Henry Wharton Shoemaker, born in New York City in 1880, made Pennsylvania his home, and wrote dozens of books, and hundreds of short stories for people like us to enjoy. Shortly after his death in July of 1958, fellow writer and close friend J. Herbert Walker paid tribute to Shoemaker in Keystone Folklore Quarterly Magazine in the summer of 1958.

“Pennsylvania, in the death of Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker, lost an endearing and faithful public servant, diplomat, soldier, historian, conservationist, folklorist, author, and newspaper publisher.

I have lost a very devoted and close friend and business associate for many years. I first met Colonel Shoemaker more than forty years ago on the top of a mountain in Centre County, where we had a rendezvous with several other lovers of the outdoors. I shall never forget that day.

"In the years that followed, I accompanied him on hundreds of trips to lumber camps, mountain cabins, hunting shacks, and lonely mountain farmsteads, as he gathered material for his books and pamphlets. More than fifty full-sized books -- some of them hardcover books -- and hundreds and hundreds of pamphlets and thousands of newspaper articles came from his ever-flowing pen. Black Forest Souvenirs, Juniata Memories, North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy were only a few of the titles for his books -- great compendia of legend, folklore, hunting tales, history, conservation, and natural history.

"These stories were gleaned from old-time hunters, mountaineers, and others. By mountain wagon -- built especially for travel over the terrible roads far back in the mountains -- on horseback, and on foot, we traveled thousands of miles in the sparsely settled hinterland of his beloved Pennsylvania. By candlelight, by sparsely settled in hill cabins, by bright daylight at the edge of a clearing -- anytime, anywhere -- he collected the data for his tales. Frequently, we curled up in buffalo robes and spent the night under the stars, far, far back in the woods. Food for the trips, which covered anywhere from two days to a full week, was carried in a big willow hamper.

Colonel Shoemaker served five years as secretary of the American legation in Lisbon, Portugal, as third secretary of the American embassy in Berlin, and as minister to Bulgaria. He served at various times as chairman of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, was a member of the State Geographic Board, a member of the Pennsylvania Forestry Commission, director of the State Archives, and director of the State Historical and Museum Commission's folk history division. During World War I, he was an Army intelligence officer, serving in Washington. Prior to this, he also served terms as an officer in the New York and Pennsylvania National Guard.

Colonel Shoemaker was president of the Federation of Historical Societies in 1925. He was one of the organizers and president of the Pennsylvania Folklore Society, which society made him President Emeritus at last spring's meeting in Harrisburg. He was also president of the Pennsylvania Poetry Society. One of his joys was the Pennsylvania Alpine Club, which he helped organize and of which he served as president for many years. The purpose of the club was to explore the lesser-known high mountains of the Keystone State.

"Born February 24, 1882, in New York City, he began his business career with the C. H. and D. Railroad in Cincinnati and New York, after attending New York and Columbia universities. He held a number of college degrees, most of them honorary degrees.

Between 1905 and 1911, he was a member of the New York banking house of Shoemaker, Bates, and Co. He published the Bridgeport, Connecticut, Telegram in the early 1900s and was also the publisher of newspapers in Jersey Shore, Bradford, Reading, and Altoona.

"In retrospect, now that he is gone, I shall always think of Colonel Shoemaker as I first saw him that day on the top of a Centre County Mountain. He belonged there amid the whispering pines and the great, gray rocks, a stalwart man, who during all his mature years gathered data to preserve the rich heritage of legend and folklore-tales of Indians, mountaineers, lumberjacks, early settlers, hunters -- all tales of enchantment.

From a vantage point in the great Hereafter, Colonel Shoemaker can look down on a life devoted to the things of his soul and spirit -- the recording of great tales that will become even more important in the years to come, Certainly the whispering winds in the tall pines of North Central Pennsylvania, which area he seemed to love best of all, and the chattering trout streams will sing a requiem for all the future for one who gave Pennsylvania a collection of folktales, legends, and natural history that has never been matched and perhaps never will be surpassed.

His books, redolent with the romance and mystery of the outdoors, become collector's items as the years advance. They will be his greatest monument, as he would have wished, and in the minds and hearts of those who knew him and loved him, he has grown greater in death. Within the portals of our hearts, his memory and deeds are tightly locked.”

 Shoemaker died on 14 July 1958 at age 78 of a heart attack at Williamsport Hospital in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. At the time of his passing, He resided in an apartment in Harrisburg, with a second home, Restless Oaks, in McElhattan, Clinton County.

Shoemaker is buried in the Highland Cemetery in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.