SMITHY
© Mona Vanek
Smithy! He walked with big strides onto any job he took - and he left when he didn't like it. The most independent man in town - the blacksmith.
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Albert Edward "Al" Leeson at his forge in The Spokane Blacksmith &Welding Shop, E. 1502 Trent Avenue, Spokane, Washington, ca. 1940, courtesy Al & Ottillie "Tillie" Leeson collection.
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Last of Spokane, Washington's smithies, standing by his glowing forge at E. 1502 Trent, Leeson lamented the passing of the smithies, who were once some 200 strong in Spokane.
"They were the hardest workers in town. Most were hard drinking men with fun in them, and enormous pride," so said Albert E. Leeson in 1962.
"Independent, quick tempered, exacting, and a pretty good bunch of fellows", he said.McGoldrick Lumber Company's logging horses were brought from the woods to their big barn, 8 or 10 at a time, to be shod. Four smiths stood at the shop's 4 forges. The helpers shod the draft horses, and were often kicked or sat on.McGoldrick Lumber Company's logging horses were brought from the woods to their big barn, 8 or 10 at a time, to be shod. Four smiths stood at the shop's 4 forges. The helpers shod the draft horses, and were often kicked or sat on.
Four forges were kept burning constantly in the old U. S. Blacksmith Shop where Leeson spent time learning the trade from Bill Faywell, known throughout the area's logging camps. Al usually handled the heavy hammer while the senior blacksmith worked at the forge.
As blacksmith for various logging outfits, Leeson worked at Santa, Idaho, Bovill, Idaho and Fernwood, Idaho, before going to McGoldricks.
The camp smith took care of the teams used to skid logs, did all the iron work on the big wooden sleighs on which lumber was loaded, and made all sorts of tools necessary to logging operations.
Leeson became an artist with a hot forge, a chunk of iron, an anvil, and a blacksmith hammer.
In 1939 he built his own blacksmith business, incorporating the newer field of welding into it. The Spokane Blacksmith & Welding Shop, occupied lots at 1502 E. Trent Ave., then near the outskirts of the business community. Day after day he walked the miles from the family home on Morgan Acres, working from daylight to dark, erecting his concrete block building. On Saturday his wife, Tillie, and their three small children spent the day there with him.
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In 1939, Al Leeson began building his Spokane Blacksmith & Welding Works cement block building at E. 1502 Trent Avenue, on the eastern outskirts of the Spokane business district, ca. 1940, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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Investing all his profits, Al Leeson gradually equipped his business with the latest acetylene welding equipment, a drill press, vices, a big coal-fired forge, bellows, a heavy duty anvil, and dozens of blacksmith tools, wrenches, hammers, etc. He devised a peg-board on the rear wall of the shop, and painted black silhouettes of each tool, hanging each in its proper place before going home at night. Thieves robbed the shop several times. When Spokane Police failed to apprehend them, Al rigged an alarm system, including a big gong that hung above his bed, in his house a block away. Theft stopped the night the gong awoke him and, pulling on trousers, grabbing his .22 caliber high-powered rifle from the wall, he dashed through the alley, caught the thieves red handed, and held them at gunpoint until the police his wife had summoned by phone arrived to take them into custody. One hung himself in jail before the trial, where the others were convicted.
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The desperately hard years of beginning his business, when thawing frozen water pipes during cold winters was often the only money he had to buy coal for his forge and put food on the table, were soon followed by World War II years of prosperity.
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Arc welding soon replaced acetylene welding. Before he left Morgan Acres in north Spokane to build Spokane Blacksmith & Welding Works, Al owned a welder, a new 300 amp Lincoln generator he married to an old Star car motor, and built a trailer using the frame of an old car which he pulled behind his car so he could go to wherever the work was. Eventually, he mounted two arc welders on vehicles he designed to add portable welding to his services. Tillie minded the shop, answering the telephone, scheduling jobs, doing the bookkeeping, while Al worked wherever his expertise was needed, ca., 1942, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection. |
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Overhead arc welding required special skills which Al quickly mastered, and taught to students in his shop, which was soon crowded with welding jobs, ca., 1944, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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As soon as Al located a truck he could buy he mounted an arc welder. Due to increasing prosperity during WWII, he soon had two trucks equipped with arc welders, ca. 1944, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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Smithies and welders were rated A-1 citizens; necessary to the well being of America. Leeson's reputation for excellence in workmanship and in judgment put him working around-the-clock hours at the nearby naval station, at Farragut, Idaho by 1942. Meanwhile, Tillie took orders at the shop for jobs awaiting his return home.
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1943 - Al and an unidentified hired helper working on a welding job in front of his Trent Avenue shop. The helper was a machinist and also ran Al's metal lathe.
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It was a red-letter celebration day when Al bought his 10-foot long, belt-driven lathe! Courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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Their children grew up to the musical cadence of his hammer pinging on the anvil. Squeezing the bellows to fan the forge-fire was reserved as a special treat, like answering the telephone. They "earned" money for bicycles by using a large magnet to scour the steel shavings from the brass shavings caught in a big pan beneath his metal working lathe. All the while, local characters like Willie Wiley and others, not a few of which were habitual drunks, colored the environment within the confines of the shop's block walls.
Victory gardens, war bonds, fund raisers and Armed Forces service men brought home from Sunday church service, during World War II. About the time the war ended, Al decided it was time to pursue another dream, so he and Tillie began investigating rural properties. However, whereas Tillie envisioned returning to wheat farming, Al's dreams were elsewhere, and as usual, he prevailed.
There, he logged and raised cattle, until Washington Water Power Company began constructing dams on the Clarks Fork River. Al worked on the Cabinet Gorge Dam, in Idaho.
Later, when Northern Pacific Railroad track was being removed in preparation to relocation necessitated by construction of a second dam on the Clark's Fork River, upstream from Noxon, in northwestern Sanders County, Montana, Leeson met the
challenge of speeding track removal by inventing a pneumatic-powered spike puller.
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Al Leeson on Red, his favorite horse on his 160-acre Bull River Ranch, 20-miles from Noxon, Montana, in Sanders County, Montana, where he retired in 1945, ca. 1946, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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Pictured here with the whitetail buck he shot, loaded on Pinto pony, Al enjoyed hunting, and took pride in providing venison for his table. As soon as his children were old enough to have a hunting license, he share his hunting expertise, and also taught them wilderness survival skills, ca., 1946, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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After the end of WWII in 1945, Leeson retired and moved his family to a remote mountain ranch in northwestern Montana, that offered great fishing and hunting.
There, he logged and raised cattle, until Washington Water Power Company began constructing dams on the Clarks Fork River. Al worked on the Cabinet Gorge Dam, in Idaho.
Later, when Northern Pacific Railroad track was being removed in preparation to relocation necessitated by construction of a second dam on the Clark's Fork River, upstream from Noxon, in northwestern Sanders County, Montana, Leeson met the
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Al began with a block of wood and his pocket knife, and before the long winter ended he had invented the rudiments from which he devised a pneumatic-powered automatic railroad spike puller. He patented his invention a few years later, and son Chester further refined it. Unfortunately, Al died before his dream of marketing it came true ~ he envisioned the proceeds paying for his grandchildren to attend college, ca., 1960-61, courtesy Al and Tillie Leeson collection.
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After the dam construction era, in 1961, he helped his son, Chester fulfill his dream of purchasing the Spokane Blacksmith & Welding Works business Al had started in 1939, and sold in 1945 to Babe Reynolds.
Before the smithy's death in 1964, automatic welding had evolved to replace the skills Al helped pioneer. Spokane's old time smithy era lives only in memories of the ringing ping of hammer striking metal, bending it to a smithy's creation.
Before the smithy's death in 1964, automatic welding had evolved to replace the skills Al helped pioneer. Spokane's old time smithy era lives only in memories of the ringing ping of hammer striking metal, bending it to a smithy's creation.
Spokane blacksmith, Al Leeson
by Mona Leeson Vanek 1991
When Arthur Frank Vanek and Mona Inez Leeson wed on August 31, 1949 they linked the following family trees, [Maternal ~ Muench and Leeson] [Paternal ~ Vanek and Gremaux].
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