Blacksmithing

The blacksmith was an important part of the early rural Florida pioneer settlement. There was usually one blacksmith shop in each settlement. The blacksmith had the responsibility of making many different items for the settlers, such as tools and supplies for farming, construction and home life.

Some of the items they made for farming operations were shovels, hoes, scythes, cowbells and gate latches. The blacksmith also created wagon wheel rims and other various mechanical wagon parts. For home and building construction, the blacksmith made all of the nails by hand.

The blacksmith also made many household items such as knives, ice tongs, hinges, door knockers, window hooks, pokers and pot hooks. Much of the blacksmith’s business came from not only creating the tools to be used, but also from repairing the tools and other items.

The town blacksmith also created items such as horse shoes and the tools needed to apply the horse shoes. This work was sometimes done by a farriersmith, someone who specialized in the making and application of horseshoes. However, in the time of the pioneers, a single blacksmith usually performed all of the duties.

Florida Cowmen

“The crack of the buckskin whips, the squeak of the saddle leather, the lowing cattle, and the strong, rich odor of camp coffee set his senses stirring. It was the kind of life that appealed to most men of the frontier” (Akerman, 1976, p. 133). It was the life of the Florida cowman.

A Florida cowman was a man who worked and knew cattle. It was a life that many chose to avoid the monotony and routine of farming. Cow hunting, the gathering and herding of cattle across the wild lands of pioneer Florida, offered a life of freedom. The Florida cowman would spend three to four months of the year traveling and penning, marking, branding and regulating cattle with a group of six to 10 men. Each man was equipped with a cow whip, a tin cup, a wallet and full saddle bags. The cow whip was an essential accessory to the Florida cowman. The crack of the whip could be heard from miles away and was used as a communication tool between cowmen.

The cowmen were followed by a covered wagon filled with supplies and a team of people in charge of food. The typical menu for the men consisted of lots of coffee, corn pone, bacon, salt pork, biscuits and wild game such as turkey and deer that was hunted on the range.

Many cowmen moved to Florida after the Civil War due to its nearness and mild climate compared to the West. In the pioneer days of Florida, the population was less than two people per square mile. Florida was full of unfenced land and miles of pine and palmetto range. It was said that on a clear day, one could see a steer from two miles away (Akerman, 1976, p. 160). The Cowmen of Florida faced many hardships. They often had to deal with the hurricanes and flooding common to Florida, as well as the sporadic stampedes of cattle.

The Florida cowmen depended on their horses and their dogs to herd the scrub cattle. The horses used by the cowmen in Florida were much smaller than the cowboys’ horses in the West. The cracker cow ponies were small and durable, they weighed about 800 pounds. Their size was befitting to the Florida landscape. The scrub cattle that the cowmen herded were small also; they weighed about 600 pounds and had very sharp horns. The cowmen of Florida did not use ropes to gather their cattle; they relied on a good cattle dog. When all was said and done, the cattle were often penned up and sold to the highest bidder. The scrub cattle commonly sold for $5 to $10, sometimes more for a heavy set of horns.

Rope and Rope Making

The art of rope making dates back to the days before the Egyptians. Although it has changed greatly throughout the years, the basic principles have remained the same. The four major stages of advancement in the technique of rope making are the original hand twisting and braiding of fibers, the use of simple mechanical advantage tools, the use of compound mechanical tools and the use of power machinery.

In the past, rope was commonly made of natural fibers such as cotton, sisal, coir, jute, hemp and flax. Today, however, rope is generally made of oil-based synthetic fibers such as nylon and polypropylene. Ropes made of natural fibers usually last longer than ropes made of man-made fibers in the heat and sun, however, man-made ropes ordinarily last longer in wet conditions.

The rope-walk was the process of rope making using a common type of machine. It was a twisting machine that had several revolving hooks and one fixed hook. The rope fibers were hooked between the two ends of the machines; the ends of the machine were then turned by hand or by machine to bind the fibers together. Using the rope-walk process, ropes could be made up to approximately 300 meters in length. Ropes could be made of all different lengths and thicknesses to best suit their purpose.