When Leon Wensierski arrived at Ellis Island in 1886, not quite 20 years of age, he carried a satchel of leatherwork tools. Renamed Leon White by an immigration clerk, the young man from Dobrzeń, Poland, was bound for a land of romance, myth and western grit. He was headed for Texas.
Navigating the journey with his broken English, he joined one of his 12 siblings, a brother, in the town of Bryan. As he became accustomed to this strange new world, learned its lingo and polished his bootmaking skills, he moved to the towns of Ennis, Abilene, and in 1909, Fort Worth. Cowtown. “Where the West Begins.”
Though cattle-drive cowpokes no longer arrived on hell-for-leather respites to shoot out the lights of the town's district called Hell's Half Acre, the still-sometimes-rowdy and growing city remained a business hub for a sprawling ranch country. And to Leon, now a seasoned Texan himself and an expert leatherworker, one thing was clear. These folks needed boots. Shoes too.
In 1934, the L. White Boot Shop, located in the bustling Stockyards, now known as the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, added saddlemaking to its services. And before his death in 1943, Leon White taught two of his sons, Louis and Victor, the ins and outs of leatherwork for range, ranch and saloon wear.
By the time the brothers hung up their spurs—they each died in 1970—the family business had produced boots and saddles for stars of the silver screen, the baseball diamond and the rodeo road, as well as presidents, first ladies, governors and the mayor of New York City, and of course, for working cowboys and cattle kings.
