[TheForge] doing research

[Mike Spencer]

When Arch McKnight was young, roughly 1915, he apprenticed to Freeland
Minard in Barss Corner, Nova Soctia.  At that time, Barss corner was a
rather isolated farming community but thriving by the standards of the
time and place.  Freeland's shop was a small agricultural shop and the
trade was mainly shoeing -- both horses and oxen -- and maintainance
work on wagons, bob sleds and farm equipment.

After his apprenticeship, Arch went to work in "the lumber woods" near
the headwaters of the Mersey River.  A great many men and boys were
employed in cutting logs and hauling them to the river to float down
to the mills in Milton and Liverpool.  There was also quite a lot of
gold prospecting and some successful mining going on in the same area;
Blacksmiths and farriers willing to live and work in remote camps were
in demand.

Some time later, Arch went down river to Milton, a sizable village,
and took employment with the master of the blacksmith shop there.  (I
forget the master's name so I'll just call him that.)  The Milton shop
had two forges and a very busy trade and was a social center for the
men of the area where you could always have a chaw and catch up on the
news.  After some years there, Arch had saved up $250.  He proposed to
the master's daughter and was accepted.  He bulit a house with his
savings (and a very nice house it was, for I have been in it), married
the daughter and, when the master retired, took over the shop.  He
operated the shop and worked every day until he was found one day when
he was in his late-70s, sitting staring blankly at the wall and unable
to move, the victim of a stroke.  After a nearly complete recovery, he
slacked off a bit, staying home when the thermometer fell very low or
the snow was very deep, but continued to work at the forge for several
years after that.

The Milton shop has been restored by a community group and made into a
museum.  Every single item in the place -- something like 15,000 tools,
widgets, bits of iron and unidentifiable objects -- has been cataloged
(saving only a few crates of sundries that they're still working on.)
They've done a nice job, excepting only that when they restored the
crumbling forge, they couldn't find the proper water-cooled sidedraft
tuyere and replaced it with a bottom draft Lunenburg Foundry firepot.
Also, regretably, Arch sold his Jardine 25# hammer and his power
hacksaw after he retired and the community group doesn't have the
funds to buy them back.

I visited Arch several times at his shop.  I also met Freeland Minard
once when he was in his 90s and only worked at the forge in warm
weather and on his better days.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/