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     It's been 12 years since Pat and Nina Chesebro called the Early American Museum and asked if we might be interested in looking at their family blacksmith shop, a shop begun by their grandfather (see photo, right) in Saunemin, Illinois in 1896, and run by their father and uncle (Ralph and Elmer Chesebro) from 1909-1920. It's been 12 years since the museum walked into the block and frame shop that Ralph Chesebro had walked out of for the last time in the 1930's. In those 12 years the work of history has been ongoing. Oral history interviews have been recorded and transcribed; the shop itself has been tirelessly drawn to scale, photographed and videoed; the contents of the shop have been moved; each of 5500 objects have been marked and accessioned into the museum's collections; research on the Chesebro's, Saunemin and area blacksmiths has been conducted; and --over the past winter--the shop itself was partially reconstructed within the walls of the Early American Museum.

     Bryan Stevens and Andy Little of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District's Construction division, painstakingly rebuilt the appearance of the shop, down to the cinder block facade, and the brick forge. In preparation for the exhibit Blacksmithing on the Prairie, which opened September 22, 2001, furnishings like horseshoe racks, from the Chesebro Shop were incorporated right into the walls of the museum to give the place the look and feel of the original shop. A Little Giant trip-hammer was found and hauled in on a truck, carefully loaded in place by a fork-life. (The Chesebros had sold their trip-hammer earlier). Hammers, tongs, hardies, swages, hoof-clippers, and all manner of ironworking tools have been carried into the re-created shop by the dozen and placed just where they once were used or stored.

     Coal sits atop the exhibit forge, the new museum floor is littered with scrap iron and charred from the imagined work that Ralph and Elmer might have done. Bins have been filled with the bolts they once held, shelves filled with supplies, and a cupboard from the shop will serve as a hands-on tool, where visitors can examine the contents of shop drawers whether they be filled with horseshoe caulks or drill bits. Other hands-on opportunities within the shop area include simulated horseshoeing and anvil pounding as well as a demonstration of the work of a bellows.

     Beyond the walls of the shop lie much more. The fruits of our research and our continued relationship with Nina Chesebro have produced a complete picture of the the life of a blacksmith at the beginning of the 20th century. A small family vignette includes the three Chesebro sisters, as children, as well as their mother Katharine Kyser Chesebro. The toys which Ralph made for the Chesebro girls in his spare time include wagons, wooden race-cars and toss games and remain as a testament to his ingenuity and love for his family. Katharine Kyser Chesebro nurtured in her daughters a love of learning and a marvelous example. Katharine Kyser was a schoolteacher in El Paso when she met Ralph and examples of her student's work are among the numerous items on display outside the shop. As was customary Katharine retired from school teaching when she married, but she kept the shop account books, and she was elected to the Saunemin School Board at one time. Following in Katharine's footsteps Nina and Pat Chesebro both became schoolteachers and taught in the Bloomington-Normal school system for years.

     Lest you think the work of a blacksmith was all horseshoes and iron tools, the museum will present parts from the Chesebro's wagon and buggy repair shop. The iron tires of a wagon had to be replaced with as much, if not more regularly than our own car tires, so blacksmiths often were employed in wagon repair. When Ralph Chesebro walked out of his shop for the last time he left 24 felloes (the wooden rim of a wagon wheel), and 17 singletrees (part of a buggy) ready for use. Wagon repair required all sorts of woodworking tools, and the table saw which the Chesebros used, as well as their planes, and tenoning tools are all in place.

To place the Chesebros in the context of East Central Illinois we offer a range of the kinds of tools, particularly farm tools, which the Chesebros might have fixed, sharpened, and retooled for their rural and town community. The Chesebro's account books record the seasonal rhythm of their work, as well as that of their payment. Ralph not only sharpened the plowshares in the spring he also repaired ice poles in the winter. In the fall he might receive apples or beef for payment. The reliance upon repair of tools and the interdependence of the local economy is evident in every page of the account books; it will be magnified in every aspect of the exhibit.

 

     In one of our numerous conversations with Nina, the last remaining Chesebro, she said of the shop closing in 1920, "Ralph could make everything but money." Little did Ralph know that he, through his daughters' generosity, would make history.

Blacksmithing on the Prairie is made possible with a grant from the Public Museums Operating Grant of the State of Illinois with the assistance of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois State Museum. Funds were also provided by the Chesebro family.