B.A.Mason Coupons
Our B.A. Mason Catalog is named after the founder of Mason Shoe Manufacturing Company, Bert A. Mason. Bert started the company back in 1904 in a small logging town in northern Wisconsin called Chippewa Falls. At one time, Chippewa Falls had the largest mill under one roof in the world. He established his reputation by marketing sturdy leather boots for the lumberjacks and rivermen who harvested the huge stands of white pines in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Those men demanded a lot from their footwear and Bert made sure those demands were met. Their boots had to stand up to mud, snow, rain, sleet and an occasional dunking in a cold Wisconsin river. Bert´s boots did that and more. Soon the name “B.A. Mason” spread up and down the Chippewa River and around the many lumber camps as one of the finest bootmakers in the Northwoods. In 1915, Bert expanded into a larger building. This original factory and office was located in downtown Chippewa Falls. Power for running the shoemaking machinery was drawn from Duncan Creek, which ran next to the factory. After 10 or 12 years of manufacturing mostly logging boots, Bert started to add other work and some dress styles. In 1922, he started marketing through catalogs with a selection of styles for both men and women. Those original women´s shoes were constructed like men´s welt shoes... not very stylish for Saturday night dances, but they were solidly constructed for a full day´s work. Mason Shoe made it through the depression and the leather rationing of World War II. During the war, people weren´t real fussy about the style of shoes they received, they were just happy to get a pair of shoes. Often they would just ask for a men´s or women´s shoe in their size and they didn´t care what it looked like. Bert ran the company by himself for years. In 1925, his oldest son, Owen, joined the company, followed by his next son, Ned, in 1935 and his youngest son, Victor, in 1945, and his grandson Bill Scobie in 1979. Today, Mason Shoe is still owned and operated by the Mason family, more than 100 years later.