Newsletter Clipping: The Smithies of Smithville
by Harold Downey, February 2000Because our own working blacksmith shop will be completed this spring, our president did some research to find the actual names, dates and locations of blacksmiths in our community. Joe has come up with quite a list of Smithville smithies: 1825-1866 Jacob Hess
1850 John Alexander, Joseph Klepper (Klipper),
[Apprentices: John Boney and Christ Norris],
James A. McFadden, Joseph Shibler (Shiveler), Samuel and Peter Shoemaker [brothers],
1856 V.E. Gilbert -- Blacksmith and Carriage Makers,
Elmer Gilbert
1869 Montrose Gilbert
1873 S. Greenamyer,
John Mertz - a native of Wurtenberg, Germany and a son Clyde who joined him by 1915. Clyde (b.1880) was nicknamed Screech. Remains of this shop were dug up during the installation of the new water main in the fall of 1999 on the southeast corner of Summit and W. Main Street.
William Lepley
S. Witmer
1880 Henry Gibson, Jacob Martin, Wesley Miller, Joseph Patterson, William Pinkley, Edward and J.C. Redding [brothers], Jacob Shibler (son of Joseph), Elam Witmer
1882 Alva Gilbert (son of Elmer) bought John Mertz's tools and stock in 1882; Mertz returned to the shop in 1897.
1884 Simon Burkholder - buggy shop
1897 Nick Curie on the south side of East Main StreetWhy so many blacksmiths in our small village? Remember our village is the center of a thriving farm community and farmers often needed blacksmiths for a variety of tasks. In addition to shoeing horses, smithies manufactured many products for farmers and households. They made farm and garden implements, repaired farm equipment, made door locks and hinges, wall hooks and cooking utensils to name a few. Men who did nothing but shoe horses were called farriers and often went to the farms to do their work.
It is certainly appropriate to commemorate the significance of these important tradesmen. The Wallace Lytle Family has provided most of the funds for our blacksmith shop in memory of their daughter Faye, a Smithville High alumnus who loved horses. She was killed in a car accident in 1997.
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