M. Schields Godfrey, Milliner

Mary Schields was born in Sandusky in September, 1862, to Edmund and Salome Schields, both natives of Germany. She married George Godfrey about 1893. Mr. Godfrey was born in England and was a musician with the Great Western Band. From about 1896 through 1915, Mrs. Mary Schields Godfrey operated a hat shop at 222 Columbus Avenue. During some years, she also sold hats at the C. L. Engels Co. store on Market Street.

Mary and George would often travel to Europe to purchase hats. An article in the March 25, 1905 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal was entitled “The Sun Smiled for the Millinery Openings.” Mrs. Godfrey advertised genuine Paris and London hats, as well as New York Pattern hats for the spring season of 1905.

 

Mrs. Godfrey published a small catalog of Parisian hats in 1899, which featured models wearing stylish hats, along with a description of the hats.

Helen Hansen and Virginia Steinemann wrote about hat shops in Sandusky in Article 53 of From the Widow's Walk, describing how hats were a very important fashion necessity for women in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Fourteen separate businesses in Sandusky were listed under millinery in the 1912-1913 Sandusky City Directory. Miss Yvonne Fievet was an apprentice to Mary Schields Godfrey in the millinery business. Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Steinemann spoke with Miss Fievet, and learned that as an apprentice Yvonne worked three months in the spring and three months in the fall learning the millinery trade; she received no wages, but was given a free hat for her six months labor. Miss Fievet went on to have her own hat shop, from 1929 to 1965. (She had a niece, also named Yvonne Fievet, who was a longtime librarian at the Sandusky Library.)

 

Two separate volumes of From the Widow's Walk feature photographs and historical articles about the residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County. You may check out either volume from the Sandusky Library.