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Page 48 EARLY INDUSTRIES
on either horse back or wagons. Mr. Carlisle paid one cent a pound
for his iron.
A blacksmith at that time meant a Jack-of-all-Trades.
He made butcher knives from old files and horse shoe rasps. He
forged his own horse shoes and ox shoes, and made the nails for
driving the shoes. He likewise made wagons. The tires on the wheels
of these wagons had to be bent from straight bars of iron. If a man
needed nails badly, the blacksmith could make them. In fact, the
blacksmith was the handy man and made anything, from a horse shoe to
a wagon.
It is said that John Carlisle not only exercised the
trade of blacksmith, but at odd times taught school.
In 1824 Benjamin Bonsall emigrated from Juniata County.
Mr. Bonsall was a tanner, and he built the first tannery along the
pike on the left side going east, on the level ground below
Taylortown. This tannery was not a financial success.
Some years after Mr. Bonsall's tannery was abandoned,
another tannery was erected on the right hand side of the road, but
it is not known who operated this institution.
In 1837 Henry Goodlander, a shoemaker by trade, came
from Lycoming County and bought John Carlisle's farm, and opened a
shoe making shop. He continued in this location until 1857, when he
bought the Joseph Fulton Tavern. This tavern stood on the present
site of the residence of C. H. Goodlander.
Mr. Goodlander made shoes from the leather furnished by
his patrons. It is not known whether he went from house to house, as
was the custom at that time for tradesmen, or if he had his shop in
his residence.
Of course the settlers needed furniture, and some time
after the Forties, or in the Fifties, Enos Shaffer started to make
furniture on his father's farm, about the location of Shaft No. I,
east of DuBois, where he lived and worked until 1865, when he moved
to West Liberty with his furniture factory.
Mr. Shaffer split the lumber for his chair legs, backs,
etc. from the hickory that he cut in the woods. The bed-steads and
bed rails were usually of red cherry, cucumber, or poplar timber.
They were all hand made. Mr. Shaffer worked at this trade until his
death, some time in 1860. Some of the furniture made by Mr. Shaffer
can be found at this date.
Carpenters came drifting in from other places. The
carpenter trade covered various kinds of employment. When any one
died, the carpenter made the coffin. Some friend would cut a small
sapling and measure the length of the body and then across the
chest. This measuring rod was taken to the carpenter, who
constructed the casket.
The carpenter could as well make furniture if he so
chose. In addition to his carpentering, he usually owned a farm, and
when not engaged in building a house or a barn, he farmed.
The first pottery was erected by Ira Fisher, and we
will let Mr. George C. Kirk describe the pottery industry of Brady
township.
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