Blue Bag Media
Blacksmith most important person in a frontier town

GREENVILLE – “The blacksmith is the most important person in town.” Jeff Brocious and Galen Delk, apprentice blacksmiths, were busy fashioning tools and decorative iron from the flames at the Shawnee Prairie Blacksmith Shop, the newest addition to the Darke County Park District. Delk continued… “He made the nails, tools, any skill work using metal. Doctors used him to reset bones (because of his strength). A town could do without doctors, bankers – at least for a while – but not the blacksmith.”

It’s a Saturday afternoon and Parks volunteers are at the Blacksmith Shop and the Log House from 1 to 4 p.m. This public opportunity is available through September. Contrary to popular opinion, the blacksmith was important but not for horseshoes or knives. “Those were totally different individuals,” Delk said. “The farrier did the horseshoes and knives were done by the bladesmith.” Brocious noted some of the other items blacksmiths made, including pliers, candelabras, post hooks, about 20 different kinds of nails and spikes...

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