This is a photograph of Charles H. Hyer, who owned The Hyer Boot Company. Hyer, the son of an immigrant German shoemaker, settled in Leavenworth in 1870 and worked, for a time, building railroads. He soon moved to Olathe and got a job teaching shoe and harness making at the Kansas School for the Deaf. With money he saved, he opened his own shoemaking shop in Olathe and asked his brother, Ed, to join him in running the business. In the years that followed, the Hyers developed a measurement chart to send out with their flyers that enabled customers, even cowboys at the remotest ranches, to order custom made boots to fit their precise size and fashion preference. The business blossomed and, by 1900, it had grown from two employees to 15. During World War I, the Hyers made boots for the officers at Fort Leavenworth and at Camp Funston. By the 1960s more than 70 people were busy making boots for a worldwide clientele. This photograph was taken while Hyer, a Republican, was serving in the 1911 Kansas House of Representatives representating District 10 from Olathe, Kansas.

Date: 1911