Part I
The Trades as Practiced in the Homeland
By Alfred Opp
November 27, 2008
Von der Stirne heiss
From the forehead hot
Rinnen muss der Schweiss
The sweat must run;
Soll das Werk den Meister loben
So shall your work the Master praise -
Doch der Segen Kommt von oben.
From heaven the blessing will descend.
Schiller
The first settlers in Teplitz were mainly farmers, with a few
tradesmen. It was not unusual that people held dual positions:
farming and a trade or vice versa. Thirty years after the founding
of Teplitz, statistics from 1847 show that Teplitz had about 70
farmers and 30 tradesmen. The trade-occupations included weavers,
shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, millers, coopers,
wagoners, tailors and butchers. The skills of these tradesmen were
essential for the building of decent homes and producing the tools
and equipment needed to move forward. These tradesmen passed on
their knowledge and skills generation to generation. From the
beginning of Teplitz until 1940 all trades were practiced with only
manual labor – there was no power equipment available. Only minor
changes occurred in available materials and techniques as time went
on. In this piece I will discuss various items that pertained to how
the trades functioned in Teplitz: the shops, tools used, products
made, and practices in general.
Farming remained the main activity to support life. But over time,
the land was divided by the inheritance mode which led to less land
and less income for most families.
Some families owned no land at all. The trades became a
popular way for people to support their life and existence. From the
beginning of Teplitz, villagers placed a high priority on improving
their lives. They wanted and needed progress! The pioneers worked
hard to tame the wild land. Housing improved and living conditions
progressed at a steady pace. As soon as people had achieved the
fundamentals needed for a decent life, they began thinking about
obtaining objects that would contribute to a better, more
comfortable standard of living. The tradesmen who supplied such
items got a lift.
The Blacksmith Shop
My grandpa Simon Zacher owned a blacksmith shop. While some shops
looked like a black hole, his was bright and had windows. But to the
end we did not have electricity or power motors of any kind.
Stepping into grandpa’s shop, on the right was a drill press with a
big wheel that was turned by hand. Further to the right were the
anvil and the hearth with a raised water bath. A bellows forced air
into the hearth to provide a hot fire to heat the irons for forging.
Along the back wall of the shop was a long workbench with vices and
tools that had a variety of uses. Suspended from the ceiling was the
chain that held the iron stock pieces as they were forged into axles
for wagons. The bellows was activated by a handle that the smithy
could push up and down to force air into the hearth. Outside the
shop was a rig to press rims onto the wagon wheels. Every nut and
bolt needed in the trades was made from scratch in the blacksmith
shops. The sleeves needed to fit an axle were made in these shops as
well. At times, Grandpa purchased wooden parts for wagons and then
sold them. At other times he had jobs where he built and completed
entire wagons. Because the trade work was so competitive, only the
ones who worked hardest had any chance to stay in the trade and
succeed. But especially for wheelwrights who made the frames for
wagon wheels, success came at a price. Many overworked in unhealthy
conditions and became ill. Many died from tuberculosis.
Wagoners and Wheelwrights
My dad owned a wagon-making shop that made all the wood pieces
needed for a wagon. The trade had been passed down from his
forefathers and this earned the name “Wagoner Opp” for the family.
This was also a very competitive trade and hard work was required to
make it financially. My dad’s shop was well-lit and bright, and
positioned next to the winter kitchen of our house. Going into the
shop, to the right was the lathe. We had no power source to activate
the equipment – everything had to be run by human power. Along that
wall to the right was a big wheel with a handle and a strap on it to
push and pull to activate the wheel. The big wheel transmitted
turning power to a pulley on the lathe via a rope belt. This lathe
was mainly used to make hubs for the wagon wheels. All along the
other walls of the shop were work benches with woodworking tools. As
in all the shops, there was no light from any community utility
source. These shops operated from dawn to dusk.
In the very beginning, our ancestors only had available the
two-wheeled wooden-axle cart of the Moldavians. Our ancestors had
seen better wagons in Germany and set about to make improvements.
Over the years, Teplitz developed a light-weight iron-axle wagon
suitable to handle the variety of jobs needed to be done by the
colonists. From the very beginning, our trade people worked their
way up the ladder of success, making wheelbarrows, pitchforks,
wooden harrows and rakes, to mention some of their products.
Until my dad was forced to retire in 1936 because of illness, he
sliced his logs into boards with a long-saw. The log was placed with
one end on the workbench and the other on a stand. One man on top of
the log and one lying down underneath worked the saw to cut the log
into lumber. All wood pieces then had to be shaped from the rough
wood, first with a shave ax and then the finer details were finished
with a pull-knife. Spokes got their shape with a pull-knife and a
plane. All drilling was done with a hand-drill. Dad sharpened all of
his own tools using a sandstone grinder that was submerged halfway
into water. To save time, many men had their wives turn the grinder
while they sharpened the tools. Mother said that Dad called on her
often to hold a work piece that he was shaping. Hubs and spokes,
made out of wood, had to be completely dry before assembly to avoid
splitting. For that reason we had our bake oven in the barn. When
Mother baked bread, she gave the fire extra attention so that it
could be used for drying wood after the bread was out of the oven.
We did not have carpenters that only built buildings – all carpentry
work was done by the wheelwrights.
Dad sold wood scraps and shavings generated by the shop work,
and gave the money to Mom.
Alfred Opp
Edited by Connie Dahlke
____________________
Alfred Opp is
the author of "Pawns on the World Stage" - the memoirs of his
childhood in Teplitz, Bessarabia and the experiences of his family
in war-torn Europe (Poland during 1941-1945 before they fled to East
Germany in 1945, then the reconstruction of West Germany 1945-1955)
- available from the NDSU website.