Contemporary History #9 – The Blacksmith
He was part of the fabric of society. Every village had a
Village Blacksmith and if your village didn’t have one, well, let’s leave it at
that your village had one! Door hinges, wagon hitches, cooking utensils, gate
latches, ice tongs, meat hooks, butcher knives, fences, chains, nails,
carpentry tools, belt buckles, and, of course, some blacksmiths even made
horseshoes. And that’s just a few of the things your village blacksmith could
and would craft for you out of red-hot metal!
A blacksmith named Jethro Wood invented an
iron plow with replaceable parts. It changed the way agriculture was “done” in
the early 1800’s. He held two patents for his plow, one issued in 1814 and one issued
in 1819. A blacksmith named John
Deere thought he could do better. So, he invented the steel plow in
1837. His plow was so popular it helped found his business, Deere & Company.
The village blacksmith was so important to a community that
he (and he was usually a “he”, but not always) became legend. So much so that
he even made it into poetry! In 1840, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
penned the famous poem, “The Village Blacksmith” which begins, “Under
the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands….” In 1977, the U.
S. Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring the Village
Blacksmith. The image to the right is a detail from the Fleetwood Stamp
Company’s First Day of Issue Cover for that stamp, seen below.
We know the first settler of the Drums area, John
Balliett, arrived in the valley in 1784. After him, families drifted in until
by 1790 or so, there was a small but functioning community of six or seven
families surrounding John. Sometime in the early to mid-1790’s (probably 1794
or 1795) the blacksmith, Philip Woodring, arrived with his family. We surmise
that part of his family group was Philip’s daughter, George Drum’s wife, Anna Margret Woodring Drum and her first three children (Philip, Jacob, and
George); George, Sr. joining them in the valley in
late 1796. Philip Woodring is noted as the village’s first blacksmith, opening
his shop in 1800.[1]
My assumption is that most of these early valley
residents had some experience and ability blacksmithing. So, although George
was not a blacksmith by trade, it seems likely that he could do some
blacksmithing if he needed to. I’m guessing that this is true of the four
generations of Drums after George first made it into the valley (Philip, John,
Nathan, Elmer and their brothers [and perhaps wives and sisters!]). They probably (some
more than others) could fashion small things they needed, but when a big need
arose, one that was beyond their skill level, they turned to the “professional”,
probably someone like Philip Woodring.
If that is correct, it is not surprising that my Great
Grandfather, Nathan A. Drum(John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip) was
known to have done some blacksmithing on his Drums farm. We have a number of
items family legend says he made.
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| Nails we believe Nathan made. |
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| A Gate lock we believe was made by Nathan. |
Some of his tools may have been made by him, as well.
There are some that do not appear to have been made in a factory but, rather,
to be “handmade” or perhaps altered for a specific purpose. With my limited
knowledge of what can or can’t be made by a blacksmith, I’m uncertain if
something as big as the wrenches that appear in the below photo could be
fashioned by a blacksmith but, if so, perhaps these were hand-made by Nathan.
 |
| Note the initials “ND” hammered into two of them. |
What I had not been told by family, but learned from
reading the 1920 U.S. Census, was that my Grandfather, Elmer, had some
blacksmithing skills and experience as well. We find him listed there as
“Blacksmith Assistant in Mines”. So, it is clear that blacksmithing was part of
my heritage. Therefore, Blacksmithing piqued my interest. It was something I’ve
“always wanted to try.”
However, my only exposure to the occupation up to now had
been through activities such as reading history, watching movies, and seeing it
done at fairs and so forth. You can easily, then, imagine my reaction when I
saw a notice in the Community Section of the July 5, 2019 Hazleton
Standard-Speaker announcing that the Sophia Coxe
Memorial Foundation and Education Center in Drifton, PA was offering an
introductory class in BLACKSMITHING! “No previous experience is needed, only
heart and desire to learn”, it said. “Well,” I thought, “that’s ME!” The notice
continued, “To register…call Bryan Dunnigan at…”. I didn’t actually call right
away. I waited the whole weekend, until Monday, to call. I didn’t want to seem
TOO anxious, but that Monday I left my statement of interest on their answering
machine.
Am I glad I did! The day of the class I walked in a true
novice, or worse, and went home with hands-on knowledge (actually more like a
glimpse, but still) of what it was like to be the Village Blacksmith; or just
some of the effort my Great Grandfather put in to keep his farm on track.
When I arrived at the historic Coxe Mansion in Drifton,
just south of Freeland on Route 940, I wondered where about this beautiful home
could they be blacksmithing. I was soon directed to the back of the property
where I saw a small building marked “Blacksmith Shop”.
Sophia Coxe, the original owner of the Coxe Mansion and
for whom the Center is named, was the wife of Eckley Brinton Coxe.
Eckley Coxe was, according to the Sophia
Coxe Memorial Foundation and Education Center website, a “brilliant
engineer who came to Northeastern Pennsylvania to run the family coal mining
business, which he not only ran successfully, but also was the holder of over a
hundred engineering mining patents.” Because of her care of, and concern for,
the Anthracite Coal Miners of this area, she became known as the “Angel of the
Anthracite”.
All too often, history focuses on the impacts and work of
the MEN of history. It is interesting to note that in the writing of this post,
I searched the web for some background information on both Sophia and Eckley. I
found many pages about Eckley, so many in fact, that I was left with the task
of choosing which one I would direct my readers to for more information. I
found none for Sophia. Yet her impact on the area was so great that her home
now stands as an historic landmark, that offers tours to the interested, where
her story is told and where, a few of us at least, in the back of the property,
learned the basics of being a blacksmith.
Sunday, July 21, 2019 turned out to be a beautiful,
blue-sky day! It did seem like a rather warm day to be standing over a coal
fire working red-hot metal, but the weather could certainly have been worse!
And, in fact, once the learning process began, I failed to notice the
temperature of the day or even the passage of time. The full force of the
moment became the drawing out of the metal and the shaping of it into a hook
with a rat’s tail! If Bryan had not stopped us for lunch, mine would have gone
uneaten and even unnoticed. I was, as they say, “into it”.
After being headed in the right direction that morning, I
came upon the Blacksmith Shop and met Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan. She was taking
care of business, getting the paperwork completed and such. HE was making the
history come alive. Bryan was a great instructor. One of the first tasks he had
us tackle was to make the fire come alive. That’s where the hands-on process started.
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| This is a detail from one of the fliers Bryan gave us. |
Prior to the hand-on experience, he sat us down and gave
us a bit of blacksmith history, Next he covered some blacksmith basics. He
explained the difference between hard Anthracite coal, softer Bituminous coal,
coke, and charcoal and how they are, or can be, each used in the process. He introduced
us to the various types of hammers and their uses, the anvil, and various other
tools we’d soon come to know as “best friends”.
Then he took us in hand and showed us what he expected us
to do and how to do it. After that, he turned us loose to do as we’d been told;
but standing near-by to coach us through the various “twists” and “turns” of
the process. When you see what I made, shown below, you’ll realize there are a
few bad puns in that previous sentence.
Looking back on it, the whole process was quite simple
and really didn’t change for any of the various projects one might want to do.
One heats a piece of steel in the fire until it is red to yellow hot…
then pounds the heck out of it with a hammer until it has
taken the shape you wish it to take.
This student could have been a better student but Bryan
worked me like he did the metal until I took shape!
Simple, right? Of course, there are various techniques one
can use to make things happen quicker, easier, and work better. And there are
pitfalls to be careful of, such as being wary of grabbing a piece of metal that
is still hot (ouch!) or blowing too much air into the fire causing it to sort
of pop, or “blowout” as Bryan put it when I did that, which is rather
surprising when it happens!
Now don’t tell Bryan this but, he showed me a technique
for making a hook shape, even coached me through it, and it did help. However,
when I made my second project, I got a great hook-shape doing it “my way” while
he wasn’t looking. However, that’s all part of why this is an “art”. The idea
is to get the correct end result and the best way to achieve that goal is to do
what works. That was an interesting lesson to learn from a blacksmithing class!
Taking this class was the most fun I’d had in a long
time, and I’m one to find fun in most things I do! It was one of the most
educational as well! However, it was not only educational and fun, it was a
challenge, too! So, it turned out to be an esteem builder as well! It was not
easy to do, yet I was getting the hang of things so well, Bryan thought I’d be
able to squeeze in a third project in the final half-hour of the class. And I
probably could have. I just wasn’t sure the energy level was going to hold out as
long as it took to finish the project! I decided to end while I was still looking
great so called it a day (the old “quit while you are ahead” standard!).
I made two things that day, a hanging-plant hook (the
longer thing in the below photo) and a 17th Century Turn Screw (what
we’d call today a “screwdriver” and I’m not talking about the drink you can get
at a bar!). That little curl
at the tip of the hook is the “rat’s tail”. The one on the lower, well-made
hook, of the longer piece was accomplished by Bryan as he showed me how to make hooks and rat’s
tails. The hook on the top of that piece is my hook and my rat’s tail. The hook is not bad but that rat’s tail is not the
greatest rat’s tail ever seen.
Bryan said my error was in grabbing the tip of the hook with my needle-nose
pliers too far back resulting in the flat tail seen in the photo. I could have
re-heated it and tried again but it was my first try so I wanted it as it was.
I thought the twisting went quite well, as well!
As you can see, I did learn from my first try. Check out
the rat’s tail on my Turn Screw! Practice helps and this was just my second
attempt.
That afternoon I went home not only with two objects I
had actually crafted out of metal with my own hands, but with the experience of
having hammered out and twisted red-hot steel into something that made me agree
with what my fellow student kept saying all day: “THAT’S BEAUTIFUL!”
He was right. The things we made were beautiful. The
experience we had was beautiful. The knowledge we gained is something beautiful,
too.
The first line of the last stanza of “The Village
Blacksmith” perfectly sums up this wonderful day for me. It reads: “Thanks,
thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught!”
For more photos of the day, visit: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SophiaCoxeHouse/photos/?ref=page_internal
For more information visit:
[1] Butler
Township History, Butler Township website, http://www.butlertownship.org/about-us/history/Print.html
accessed 6/14/2016
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