Manual Training Class

I find that the class as a freshman that I remember best is manual training, perhaps the variety of things we did led to this greater recollection. Wood-working projects probably occupied more time than any of the other topics covered and amongst these I did were an oak table, a short bookshelf that could sit on a desk etc., several rubber guns, and a toolbox. I also adapted some black walnut wood that I got from an old sewing machine of my grandmother Peterson, which I ran across in the loft of the old granary.

Black walnut box

The oak table ended up with a non-oak top as I was never able to get the flat oak boards I had planned to use to fit smoothly. As I recall it was gum wood. All the wood-working in the class was with manual tools — there were no machine-powered items, such as saws, planes, lathes etc. A far cry from the shop at the high school here in Ashland, where I took some evening classes. Here there was virtually every powered wood-working tool. What happened to this table I have no idea.

The small bookshelf I retrieved at some time from my parents’ home. It had suffered in the years since it was made and I repaired and refinished it. I think one of our daughters now has it, from the down-sizing we did on moving to Mountain View Retirement Residence. The rubber guns are gone, we had them when I and the Woodard boys plated the game, using as missiles rubber sections cut form old inner tubes. A game that I daresay is no longer in the repertoire of schoolboys.

Bookends

The toolbox I also retrieved and it now serves as a place where I keep nails, screws, etc. It is substantially as I completed it in manual training but I did add a couple of finishing touches that I omitted then. When I found it one when when I was visiting my parents in Gowrie — it was in the old hay loft in the small barn at the rear of the property — it contained a few remnants of the toy farm machines that I and my brothers had made and played with during the early years on the Peterson farm. 

Toolbox exterior

Toolbox interior

Wooden toys

I think it was I who made most of this machinery, using some hand woodworking tools that my father got at the Johnson lumberyard. I recall I kept them in an old cabinet in a small room off the back hall of the house. My father had apparently picked up the few remaining pieces when my parents moved back to the little brown house after WWII ended; probably for sentimental reasons. At the peak of the toy farm activity we had tractors, plows, harrows and an assortment of buildings. For me I think it represented an underlying liking for farming as an activity and a potential livelihood.

Other areas of instruction in farm shop were learning of various knots and rope splicing, harness repair, working on small gas engines, tool sharpening. Most of the tying of knots has left me except for the simple square knot and perhaps the bowline. The rope splicing involved both “short” and “long” splices. At my grandmother’s house the dumb-waiter was operated by a long continuous rope loop that could be pulled to raise or lower it. My uncle Carl had made the long splice in this rope and one he challenged me to detect where the spice was. From my experience in manual training I knew what to look for and I think he was a bit nonplused when I pointed out where the splice was.

Harness repair involved sewing the leather pieces together. When this subject came up in farm shop I visualized it as the simple use of riveting that Uncle Carl always used in repairing the old harness still in use on the farm. A sort of makeshift kind of repair typical of my uncle. I don’t think I actually repaired any of the harness in use on the farm. Much of it was beyond repair through neglect over the years. What remained in use was the better items (such as the harness used when driving to town etc.) but even this was in pretty sad shape

Some of the members of the class brought in some small gas engines to work on but I had none to furnish so my part in this aspect of farm shop was minimal. I can remember them sitting outside the back side of the shop room.

Tool sharpening involved saw filing, and sharpening of plan and auger bits. Over the years I have sharpened my saws occasionally but in recent years I have hired it done.

Toward the end of the school year there was a manual training competition sponsored by Iowa State College. Mr. Millard chose three members from the class to represent the Gowrie school — Vernon Telleen, Dale Coffin and myself. I’m not sure why I was selected as I didn’t consider myself one of the more competent members of the class.

One item in the test at Iowa State had not been covered in the instruction we had in Gowrie — namely the preparation and placement of concrete. So Mr. Millard gave us some oral instructions but no actual experience. The test item on this was to make a form for a home plate, and to mix, place, and finish the concrete to fill it. One criterion to be met was to prepared enough concrete but only with a small excess. My vague recollection is that Vernon, Dale and I had to “fudge” a bit at the end to have enough concrete. Despite our lack of experience in concrete preparation we received a good rating on the overall test. Somewhere I think I still have the little certificate we received.