Opinion: Blacksmithing was a must yesterday, but today it’s a way to ‘get back to simpler times’ | Opinion

Blacksmith work was an integral part of everyday life in a small farm village. Blacksmiths made tools, horseshoes and plow blades. They were commissioned to repair carriages and made railroad pegs and railroad tools.

In the early 1900s, according to Vivian Price’s 1983 book Memories of the Past, Progress Today, Dreams of the Future, and a History of the Community and City of Chamblee, there was a blacksmith’s shop near the Chamblee railway station. Robert Hardin is listed on his 1910 census and crosses he had a blacksmith’s shop on Peachtree Road in Keys.

James Cephas Spruill’s blacksmith shop was located near Dunwoody Depot on Chamblee Dunwoody Road between CVS and Chevron. His shop was in the triangle formed by today’s Nandina He Lane, Chambry Dunwoody Road and Mount He Vernon Road. Census records from 1920 and his 1930 show that Spruill continued working as a blacksmith for many years.

His son, Sentel Spruil, was also a blacksmith. His shop was behind the farmhouse where he and Emma Spruill lived on the land where Dunwoody Baptist Church is today.

John W. Ball worked as a blacksmith in his home on today’s Roswell Road, where the Big Tree is located. He and his wife Margaret Adams Ball built a log cabin, two wells, a barn and a blacksmith shop on the property. John Ball made a wagon wheel, a plow, and a mule with shoes in his blacksmith shop. The property was located on the carriage road leading to Roswell.

Dunwoody’s 1910 Census lists two blacksmiths in both the depot and the tracks. Zebulon Reeve also had a blacksmith shop in the area where on Roberts Drive he Chamblee Dunwoody Road splits. He is listed on his 1910 census along with his wife Sarah Reeve and his six children.

William Allgood was a farrier and blacksmith in 1910 with his wife Mary and eight children. The street name identifies Sandy Spring Road, an early name for Mount He Vernon Road leading to Sandy Springs.

William J. Donaldson, who built the farmhouse at Donaldson Bannister Farm in 1870, was a blacksmith. The blacksmith was in a small building down the hill from the house and the caretaker’s house.

A large mansion known as Glenridge Hall (now demolished) on Glenridge Drive and Abernathy Drive contained a blacksmith shop. A mansion this large and with several horses needed a blacksmith shop on the premises.

Another blacksmith shop in Chamblee was built in 1917 as part of the World War I Camp Gordon encampment. Built at Camp Gordon, the Remount Station contained ten horse paddocks, a blacksmith’s shop, a veterinarian’s quarters, and a dining room. In 1920, Joel Logan, Singer Moon, and Claude Lynch were still employed at Camp Gordon’s blacksmith shop.

Not all blacksmiths consider their profession. Farmers such as Ambry Carpenter, on the corner of Tilly Mill Road and Mount Vernon Road, were also skilled blacksmiths, but considered farming their main occupation.

If you’re interested in learning the skills of a blacksmith, classes are offered at Dunwoody’s Spruill Center for the Arts. Falls classes have just started and are full, but more classes will be available in January, according to instructor Mike Romeo.

Romeo took the class himself when his sons purchased a gift certificate to the Spruill Center for the Arts. He enjoyed the class and added: If you need a tool to complete your project, just create it. You really can’t say that about many other trades. Merchants used to go to blacksmiths for the tools they needed. Today you go to the big box store for tools.

“Blacksmithing as a hobby is a way to get away from the fast-paced, technology-driven world and make something useful or create art from pieces of metal,” Romeo suggests. “Today’s renewed interest in blacksmithing is driven by people who take pride in what they make and want to go back to simpler times when they could actually use manual labor to make it without pushing a button. I think it’s the bottom line.”