Nocona Western Boots Europe Webiste

The Nocona Boot Company, founded in 1925 by Enid Justin Steltzer in Nocona, Texas, had its antecedents about 1890 when H. J. (Joe) Justin , a leather craftsman who had moved from Indiana to Texas, moved his small business from Spanish Fort to Nocona to take advantage of the shipping facilities brought by the railroad. Joe taught his seven children bootmaking, and by 1918, when their father died, the children were able to carry on a successful business. In 1925, enticed by the Industrial Board of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce to relocate, the Justin brothers moved the bootmaking operations and equipment of H. J. Justin and Sons from Nocona to Fort Worth. Enid, thinking that her father would have wanted the company to stay in Nocona, organized the Nocona Boot Company as a copartnership with Julius L. Steltzer (her husband), Jess B. Thompson, and E. D. Keller. With $5,000, seven employees, and a small shop, Enid started what later became one of the most successful bootmaking operations in the country.