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Blacksmith Alan Horowitz shapes a nail out of a iron bar on an anvil at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18the Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Senate House State Historic Site volunteer Robyn Sedgwick prepares a pumpkin cornmeal pancake during the historic site's Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Senate House State Historic Site volunteer Robyn Sedgwick prepares a pumpkin cornmeal pancake during the historic site's Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar as Lance Lewis pumps the bellows at the historic site's Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Tools made by blacksmith Alan Horowitz were on display at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022. (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Coal, charcoal and iron wer on display at a portable blacksmith's shop at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz works to start a fire using a striker, a charcloth and a piece of flint at at the Senate House State Historic site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz works to start a fire using a striker, a charcloth and a piece of flint at at the Senate House State Historic site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz works to start a fire using a striker, a charcloth and a piece of flint at at the Senate House State Historic site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz works to start a fire using a striker, a charcloth and a piece of flint at at the Senate House State Historic site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz works to start a fire using a striker, a charcloth and a piece of flint at at the Senate House State Historic site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022
Stephen Gratto balances his bicycle on his chin during a juggling show at the Senate House State Historic Site's Autumnfest on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (Brian Hubert/Daily Freeman)
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz shapes a nail out of a iron bar on an anvil at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18the Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
A reenactor at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
Blacksmith Alan Horowitz makes a nail out of a iron bar at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
Reenactor Stewart Leaham discusses 18th century medicine at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
The Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest was Oct. 15, 2022. (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
The Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest was Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
The Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest was Oct. 15, 2022 (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
The Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest was Oct. 15, 2022.
A reenactor at the Senate House State Historic Site's 18th Century Autumnfest on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (Brian Hubert, Daily Freeman).
KINGSTON, N.Y. — The Senate House State Historic Site’s 18th Century Autumnfest Saturday featured everything from colonial-era blacksmithing and period-inspired cooking to juggling.
At the event, blacksmith Alan Horowitz, a retired schoolteacher from Stony Point in Rockland County, could be seen working to draw out an iron bar to make a nail as his partner Lance lewis pumped a bellow, causing the coal fire to turn pumpkin orange.
He said burning coal is one way their demonstration differs from 18th-century blacksmiths who would’ve used charcoal made from small pieces of wood through a long-tedious process by a separate tradesperson known as collier using a low-oxygen fire.
He said the reason they used coal comes down to cost, as they can purchase coal to power their forge for a fraction of the $100 of charcoal they’d need for an event.
Horowitz said he was making 10-penny nails, denoting that 100 nails would’ve cost 10 pence in colonial times. It would take upward of 3,000 nails just to build a small cottage, he added.
He said blacksmiths went through a 10-year apprenticeship and were very secretive about their trade, not wanting to give away any trade secrets. A blacksmith who specialized in nails was a nailer.
“They could make on in about 30 seconds,” he said.
Over near the site’s museum, Stewart Leahman was chatting with guests about 18th-century medicine.
He said there would have only been about 300 doctors with medical degrees for about three million colonists with apprentice-trained physicians and apothecaries who ran stores being far more common in bigger towns.
“I’m not sure if there was one in Kingston,” he said.
Leahman said one of the most feared diseases was smallpox, which could devastate communities even with inoculation, which involved using a bone knife to insert a small amount of the virus under the patient’s skin.
He said the process was highly controversial and wasn’t universally accepted including amongst some religious leaders who didn’t “want to upset the Lord’s will.”
But quite surprisingly, it would be the preacher Cotton Mather, whose family is perhaps best known for the infamous Salem Witch trials, who’d help make the ancient practice long-practiced in Asia and Africa become mainstream amongst European colonists.
As for smallpox vaccines, they wouldn’t come along until 1798 via Edward Jenner, using a weakened cowpox virus that gave recipients immunity to smallpox. He said the Latin word for cow, “vacca,” helped give these modern treatments their name.
“There was a famous cartoon that depicted a doctor who was giving people vaccines and they turned into cows,” he said.
Liana Grey, of Kingston, had just happened upon the event Saturday morning, bringing her sons Alden Lynch, 3, Ronan, Lynch, 5, and Eliza, 7. She said they were enjoying the free festivities.
“Alden’s favorite is the pumpkin painting,” he said.
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