A Creole from Dutch Guiana, Jan Matzeliger came to the United States in about 1871. He became an apprentice cobbler in Philadelphia and by 1877 was cutting and sewing leather in a shoe factory in Lynn, MA. On his own time, he developed a workable lasting machine that, with outside funding, he had patented and commercially manufactured. His Consolidated Hand Method Lasting Machine Company was poised to become very successfully when Matzeliger became ill and died at the age of 37. His work continued, and because of his inventions, show production increased one thousand fold.