[TheForge] doing research

Sat Jan 4 16:21:00 2003

Mike, There is a similar well preserved shop in Haverhill Iowa. Well worth
visiting. It feels like the owner was just out getting tobacco at the corner
store. The  store is still open and the State Historical Society owns the
shop and house. Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 12:03 PM
Subject: [TheForge] doing research


>
> 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
>
> [email protected]
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/
> _______________________________________________
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> theforge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.photoaccess.com
> Login:  [email protected]
> password:  anvil
> ___________
>
>