Willco Ind. Ltd. shoe stretcher.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

Object Name

Shoe Stretcher

Object ID

2017.013.001

Artist

Willco Industries Ltd.

Title

Willco Ind. Ltd. shoe stretcher.

Date

[19-?].

Description

1 shoe stretcher : wood ; metal. The shoe stretcher has a metal rod that is painted black, on the end it is bent in a hook shape. The end opposite to the hook shape has a screw that fits between two symmetrical pieces of wood. The wooden parts make a foot shape with pointed toes. The flat side of the wood that connects with the metal rod is painted red. There are two large holes on the back side of both pieces of wood and three smaller holes in the front side. Both pieces of wood have a small hole on the top near to the toe shape. There is black printed text on the top side of one of the pieces of wood that reads "MONTREAL". There are two additional spots with black printing on the other piece of wood that read "WILLCO IND. LTD." and "HI 2". The shoe stretcher belonged to Margaret and Eskil Johnson of Willoughby.

People/Subject

Johnson, Eskil Kilian

Eskil Johnson was born in Sweden on March 2, 1899. He came to Canada at the age of 19, and came to B.C. in 1919. Two years later, Johnson settled on the property at the corner of McLarty and Carvolth Roads in Langley. He married Margaret Sophia, a native of England, and they had one biological child, Alice, and one adopted child, Brian. He was a dairy and a poultry farmer in Langley's Willoughby area for 44 years. He died on April 25, 1965 at the age of 70.
Term Source: obit April 29, 1965, Langley Advance, p. 6

Johnson, Margaret Sophia

Margaret Sophia was born February 3, 1899, into a coal mining family in Willington, Durham, England. They immigrated to Canada in 1924. Margaret worked for four years as a nanny and cook at the First United Church in Vancouver. She married Eskil Kilian Johnson on September 3, 1928 at this church. The couple lived on a farm in Langley's Willoughby area for the rest of their lives, and had two children: Alice, their biological child, and Brian, adopted. Margaret knitted and sewed for the Red Cross in a youth group that called themselves the "Willoughby Willing War Workers" during the war, and she was made a life member of the Red Cross. She was active in the Willoughby United Church as CGIT leader, Sunday school superintendent, as a member of the church board, and was a life member of the Langley Prairie Women's Institute. She often took First Nations students into her home for a number of years who were completing their schooling. Margaret died on July 8, 1981 at the age of 82.

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