Chapter 23

Chapter 23
pages 123 - 127

MANUFACTURES. BLACKSMITHS AND PLOW-MAKERS.

     It is manifest, from the pieces of iron, etc., found by Mr. Birket, as has been described, that there was a blacksmith here before the building of the Peoria village, burnt by Captain Craig; but I have seen no account any where of the French people ever having had a mechanic shop here of any kind. Soon after the American population began to settle here, there was an Indian agency established in this place, with a Mr. Graham as Indian agent; and, pursuant to some treaty, William Holland was established here as an Indian blacksmith. But when I came here, both were gone: Graham to St. Louis, and Mr. Holland to Washington, twelve miles east, where he has lived ever since, and is now eighty-three years old. The only blacksmiths here, when I came, were Alexander Caldwell and John W. Caldwell, two young men from Ohio, who were brothers and partners. They are both yet alive, and follow farming a few miles east of Peoria.
     At an early period (I believe in 1834), Isaac Evans, a very good blacksmith, from Pennsylvania, settled in Peoria, and carried on the business for several years, and then removed to Galena, where he and a son-in-law, by the name of John Adams, carried on the plow-making business for a long time. Whether he is there now or not I do not know.
     One of our earliest blacksmiths, who carried on the business here, was Philander C. Merwin, from Western New York, or Northeastern Pennsylvania, For several years, he has abandoned the business, and lives on a farm not far below the city.
     The first blacksmiths in a country are also gunsmiths: that is, through necessity, they repair guns; but as soon as population has so increased that it can sustain the gunsmith as a separate mechanic, he appears. The first of this class of smiths who settled in Peoria was Mr. George Ford. He came here about 1834, and followed the trade for many years; but, having acquired a competence, he has retired from business. Other gunsmiths have been here from time to. time, but the number at present is eight.
     When a gunsmith makes his appearance in a place, having tools to suit that purpose, he generally absorbs all of that business, and other smiths quit it; but in Peoria it has not been exactly so. Mr. Whittemore, an old settler, has always done a general repairing business. He has always repaired every thing worn or broken, from a piano-forte to a Jew's harp; from a crow-bar to a cambric needle, or from a clock to a sun-dial; and his nephew, Mr. Weatherl, is pursuing the same course.
     But in the line of blacksmiths there are none who deserve higher compliments for so remarkable success than Mr. Alexander Allison. He commenced here in early times, a poor, but honest and industrious, journeyman blacksmith. He is now a gentleman of large means, and carries on the wagon and carriage making business.
     Closely connected with blacksmithing is the plow business. In early times, except a few old-fashioned plows; made by John Birket, the plows used hereabout were manufactured at Pittsburg, and brought on by our merchants, as an article of trade. They were of a very inferior quality, with cast-iron mould-boards that 'would not scour'. In 1843, William Tobey and John Anderson, under the name of Tobey & Anderson, commenced the plow business in a very small way. They were both very poor, too much so to buy ground or even materials, only a very small quantity at a time. Mr. Tobey had been a wagon or carriage maker, from New England, and Mr. Anderson had been a common blacksmith, from Kentucky, but recently from Indiana. They rented a very inferior log building, on Water street. Mr. Tobey did the wood work, and Anderson the iron work, in the same room. It was an experiment; but they soon, by dint of experiments, obtained a pattern for a plow that excelled all others, and has not since been excelled. They gradually increased their business, until the Tobey & Anderson plow became celebrated all over the West, as far as California. They soon were able to obtain steam machinery to do the work, and to own the houses in which they did it, and the ground on which those houses stood. In short, they became wealthy, and then, as all men are liable some time to do, they both died. But the plow business did not die with them. There are more plows of that pattern now made in Peoria than they ever saw. Their old establishment is carried on by Messrs. Buckley, Hanny, Estes & Co., who generally work from 25 to 30 men. During the last year they manufactured 3,000 plows of all kinds, and about 1,200 cultivators.
     But a much larger shop has been established in Peoria, by men who learned the business in the old Tobey & Anderson factory, and who, in fact, under a lease from the proprietors, carried on the business in that establishment; and although they have altogether abandoned the old, and built a new establishment, they advertise themselves as successors of Tobey & Anderson. They do not claim, however, to make exactly the same patterns of plows as were made by the latter, but they claim to have improved on them. Lorin G. Pratt is really the soul of this concern; but, to insure industry and economy in all its parts, he has for some time had three practical men in partnership of the profits, and recently the strong firm of Plant Brothers, of St. Louis, have taken an interest in the business. It is now carried on in the name of Plant Brothers, Pratt & Co. They generally take a recess during the hot months, but when running they work from 100 to 110 men. They make about 20,000 plows in a year, besides scrapers, harrows, corn-shellers, cultivators, etc. The value of the whole of their manufactures for the year just past was about $250,000.
Other shops have made a few plows, but these two are doing the main business in this city.
     Tobey & Anderson did not long live to enjoy their fortune, but they have shed greater blessings on Peoria and the West than the hero of a hundred battles. They gave employment for many years to a large number of men, and furnished our farmers with better plows than they had ever had before. May all the wooden mould-board plows, Carey plows, and bull plows, be built into a monument to their memory.

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