Articles

H. J. Justin sold boots to cowboys on the Chisholm Trail in the 1870s and later established Justin & Sons boot company in Nocona in 1889, five years before his daughter Enid was born. Years later, after she was suspended from high school for dancing on a Sunday, Enid Justin decided she'd rather learn to make boots than graduate. She joined the family business, learning leatherworking skills at her father's side. When their father died, the brothers moved Justin Boots to Fort Worth—but Enid dug in her heels. "I knew Daddy Joe would never have left Nocona," she said and borrowed $5,000 to start the Nocona Boot Company. As a female entrepreneur in small-town Texas in the 1920s, Enid was a trailblazer. She served as her company's founder, president, and chief saleswoman. Over the next fifty-six years, she built Nocona Boots into one of the top five boot companies in America. More»