Sock dolls were popular around the 1900's. Nelson Knitting Mills
in Rockford Illinois first made the original rockford red heeled sock in 1890.
In 1920 the mill soon began packaging directions for the sock monkeys, with each pair of
socks, after a customer
fashioned a doll and sent it to the company. The Nelson Knitting Mills was purchased by
Fox River Mills
in the 1992 and now Fox River makes the Red Heel Monkey Sock.
reference:
America's stuffed toy: the sock monkey Fox River
[http://www.foxrivermills.com/foxriver/SilverStream/Pages/pgMonkeys.html]
02/19/2001
Socking the Monkey People Weekly 5/8/1995 v43 n18 p225(1) Time Inc.