#87 THE BLACKSMITH AND MAKING ASSUMPTIONS

                                                     RICHARD HARPER, JR.

There are so many ways I play at my genealogy hobby/passion. A lot of time is spent adding generations to the family tree and I cast a very wide net of whom I include (eg. 10^th cousins 4 x removed,  father-in-laws of 3x great uncles—everyone is fair game) I enjoy researching trivia like historical events, occupations, transportation, wars, fashion that affected these people (you never know what you don’t know and how fascinating the little details). I use google to get a street view of where my kin lived. There are always more genealogy skills to hone and photos to locate and scan and organize. Digitized newspapers are such fun to read and besides the weddings and obituaries are full of juicy local gossip (who visited whom, how big was that fall pumpkin, gory descriptions of a local murder or accident, advertisements. And I love finding the family eccentrics and black sheep.) Especially satisfying for me is the deep-dive into generations of one family branch trying not only to trace its chronology but then speculating about their emotions and personalities and what motivated their economic and social decisions. My families were simple, hard-working people; they did not have the time, ability, interest, or inclination to leave tomes of written reflections about their life adventures. So I know that as I reflect on these people, I may be so mistaken in thinking why they might have acted as they did. One such case study is my 2x great uncle, Richard Harper (1839-1907).

Richard was the oldest son of Richard Harper and Jane Oliver Lemin. He had 10 siblings; five of the children were born in Co. Cornwall, England and emigrated with their parents to Canada in 1848, and settled in Pilkington Township, Wellington County. The other six children were born in Canada (including my great-grandmother, Ann Harper (1863-1956), the youngest in the family. I remember her.)

Rather than taking up farming like his father and later his brothers,  Richard decided to become a blacksmith. There was a great need for apprentices in the Guelph area so this seemed a wise decision.

Blacksmith quotes:                                                                                                                                                 Strike while the iron is hot.                                                                                                                             Too many irons in the fire.                                                                                                                            To go at something hammer and tongs.                                                                                                         That's got a good ring to it. (reference to the bell-like ring of an anvil.)                                                       Beat the daylights out of it.                                                                                                                           Don't lose your cool.                                                                                                                                     

Blacksmithing in late 19th-century Ontario was a vital economic and social trade as it supported the colony’s agricultural, transportation, and industrial development. The smith was the jack-of-all trades. While famers cared for their tools, it was the smith who was trained to make and repair those tools. Using forge, anvil and hammer, the smith worked iron, the most common metal of the age, to produce hammers, axes, adzes, files, hoes, scythes, chisels and carving tools. He made nails, screws, springs, bolts, chains, clamps, hinges, latches, fireplace cranes, pokers, spits. He was needed to repair and make agricultural equipment such as the  wrought-iron tips on the wooden ploughs. Specialized blacksmiths called farriers shod horses, essential for transportation and farming. Blacksmiths forged the iron components for wagons and carriages, including wheels, axles, and fittings. The smith made basic household things like cooking utensils, knives, forks, spoons, spits, ladles and fire tongs. And not only were they workplaces but also gathering spots where community news and ideas were exchanged.

Richard Harper was a young teen when he went to live and train with a Wellesley, Ontario blacksmith. He also blacksmithed in Salem and Elora. It was the norm for the apprentice to live in the home of the master smith so he could be taught manners and morals as well as the craft. Contracts would stipulate that the master smith provide food, clothing, shelter and instruction.

Blacksmiths believed their work had to maintain certain standards and did this through an apprentice system.  Apprentices started by doing simple tasks like sweeping floors and running the bellows, then they would learn more complicated tasks like heating and bending iron. An apprentice could spend entire days just crafting nails—a good apprentice could produce 1000 nails a day.

                                                        forging an iron interlocking puzzle

Another way smiths taught iron-making skills to their trainees was to teach them to make iron-interlocking puzzles; the puzzle-making taught them to twist, turn and shape the hot iron—all required for the art of blacksmithing. The puzzles would then be sold to local taverns to entertain  the clientele.

 By the end of his training, the apprentice was able to make everything from carpet tacks to huge metal spikes, from decorative iron works to kettles and ploughs. To then become a journeyman, the apprentice would have to create a master piece that was approved by their master. Now  a journeyman, the blacksmith would travel and work for other blacksmiths to improve his skills and earning enough to open his own shop. In Wellington County, a journeyman often could complete his training and earn enough money to set up shop within three or four years of serving his time as apprentice.

To perform his tasks, the blacksmith needed to combine brawn, skills and intelligence. Contrary to popular myth, blacksmiths could read and write. Literacy was necessary as blacksmiths had to keep accounts of their business, order supplies and conduct their business practically and efficiently. While book-learning prepared him to run his own shop, the shop work prepared him to produce his best work. Poor shoeing or ill-wrought wagon repairs were quickly rejected by customers.

The life of a blacksmith, although highly respected, was a dirty, tiring job. Blacksmith shops were notoriously dark; but the dark was a necessary for the smith to monitor the degree of heat being generated as he hammered his objects. The work was hard and the pay was low even for master smiths. (Until the mid 19^th century, payment was often “in kind”, rather than cash; clients often paid off their bills with scrap metal, old iron, meat or produce or by working in the smith’s garden, shop or home. In 1830, blacksmiths in Guelph made $1.25 a day.) Blacksmiths in Wellington County greatly contributed to the growth of the community through their trade and skills, but they were not active politically or socially; they did not run for political office, sit on boards of trade or actively lobby as a group for better roads or railroads. Likely this was because they were too busy putting in an average of 14 hours days and unable to afford the time away from the shop.

By the time Richard had completed his training, new technology was changing the role of the local blacksmith. Now there seemed to be two occupation paths. One was to specialize in horse-related matters such as horseshoeing. The other was to find work in a foundry, such as carriage and implement manufacturing, but where, sadly his craft was devalued and he was reduced to the status of a labourer in a factory system. His independence was reduced, his significance within the community greatly diminished. This was reflected in his wages; where a smith earned $1.25 a day in 1830, this only increased to $1.52 by 1889. The arrival of the foundry system marked the end of the traditional craftsman, divided work among individuals, and introduced de-skilling. The blacksmith, once so important to the community, became merely an employee in a foundry.

On March 20 1862 Richard, aged 22, married Mary Amy, aged 23, in Elora, Ontario. In 1867, his blacksmith business in Elora went bankrupt. The couple  moved to Oakville, a town which was flourishing mid-century with the establishment there of many foundries, tanneries and a half dozen factories turning our carriages, sleighs and wagons. It seems most likely that Richard found employment as a blacksmith in one of these industries.

                                            
                                                            Doty Carriage Works, Oakville

Four children—two boys and two girls—were born to Richard and Mary during the 1860s. Then tragedy. On June 28, 1872, daughter Lily Josephine was born. Four days later, Mary, aged 34, died of postpartum sepsis. It starts as fever, then the infection leads to blood poisoning. Women often became delirious, would slip in and out of consciousness, with vivid illusions and talking incoherently. Puerperal fever accounted for as many as half of all maternal deaths in the Victorian era and was feared because it seemed to unpredictably occur in women who had a normal, healthy labour; it is caused by an infection of the womb and doctors, midwives and their instruments were the unwitting cause of the spread.

Richard’s children were sent to live with various relatives in Wellington County. Son Thomas was raised by his uncle Aaron Harper, John Wesley by his paternal grandparents Richard and Jane Harper, Mary by her maternal uncle and aunt, Richard and Sarah Amy. While the children were separated, fortunately, these farms were all very close to one another in Pilkington Township. It is unknown (although suspected) that baby Lily did not survive infancy or childhood.

Richard must have been devastated to lose wife and family. As well, Oakville was going into an economic depression; it lost its harbour and then the major foundry closed. How secure was Richard’s income? His emotional state?

In Toronto, the following year on April 10, 1873, Richard, aged 33, married Jennie Gibson, aged 24. Three children were born in Oakville. In 1879 Richard went to northern Michigan, seeking work as a blacksmith in a sawmill town. Jennie and the 3 children followed the next year. They soon relocated to Missouri where three more children were born.

                                                                Kansas City 1895

                                                                Kansas City 1908
    

Within a few years, Richard and Jennie’s marriage fell apart as shown by the 1900 US census.  Richard was living in Chicago, working as a blacksmith: he was boarding in Ward 4, which was a working-class neighbourhood near factories, warehouses and railyards; later he took work as a hotelkeeper. Meanwhile Jennie lived with/near their children in Kansas City, Missouri. What is significant is that both Richard and Jennie identified themselves as widowed on this 1900 census, even though both ex-spouses were definitely still living. Was this a convenient way to avoid a divorce? Or had Richard abandoned his family and she did know his whereabouts??

Richard, aged 68, died Nov 21, 1907 (coincidentally, today, as I write this is the anniversary of his death). He is buried in an unmarked grave in Forest Home Cemetery, Cook County, Illinois. A short death notice was posted in the Elora newspaper  so he must have been in touch with some family members. 

                                                        Elora Express Dec 4, 1907

Jennie, aged 75, died at her daughter’s home in Kansas City and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City.

                                                        Elmwood Cemetery, Kansas City

Richard’s story haunts me and poses so many unanswered questions. How was he affected by the death of his first wife?  When did he last see the children of his first family? Why did he move to the US? What caused the disconnect with his second wife? Did he ever have a relationship with the six children of that second family? He was survived by ten children, yet why did he die alone in a rooming house in Chicago? It is not fair to play amateur psychologist, but I wonder at his long-term emotional state. Did he have health issues?  Did he ever get satisfaction from working at his trade or were changing times eroding that confidence too? Time has erased the answers to my questions. But the one thing I know for almost certain is that my Uncle Richard would be stunned to know that, more than a century after his death, his niece would be researching and “blogging” about his life.

RICHARD HARPER                                                                                                                                     b. August 6 1839 in Cardingham, Co.Cornwall, England                                                                        m. Mary Amy (1838-1872) on Mar 20 1862 in Elora, Ontario                                                                 m. Jennie Gibson (1848-1924) pm April 10 1873 in Toronto                                                                   d. November 21 1907 in Chicago, Illinois