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The Blacksmith Shop
Bethel, Harmon County, Oklahoma
BY
Talmadge Davidson
Ike Davidson bought the business in 1934. The blacksmith building was large, laid in an L shape. The southwest part was where my dad worked. The north part was a Car Garage and Sam Davidson had a Barber Shop. It was located across the road south from the Hickman�s Grocery and east of Marshall McGee Station. Customers played a lot of dominoes in the last part. Ike and Ida (Rivers) Davidson lived in the family home located just east of the business. We caught rain water from the east side of the building to fill our cistern by our home.
The roads and homes in Louis, Oklahoma were flooded 3 or 4 times per year in the late 30�s and 40�s. Water would come in the doors and windows of the Davidson home. It would fill our cistern with muddy water. I had to draw the water out by hand and clean the cistern. I learned to swim in the road between the Grocery Stores and the Blacksmith Shop and McGee Garage.
Dad sharpened lister points, sweeps and weeder blades. He heated them in a forge until the metal was red hot and beat them with the trip hammer until they had a sharp edge. He would "forge weld" new points on lister points that were worn out. We didn't have electric welders. I had to hold the point that was fused to the old worn point. Molten metal sparks flew everywhere. Dad built a lot to two-row Weeder Sleds, trailer hitches on cars and cow yokes. We sharpened Road Grader blades. It took two people to heat the long blades and beat a sharp edge on them with the trip hammer. The trip hammer, grinders and drill were powered by a Dodge engine with 7 cent gasoline. Farmers from near and far came to the shop and I knew all of them. In the 1940's we got electricity and machinery was powered by electric motors. I thought dad was going back to the old Dodge motor and 7 cent gas. I took welding lessons in Chicago after graduating from high school. Dad and I had big plans but, I went to the Army 1942, finished basic training, married Mona Hunter, served in the Phillipines. In 1945 I returned home, about a month later my dad died so my mom sold the Blacksmith Shop and home in Louis; I began farming and my mother moved in with Mona and I.
SEE on Display at the Harmon County Historical Museum
the Blacksmith Shop from the Bartlett family, items from the Mesquite Ranch of the Bible Family and other items.
SEND YOUR STORIES TO HARMON COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Attention: Donna Wiley and Betty Motley, Project Committee
Harmon County Historical MUSEUM
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102 West Broadway
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Hollis, Oklahoma 73550
(580) 688-9545
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sites.rootsweb.com/~okhcgs/
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