houston to be to assure a proper fit. Fitting was to be done by Enid and Bill Pribble. The boots were all the same style, brown in color with red and white butterfly inlays and flowers on the uppers. Enid was always active in local affairs and promoting the town. Her name was frequently mentioned in area newspapers. The Nocona City Council named a park in her honor in 1988 “in recognition of her many years of service.” The Nocona Lions Club made her an honorary member, as well.

Enid agreed to sell her company to Justin Industries after several months of difficult negotiation and litigation in 1980 and 1981, per an Associated Press report. Under the agreement, the Nocona entity was to remain based in Nocona, Texas. The acquisition was expected to make Justin Industries the largest quality bootmaker in the United States. At the time of the article, Nocona revenue was roughly about 10% of that of Justin Industries. The sale was consummated in 1981, with Enid continuing as President of Nocona Boot Company until her resignation for health reasons in 1982.

Enid died in Nocona on October 14, 1990 at the age of 96. She was buried in Nocona’s cemetery, as were many other members of the Justin family.

© 2025, all rights reserved.