Join Charlotte as she tells us the story of her father’s blacksmith shop.

Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingly in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.

Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories

Blacksmithing

            Blacksmiths played a vital role in the development of the pioneer economy in Assiniboia. During the frugal and thrifty lifestyle of the settlement era, the blacksmith was gainfully employed mending occupational equipment such as plows, pitchforks, butterchurns, vehicle parts and fittings. Blacksmiths came into decline in the 1900s, because they could not compete with modern factories to produce tools and hardware cheaply.

            The musuem’s Interpretive Centre contains an original blacksmith’s forge, anvil, bellows and various tools. As the blacksmith works, the coals are kept hot in the forge to heat the metal which is then shaped on the anvil. The purpose of the bellows is to pump air into the fire to keep it at a steady temperature. It the temperature starts fluctuating, it weakens the final product.

            Those training to become a blacksmith would work as an apprentice. The apprentice’s first task would be to pump the bellows (to build muscle). After that, they would have to make a thousand nails before they were allowed to make anything else.

            The blacksmith display also includes a branding iron from the Honourable John Taylor, who was William Brown’s (original owner of the 1856 Red River Frame House) son-in-law. John Taylor was the first Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba.

            Our display also contains several horseshoes, however, initially horseshoeing was a craft that was distinct from blacksmithing (as was goldsmithing, silversmithing, and swordsmithing).