Willie Fearn
Blacksmith
Notes:
• "Whites were rarely seen... in most of the black businesses in town, though there were exceptions. On North Jefferson Street was a blacksmith shop owned by Mr. Willie Fearn, whose brother was one of two black dentists in town. I was in his shop many times with my father, and I'd stare in fascination as Mr. Fearn worked over the coals - how he'd trim and measure the horse's hoof, mold the shoe with his hammer and anvil, then nail it on the hoof without injuring the quick. White people admired his skills as much as I did, as there always seemed to be more of them in there than us." - Hereford
Related Links:
Notes:
• "Whites were rarely seen... in most of the black businesses in town, though there were exceptions. On North Jefferson Street was a blacksmith shop owned by Mr. Willie Fearn, whose brother was one of two black dentists in town. I was in his shop many times with my father, and I'd stare in fascination as Mr. Fearn worked over the coals - how he'd trim and measure the horse's hoof, mold the shoe with his hammer and anvil, then nail it on the hoof without injuring the quick. White people admired his skills as much as I did, as there always seemed to be more of them in there than us." - Hereford
Related Links:
• Hereford - Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine, and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town, by Sonnie Wellington Hereford III and Jack D. Ellis, 2001, page 17.