The lad was uncommonly ingenious and tenacious. Recruited by the
fulling mill operator to assist in the cobbling work, the boy grew
impatient at the tediousness of the task. He conceived a time-saving
and labor-saving machine. Then he dreamed up another and another. He
wrote to Washington and obtained a patent on each new invention as fast
as it took shape.
These same patents are in use today in the big shoe plants of America,
and the earnings from them continue to flow handsomely to the present
Winslow heirs. Thus, the mighty United Shoe Machinery Company got its
first breath of life on old Cape Cod.
Brewster is named for Elder William Brewster, a crusader for religious
freedom, who sailed to Cape Cod on the Mayflower and acted as pastor to
the church at Plymouth. He is described as having been “tender harted,
and compassionate of such as were in miserie.” Further, “none did more
offend him and displease him than such as would haughtily and proudly
carry and lift up themselves, being rise from nothing, and haveing
little els in them to comend them but a few fine cloaths, or a little
riches more than others.” On his death, we are told, Elder Brewster’s
complete estate consisted of 275 books, of which 64 were “in the
learned languages.”
Quaint names are associated with Cape Cod lore. Fear Brewster was one
of Elder Brewster’s daughters and he had sons named Love Brewster and
Wrestling Brewster.