Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree: The Village Blacksmith in Rural America As Evidenced by Early Smiths in Harford County, Maryland

by Henry C. Peden Jr., Jack L. Shagena Jr.

This year, Americans celebrates the 400th anniversary of their embryonic beginnings at Jamestown, Virginia. There, in the spring of 1607 the first one hundred and five all-male settlers arrived, including one almost forgotten blacksmith, James Read. He and the many smiths that followed played a crucial role in the survival of the struggling settlement and in the eventual success of the British colonization of America. It is appropriate, therefore, to herald their important contributions on this anniversary. Without the blacksmith's services, the farmer would have resorted to wooden plows and shovels, sawmills and gristmills would have not been possible, and every industry that subsequently developed would have been forestalled. America's physical infrastructure has a backbone of iron and steel and it was the smith that fashioned the metal into products that allowed the country to grow and prosper.The blacksmith was America's first mechanical engineer, repairing all broken iron objects and making new ones to satisfy his customers. Also, he was a noteworthy and respected member of the community and an essential contributor to the residents allowing them to gradually improve their quality of life.For the first time, this book examines the important industrial contributions by the blacksmith and does so by drawing on primary sources from a predominantly rural agrarian county along the upper Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Harford County has a rich farming, milling, wheelwrighting, and carriage-building heritage – all of which were collocated with or very near the blacksmith and his smithy. These county technological roots serve as microcosms from which to extrapolate the blacksmith's rich and crucial story of America's industrial growth.This book should be read by every aspiring and practicing smith and by those who want a better understanding of how the blacksmith and his technology played a pivotal role in the country's embryonic beginnings.

Paperback

Published January 1, 2007