Wade Smithy

And here, the last bit from the 1880 Manufacturing Schedules of the US Census...at least for now.

The census marshal recorded C.Edward Wade in the Population Schedule as a wheelwright...a craftsman who makes and repairs vehicle wheels. (Having written my master's thesis on these guys, and a wheelwright shop in New York in particular, I might regale our readers with wagon and wheelmaking trivia in a future post.) In the Manufacturing schedules, however, wheelwright is struck and blacksmithing inserted. The two crafts are closely related.

Wade's shop operated full time 10 months of the year, part-time the remaining two months. He was assisted by one man, whom he paid at either skilled ($1.35/day) or unskilled (.75) rates.

We don't know where his shop was located. We do know that Mr. Barbour identified Coombs blacksmith shop directly across the drive from the Burch House. We don't know if Coombs occupied an earlier shop used by Wade. We are fairly certain that we found traces of a blacksmith shop at that location and hope to explore it further.

Jim