THE HAZEN BLACKSMITH SHOP

by Judy Lowe

I recently interviewed Marilyn (Hazen) Hurd, the great-granddaughter of John G. Hazen who owned the farm from which the blacksmith shop came. Marilyn told me that her great-great-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Hazen, came to Sutton in 1823, trading homes with a Deacon Benjamin Fowler who had built the house in 1790. The farm sits on the northeast side of Shaker Road in North Sutton.

Marilyn feels that it was her great-grandfather who built the blacksmith shop in the mid-1800's. The blacksmith shop made the H-L hinges that are in the house to this day. Marilyn remembers listening to her grandfather tell stories of riding in buggies up to New London and the Shepard Garage on Seamans Road.

Ernest H. Hazen, Marilyn's grandfather, died in 1968 and the farm was sold out of the family. Bob Bristol wrote that the people who bought the Hazen farm had sold off the westerly side of the road for borrow fill for the Interstate construction, and were going to have the blacksmith bulldozed into a heap and burned. Bob offered to take the building away if he could have it, and he moved it to the farm. He traced the ox sling that had been in it to a farm in Georges Mills and bought it back.

On the event days at Muster Field Farm Museum you can see the art of blacksmithing revived. You will also see Ken Hazen, Marilyn's brother, in front of the Hazen Blacksmith Shop making wonderful woven baskets using strips of wood shaved from logs.

A Blacksmith's Prayer

My fire is extinct,
And my forge is decayed,
By the side of the bench
My old vise is laid.

My anvil and hammer
Lie gathering dust,
My powerful bellows
Have lost all their thrust.

My coal is now spent,
My iron's all gone,
My last nail's been driven,
And my day's work is done.

-- Unknown

Back to Walking Tour