Blacksmiths
I first discovered the family connection to the
blacksmith profession when it was listed as the occupation in a 1910 census
for my great great-uncle and newspaper articles from 1903 and 1905 show my
great-grandfather as having joined a blacksmith partnership. They had become blacksmiths in the small
towns in rural Iowa when it was as critical to have a local blacksmith as it
was to have a local mercantile or a bank, particularly the blacksmiths that fit
shoes for the horses. Called farriers,
these blacksmiths developed the horse shoeing expertise needed to enable/support
the horse in pulling farm equipment and wagons. The advent of the automobile
dramatically impacted the presence of a blacksmith shop in small town
America.
My great-grandfather, Edward Merklin, had a particular expertise
as a horse shoer. My great-uncle told me
that his father (Edward) loved working with the horses. Several local newspaper articles chronicled
some of his career:
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Lew Peterson's Blacksmith Shop in Sheldon, Iowa |


Edward’s brothers Gus and George also worked in the
blacksmith field with Gus opening up his own shop in the Wallingford, Iowa area
in the early 1900’s.
Gus, George and Edward continued to work in the field into
the 1920’s and 1930’s. The 1920 US
Federal Census showed that Gus had relocated to Iowa Falls and opened up a new
blacksmith shop.
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Left to Right, Edward and Gus Merklin |
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Iowa Falls, IA Blacksmith Shop |
The Great Depression impacted the families, with Edward
moving around Iowa and Southern Minnesota to find work. On April 1, 1932, the LeMars
Semi Weekly Sentinel announced, “Ed
Merklin, who has been working in the Belau wagon and blacksmith shop, has
purchased a half interest in the Union shop conducted by Ray Hart.”
Edward eventually moved to
South Dakota and continued to work on shoeing horses. Gus remained in Iowa
Falls the remainder of his life. He and
his brother George sold the blacksmith business to Edward’s son, Jim.
The blacksmith shops that were able to maintain a viable local presence were those businesses that advanced with the industrial and commercial growth, into machining, welding, and iron works.



and if you look a little higher, you can see a lucky horseshoe nailed to the wall…little windows to the past.
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