WILLARD
RICHARDSON’S OLD BLACKSMITH SHOP
From Galena’s
earliest days, blacksmithing was an essential industry.
Galena city and business directories from the late 1840s
through the late 1860s list from 20 to 40 individuals claiming
their occupation as “blacksmith”.
In the 1858-59 directory, for instance, at the time when
Galena had a population of around 14,000, there are
approximately 35 blacksmiths listed.
Many of Galena’s blacksmith shops were located on
Franklin and Commerce Streets, also the location of a number of
lumber yards.
With the approach of the 20th
century and the advent of the
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| The
forge side of the Old Blacksmith Shop as it stands
today. |
automobile, the number of blacksmith
operations gradually decreased.
In1914, the Galena business directory lists 9 blacksmith
shops employing about 15 people.
Three of these shops were located in the same block of
Commerce Street. By
1953, only one shop is listed, that of Willard Richardson,
located on Franklin, near Commerce Street.
RICHARDSON’S
BLACKSMITH SHOP
The
current blacksmith shop was built in 1897 by Louis C. Readel.
Readel was born in 1864.
He came to Galena at the age of 6, where he worked as a
blacksmith and wagon maker until his death in 1920.
Readel built the current blacksmith shop on a lot located
at Franklin and Commerce Streets, across the street from the
shop’s current location.
Readel purchased the lot from members of the Spare family
which had operated a lumber yard at that location in the
mid-1800s. The 1914
city directory lists Readel, Strickland and Wandel, Blacksmiths
at 245 N. Commerce Street.
After his death, Louis Readel’s widow sold the property
to Harry Parker, another Galena blacksmith.
The Parker family had been involved in blacksmithing in
Galena since the late 1850s.
The 1900 city directory lists both father and son as
blacksmiths. Henry,
the father, died in 1904. His
son, Harry, continued to work as a blacksmith at the Main Street
shop until 1921 when he purchased the Readel blacksmith shop.
Harry Parker worked at the current blacksmith shop until
1929 when he sold it to Willard Richardson.
At some point Harry Parker moved to Chicago.
He died in 1952.
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| Tools hanging in the
Old Blacksmith Shop today. |
Willard Richardson was born nearby in New
Diggins, Wisconsin in 1895.
He started learning the blacksmithing trade in 1912.
During World War I, Richardson worked as a smith in the
U.S. Army’s Camp Grant near Rockford, Illinois and then as a
farrier with the U.S. Army in France.
Richardson came to Galena in 1921 where he worked with
Harry Parker as a blacksmith.
He bought Parker’s blacksmith shop in 1929 and
continued to work as a blacksmith until his death in 1979, a
span of almost 50 years.
The City of Galena purchased the shop in
2002 when it became necessary to realign the street.
The shop was moved only 100 feet to its current location. The Galena/Jo Daviess County Historical Society was then
awarded a Public Museum Capital Grant through the Illinois State
Museum for the restoration of the structure.
The forges had to be rebuilt, but the
entire shop area was kept exactly as it was after 80 years of
use. Willard
Richardson was a blacksmith, farrier and wheelwright.
All of his original tools are still on display in the
shop. Today the Old
Blacksmith Shop Museum honors his legacy and that of all
blacksmiths who were the lifeblood of each and every community
in America.
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