Which American boot maker was founded in Natick, Massachusetts in 1883?

The American boot maker founded in Natick, Massachusetts, in 1883 was H.H. Brown.

The company began when Massachusetts shoemaker Henry H. Brown opened a shoe factory in Natick, a major nineteenth-century center of American footwear manufacturing. By around 1880, Natick had 23 shoe factories and ranked third among U.S. shoe-producing communities, making it a natural home for a new boot and shoe business.

H.H. Brown later became associated with several recognizable footwear brands. Its portfolio has included Corcoran, whose jump boots were worn by American military personnel during World War II, and Double-H Boots, a western and work-boot business founded in Richland, Pennsylvania, in 1955. Berkshire Hathaway acquired H.H. Brown in 1991, and Dexter Shoe was merged into the company in 2001.

A common mix-up is confusing H.H. Brown with Brown Shoe Company, the much larger St. Louis footwear business founded in the nineteenth century, later renamed Caleres. They are separate companies. H.H. Brown is also the corporate name behind Double-H Boots, not the name of that boot brand itself.