lel ’s Welding owned by Bill Horgan, 1983 photo by Carol Horgan-MacMillan

Charlottetown, and previously from North Milton, in the summer of 1932, with his wife, (the former Maggie MacPherson of Brookfield), and five of their ten children. They set up a home and a blacksmith shop on the property formerly owned by Bob MacKinnon, adjacent to and south of the James MacLauchlan farm. During that first summer, the shop operated in a barn in their yard near the home. During the winter of 1932-33, the forge acquired a new home, when a building was erected at the roadside on the southern boundary line of the Russell property. The building measured 24 feet by 36 feet, with two floors and a hip roof. A ramp from the upper floor down into the orchard facilitated the movement of manufactured items, such as cart boxes and wood sleighs, to the ground level. In this upstairs workshop, as well as the above items, Spokes and wheels were made; downstairs, a stationary engine was connected with belts and shafts to power band saws, drills and presses for the operation of the blacksmith shop. Here axes were ground, metal objects repaired, shoeing made for wood sleighs, and many horses shod. To shoe a horse with new shoes at that time cost $1.25, and from fifteen to twenty horses had been shod in a single day with the help of John’s sons Stan or Charlie; new shoes and nails were available at Frizzell’s store. John Russell manufactured farm tractors out of old car bodies (e.g. Dodge Super Six), using wheels from old binders. The forge was equipped with an anvil, a crank to work the bellows which fanned the coal fire, and a steel drum with water to cool the irons. The shop was open six days a week in the

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