Hello and Welcome to S Day!
Name:
Severin Arthur Cloutier
Vital Information:
Born 15 June 1840 in Quebec, Canada. Died 5 March 1919 in New Hampshire, USA.
Relation to Me:
Severin is my paternal 2x great grandpa.
Tidbits/Characteristics/Commonalities:
Severin was the last living son born to Francois Benoni Cloutier and Marie Rosalie Chamberland. He married Celina Moreau in Quebec on 19 January 1864.
Severin and Marie’s last son, Camille Augustus was the father of Arthur Cloutier, my paternal grandpa.
The name Severin means severe and has me wondering about a few of the naming choices this line made in combination with the duo Benoni’s that came before him.
Alas, I don’t know much about Severin, but I do believe he was both a Blacksmith and a Shoemaker based on Census Records and City Directories. My research challenges lie in the fact that he seems to have gone by both Severin and Arthur at different times. This is not uncommon, but due to naming patterns, it can all get a bit confusing, especially with so many Cloutier men running around New England at the time.
Anyhow, I decided to follow the S theme and focus on researching shoemakers in the late 19th Century. In doing so, I came across a few interesting links I thought I’d share here.
First, a link to the New Hampshire Historical Society that has thorough documentation of the tools used by shoemakers as well as some finished shoes. I find it incredibly interesting to look at these photos and see how the tools and shoes evolved (rather quickly) over a rather short period of time.
Second, a short video from The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation where Mo Rocca tours a shoe shop from the 1890s and learns about shoemaking during the late 19th Century.
If the embed below doesn’t work, you can watch it on YouTube here.
I don’t know if Severin worked in a shop like the one featured in the video or had a completely different set up, but when I imagine how he may have spent his workdays, I imagine a small building like this rather than a larger factory.
As an aside, when I think about shoemaking, my mind always turns to cobblers. No, they were not the same profession as a shoemaker made shoes and a cobbler fixed shoes that just needed a little TLC (imagine that?).
But when my mind turns from shoemakers to cobblers, the movie The Thief and the Cobbler comes to mind, in all of it’s ridiculous hilarity. It may be as simple as the fact that I watched it no less than a thousand times when my youngest daughter was little, but shoemakers and cobblers just might be scrambled in my mind forever 😉
Needless to say, I still have a lot of research and untangling to do on my paternal line, but the tidbits I’m learning have been a lot of fun over the past few years.
In Your Research…
Do you have any shoemakers or cobblers in your lineage?
Housekeeping
My theme for the 2025 A to Z Challenge is Kin! The first names of direct lineage kin, to be more specific.
I’m spending the majority of the month focusing on the first names of many of my direct lineage kin. I’ll include their full names, any vital information I’ve found in my research, their relation to me, any fun tidbits/characteristics/experiences, and any commonalities I may have gleaned between myself and them.
In a couple of cases, where I have not identified an ancestor whose first name starts with a particular letter, I will choose a unique middle name, a direct line surname, and/or ancestral lands/places of significance.
Pop over here to read my full theme reveal: A to Z 2025 Challenge Theme Reveal: Kin
Pop over here to visit our host and see what they’re up to throughout this year’s challenge: A to Z Challenge
If you’re visiting from the A to Z Challenge please leave a comment so I can visit you, too! If your comment bio doesn’t link back to your site, please feel free to add the link to your most recent post to the comment field so I can be sure to find you.
Thanks for being here! See you again soon!
Onward,
Melissa
P.S
The featured photo on this post was found via a Google search. The illustration is attributed to Alice Barber Stephens and is said to depict shoemakers in the 1870s.
The small town where I grew up still had a cobbler in a tiny old building, much like that one, perched next to the creek that ran through the town. I suppose at one time the water would have been used as part of the business, perhaps even for steam generation.
Oh! I love this! What a visual of that little building by the river housing a cobbler. Very cool! Did you ever visit?
And here I thought Severin was a made up name for Harry Potter. I didn’t realize real people had it.
Funnily enough, I did come across cobbler as the profession of someone in my mother’s paternal line. Like, her grandfather? I haven’t done any real research, so it’s funny I stumbled across that.
How fun that you have a cobbler in the family! Maybe someday you’ll learn more 🙂