Biography of Dave CARPENTER, Scott Co, Arkansas

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Contributed by Delaine Edwards.
July 6 1999

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THE ADVANCE REPORTER
Thursday, July 6, 1967
Spotlight On...
DAVE CARPENTER
	Would you believe that felloes, wheel spokes and rim bars were in 
such demand in Waldron during a period of years that these items were 
ordered in carload lots? It's true. Dave Carpenter verifies the statement.
These items were used in the manufacture of wagons, and Dave worked with 
two other blacksmiths in Waldron in making new wagons and repairing the 
old ones that had seen much service.
	Dave came to Waldron in 1913 from the Blue Ridge Mountain country of
Virginia, Hillsville, at the age of 15. His parents died while he was 
quite young. Dave found employment at a nursery, then a sawmill, and he 
spent some time on a farm; and at the age of 19 he became a helper at the 
blacksmith shop owned & operated by the late Dick Bohnstehn and the late 
Ed Judy in Waldron. The shop owners were experts at their trade, and Dave 
received expert tutoring.
	He established his own shop in 1926 on the lot now occupied by 
Oliver Furniture Company, and he has been busy ever since. He later moved 
his shop a half block south on the opposite side of the street. During 
World War II he was welder for the Post Engineers at Camp Chaffee, Fort 
Smith, and Dave said he was kept busy there, too, during the two years he 
worked away from home.
	Dave estimated that he had shod more than thirty thousand horses and
mules during the period of the horse and buggy days, and the price was a 
dollar and a quarter per animal for plain toes. With toes on the shoes the
price jumped to a dollar and a half for four shoes. For three shoes that 
would be...well, they didn't shoe three-legged horses. The price today is 
near $6.00.
	Most every barn in Scott county during that period had a herd of 
horses and in some barns was also a team of mules. Working horses and 
working mules wore shoes.
	In addition to horse-shoeing, Dave did practically anything with 
metal that could be done with a welding torch and blacksmith tools. He 
repaired cotton gins, sawmills, wagons, plows, cultivators, sorghum cane 
squeezing machines and baby carriages. And he retired about three months 
ago.
	Way back in 1917 on Thanksgiving Day, Dave and Miss Ina Warren were 
married by the late Reverend Mr. Patterson who at that time was pastor of 
the Winfield Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have three daughters 
and a son.