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The Village Smithy
The blacksmith was a most important member of any community, and it seems doubtful that any settled area would be without the smith's services, for the smith was the early American handyman. The "smithy" had the ingenious ability to make any kind of gadget needed for any particular situation. By heating iron in his coal-fired forge, aided by airflow from the bellows, he would hammer, weld, cut and "draw" the red-hot objects into desired shapes and sizes on his anvil. He made tools to make more tools. He sharpened and tempered mining tools, repaired farm equipment and stretched iron rims onto wagon wheels. He shod horses, made hinges, gates, nails and machinery of every kind and always kept a pile of scrap iron behind the shop to make more gadgets. Today the acetylene-cutting torch and electric arc welder have all but replaced the blacksmith's anvil and hammer. The final chapter of the colorful American tradition may be the traveling farrier, equipped with forge, anvil and hammers all loaded into his pick-up truck, complete with a stovepipe protruding through the camper roof. In early Ramona it was recorded that William Ober was operating a blacksmith shop across the street from Verlaque's Store site even before Verlaque was there in the early 1880s, and this could be so because his shop would have been on the trail to the Julian mines. It was also said that Ober had built his shop on the wrong lot and had to move the building in the middle of the night, or perhaps this was due to the fact that the developer Milton Santee had not yet surveyed the land. Early records show that blacksmith D.A. Nicklson worked in Nuevo (as Ramona was then called) in 1887-88. W.W. Minor, 1892-93, was joined by William C. Poole in 1895, across from Verlaque's store. About 1895, John Bargar started a shop and was soon joined by Frank Creelman. Then, from 1900 to about 1915, Robert Green, James Haworth, Tim Darrough, Samuel T. Stelle and John C. Pepper worked in Ramona at the blacksmith trade. Later reports identify Mr. Kirby and E.D. Benson to be working at Codington's DeLuxe Garage on the southeast corner of 7th and Main Street in 1926. By 1938, W.T. Smith was working here as a blacksmith at the Ransom forge on B Street, then George Vopel was at Ransoms' from 1925-1931, and next Joe Serabia was there from 1944 to about 1955. Tom Bandy, born February 21, 1899 at Paul's Valley, Oklahoma was the last of the Bandy blacksmiths who built wheels and shod horses in the North County for 75 years. His father opened Tom Bandy and Sons Blacksmith and Wheelwright shop in downtown Escondido in 1908, a shop that was to become Phil Ewing's Wheelwright shop in 1967, and still later the site of the Home Federal Bank. Tom Bandy worked at his father's trade in various places, finally opening his shop in Ramona in 1950. Bandy was known by practically everyone as being a smith who could do just about everything with metal, his specialty being cattle brands. When he wasn't striking the red-hot iron on his anvil, he was playing his violin with his small orchestra at local dance halls during the 1930s and 1940s. Bandy worked in his shop until shortly before his death on August 4, 1981. His shop still stands at the corner of Dye Road and State Highway 67, where many of his handmade brands are burned into the old wooden doors. In memory of the blacksmith, lest we forget Longfellow's last verse of "The Village Smithy:" Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend For the lessons thou has taught! Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought; Thus on it's sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought!
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