Visalia Stock Saddle Co. · History

Why collectors care

Visalia Stock Saddle Co. is a historic California saddle and cowboy-outfitter house. Collectors meet Justin and Starnes boots on its catalogs and need to read Visalia as the retailer, not as the lasting shop.

This page is a manufacturing / catalog-house card, in the same shelf role as Hamley. It is not a boot factory.

Company history

The National Park Service Five Views survey records that Juan Martarell, Alsalio Herrera, and Ricardo Mattley opened the first Visalia Saddle Company store in 1869 and began the Visalia stock saddle for Tulare County vaqueros. Martarell sold to David E. Walker, who built a mail-order catalog trade and stamped D. E. Walker on saddles. Walker retired in 1887 and sold to his nephew Edwin Weeks. The Visalia shop closed in the 1890s. Headquarters moved to 221 California Street, San Francisco.

Catalog No. 31 (1935; Internet Archive visalisadd05unse) is a cowboy-outfitter catalog. Peter B. Kyne’s foreword credits D. E. Walker and nephew Edmund Walker Weeks. The plates sell saddles, chaps, bits, and Justin and Starnes boots. WBW files the Justin rows under Justin and the Starnes numbers under Starnes.