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THE BLACKSMITHS
In Tavistock's case the village smithy was never shaded under a spreading chestnut tree, but it was an interesting spot, particularly that of Mr. Michael McDermott on Hope St. E. now Stan McDermott's garage. Here he and his son Frank welcomed the young boys and showed them the wonders of horseshoeing, even when recalcitrant horses had to be put in "swing" where their kicking availed them nothing. Here we learned the wonders of "cold setting" tires and correct set of horse-shoes, chosen with consummate skill from among the hundreds that graced the rafters and brought good luck to the owner, who at 71 could broad-jump across the diameter of the hind wheel of a farm wagon. His first advertisement appears in the 1896 Gazette. As in most cases his iron rims gave way to pneumatic tires and his sons Norman and Stanley turned the shop into a garage, and even added the cement block structure to the west of the original shop as a show-room.
At the other end of town the shop of Mr. William Matthies suffered the same fate, (see picture of Woodstock St.) but at a stranger's hand, when after the death of the founder, Henry and Conrad Matthies sold the premises to Mr. T.A. Jickling. Henry continued a wood-working shop at the back of his premises on Decew Street; Conrad built a new shop across the road, where the turnip plant is now located and worked in conjunction with Mr. Rudolph Otto at that time.
Farther down the road, where the Bourne garage - now the Esso Station of Mr. Zehr - was located, Mr. John McKay had a blacksmith shop in 1895 where carriages, buggies, sleighs and cutters were made to order. In 1896 there was another blacksmith shop on Woodstock St. N, where Sippel Motors is now located. At this time it was owned by Mr. H. Roedding, Jr and had been recently built. In 1897 it was advertised by Mr. H Yost, who as adding large new show-room and store-room. In 1898 he advertised unicycles, bicycles, tricycles and quadracycles and a new axle-cutter to repair worn axles. On March 20, 1909 Mr. Matthies reports the arrival of a new machine for re-rubbering cushion and solid rubber tires. At one time there was a shop on the side of Mr. Robert Krug's Furniture store, owned by Mr. George Kaercher.
Kruspe Brothers took over the Roedding and Yost shop and later it became the property of Ruby and Bender, with Casper Kaufman, who had been wagon-maker with the Matthies family. On March 21, the Gazette reports a record for 1912, when Sam shoes a horse for F.W. Entricken in 4 min, 32 sec: the year before they had installed a 5 hp engine to drive their drill and emery wheels. Progress cannot be stalled.
And so the era of the horse has vanished to the point of almost complete absence of these quadrupeds from our village and farms. Except for the occasional visit in a horse-drawn closed-in buggy by our Old Order Mennonite settlers to the west. No more can the kids hook rides on the sleighs bringing produce into town.
O quae mutatio rerum!
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