His father, Henry Francis Shoemaker (1845–1918),[2] was a railroad magnate, investment banker, and close confidante of future senator and vice presidential candidate Charles W. Fairbanks.

[3] Attracted to foreign service, he worked in European embassies before returning home to enter a brokerage venture with his brother William.

Shoemaker summered in McElhattan, Pennsylvania, at an estate called "Restless Oaks" owned by his mother's family, and wrote that this experience deeply influenced his lifelong devotion to folklore and legend, hunting heritage, and historical and environmental preservation.

From his maternal home in McElhattan which he inherited, Shoemaker devoted much of his energy to environmental conservation and considered folklore associated with the endangered landscape deserving of preservation along with the state's forests and wildlife.

Praised for drawing attention in his creative writing to the traditions of the Pennsylvania "mountaineers", Shoemaker nonetheless drew criticism for his alteration and occasional fabrication of legends.

Shoemaker's humanistic interests in his creative writing also showed in his campaign to have artists use local folklore as a resource for literature, poetry, art, and music.

Upon his return to the United States, he began a daily column for the Altoona Tribune, which he had purchased in 1912,[4] in which he covered regional folklore and history and called for cultural conservation efforts.

In the post, Shoemaker sponsored publications, meetings, festivals, and exhibits, although he entered into bitter disputes with academic folklorists in Pennsylvania over his popularized presentations of folklore.

As a wedding present, his mother gave them a $250,000 house at 21 West 53rd Street in Manhattan that was previously owned by Florence C. Eno Graves and was designed by C. P. H.