Tom Wilson’s
blacksmith shop is still in use today,
looking much the same as it did some 90
years ago. The telephone number on the sign
shows that this photo was taken years ago.
Tustin, despite
no longer being an agricultural community with
farm equipment to repair and horses to shoe
still has a blacksmith shop.
Records are
skimpy, but photos and memoirs show that Samuel
Eddy was an early Tustin blacksmith. His shop
occupied the southwest corner of Third and B
streets over 100 years ago in the late 1800s. A
trustee of the Sycamore School District from
1882 to 1885, Eddy and his wife were active
members of the Christian Advent Church. It is
possible that his son Ralph, also a blacksmith,
kept the business open after his father’s
death,. Mrs. Eddy bought a house on the opposite
corner and continued to live in the
neighborhood.
Early photos show
that John Wing operated a blacksmith shop on the
north side of Main Street between C and D (El
Camino Real) in 1919. A man named Darnell worked
with him.
Tom Wilson, who came to Tustin about this time,
opened a new blacksmith shop on C Street across
from the Tustin Grammar School. With the
combination of modern equipment, skill and
courtesy, he soon built a profitable and
permanent business.
A native of
Idaho, Wilson had moved to Omaha, Neb., in 1897
and apprenticed himself to a horseshoer. After
learning that trade, he took up general
blacksmithing. During the Spanish-American War
he served in the Navy as a blacksmith on the
armored cruiser Brooklyn in the battle of
Santiago.
He later saw
service in the Philippines and during the Boxer
uprising in China. He was proud of having
visited nearly every important port in the
Orient.
When his
enlistment expired, he returned to San Francisco
to be discharged. He then worked in Moore,
Mont., as a blacksmith before coming to Tustin.
Wilson and his
wife, Mertie, had a daughter, Mertie Marie. The
family belonged to the Advent Christian Church.
He was a member of both the Knights of Pythias
and the Masonic Lodge.
Today the
building that housed Wilson’s shop is owned by
Victor Andersen, a blacksmith for over 60 years.
One of the few remaining smithies in the
Southland, he comes from his home in Orange each
morning to open the shop at 7. Clients bring
gates, lamps, even exercise equipment for him to
mend using the traditional old tools plus modern
welding equipment.
Blacksmithing
once involved repairing farm equipment and
shoeing horses, but now horses are shod by
professionals who generally go to their clients
by truck. Now that Tustin’s orange groves have
been replaced by houses, there isn’t much farm
equipment left to repair, but the tin-roofed,
barn that houses Anderson’s shop is a jumble of
items waiting to be repaired.
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