The Endicott Johnson Corporation grew out of the Lester Brothers Boot and Shoe Company which began in Binghamton in 1854. In 1890, Lester Brothers moved their business west to a nearby rural area, which in 1892 was incorporated as the village of Lestershire and in 1916 became Johnson City. Financial problems in 1890 forced the sale of the company to a creditor and fellow shoemaker, Henry Bradford Endicott of Massachusetts, who founded the Endicott Shoe Company and in 1899 made factory foreman George F. Johnson his partner. The village of Endicott is named after Henry B. Endicott.