Mercer Boot Makers & The Martins
This week is spring break for most people who are in the education business or have school age kids. Families look for road trips, plan trips to the zoo, or for many it will be time to do some spring shopping. I took advantage of a road trip with my daughters and two of our granddaughters. We went to San Angelo which is about 1 1/2 hour away to check out a new bootmaker and visit a bootmaker who has been around since 1923.
What does this have to do with The Martin House? I'll explain. You might remember the post titled "Making Magnetic Memories" where I spent some quality time with my dad. It was during that outing that he shared with me a story about Mercer Boots in San Angelo. I grew up hearing about my grandad having custom boots made by Johnny Mercer, the founder of Mercer Boots. As the story went, my grandad would call them up and order a pair of new boots---they had all his measurements on file.
It was on that trip with my dad that I learned that Johnny Mercer was my grandad's cousin. This was a detail that I had not heard before. He also went on to tell me that I had worn a pair of Mercer boots that were my dads, my brother wore them, and that I wore them too. He said there was even of picture of me in them with my grandad as he was shearing sheep. Sure enough---I knew the picture he was talking about.
Okay, so flash forward to this week. My daughters had heard about a woman who was making boots in San Angelo that they wanted to check out and I told them that I wanted to go into Mercer's just to see if by chance they would have my grandads information still on file. (this was because my dad said on our earlier outing that he would love to see if they had it.) What came next was nothing I could have ever imagined.
We met Kyle Brock, the owner of Mercer Boots. He told us he was not a Mercer but had bought the business from Johnny Mercer's son. I explained to him the story my dad had shared with me and he asked who my grandad was---I told him, Jim Brown, and that he was from Talpa.
Hold on for the next part. Kyle said, "my family is from Talpa." I asked him who they were and he said.....(drum roll please....) THE MARTINS. I just about fell in the floor----I told him, "we just bought the Martin House and are remodeling it." He said he had spent a lot of time in that house and started to talk about his cousins Joey & Tammy---- Joseph & Tamara, as we know them, are the people who we bought house from.
Kyle was awesome---we exchanged stories about the house and his family and I encouraged him to come by anytime to see what we were doing with the house. He then showed us around his shop and how he made boots which thrilled my granddaughters. When we got back to my grandad he said he probably had his boot information and would look for it if I could give him a timeframe---which I will definitely get to him.
My daughters seemed to enjoy the outing as well---but as we left they said, "Mom, that made your day didn't it?" And of course I agreed. It was another great day uncovering more history about The Martin House and the Martin family. There is definitely more to come....
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