Look Back: Blacksmith talks about old Wilkesbarre in 1918
Feb. 25—Bear Creek blacksmith David Frey, a German immigrant, knew he could do better business relocating to East Market and Canal streets next to the North Branch Canal in Wilkesbarre sometime in the mid-1860s.
After David Frey's death in October 1889, his son, Peter Frey took over the blacksmith shop manufacturing or repairing horse wagons and carriages, canal boats, repairing rail lines and making horse shoes, rail spikes and tools.
For 50 years, Peter Frey worked at his shop in a wood-built structure that resembled a barn until he turned 73, when he sold the property for a planned grocery store in April 1918.
When the property was sold, the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper featured a story about Peter Frey and his memories of old Wilkesbarre.
The stories Peter Frey could tell if he was around today. He died at age 80 on Dec. 11, 1930.
Peter Frey told the Record he remembered canal boats being pulled by mules shipping and transporting coal and fresh produce from the downtown area only to be replaced by passenger and freight railroads in the 1880s. He described how his father selected East Market and Canal streets for the blacksmith shop because it was next to the canal and the canal warehouse, which was replaced by the Central Railroad of New Jersey Passenger Railroad Station, today's Luzerne County Visitor's Center.
Peter Frey explained to the Record how merchants would unload their goods from canal boats at the canal warehouse and sell to other merchants, which were owners and proprietors of dry goods stores around Public Square.
"If the stores didn't bring in their goods by stage coach, they would buy their goods at the canal warehouse," Peter Frey told the Record in 1918.
Peter Frey said in the early years of his business, he and his father built wagons and stage coaches that were shipped via canal to other parts of Pennsylvania to be sold. When the railroads moved in and replaced canals, his business of manufacturing and repairing wagons declined. But his business blossomed as he made replacement parts for steam locomotives that rolled into downtown Wilkesbarre.
"That area over there where the canal warehouse was located, it turned into a massive rail yard and trains were coming all day and all night," Peter Frey told the Record.
Peter Frey told the Record he remembered the removal of the cemetery near his blacksmith shop to make way for City Hall that was built in the late 1880s.
After Peter Frey sold his blacksmith shop, it took only a day to demolish the building.
Peter Frey was present when the ceremonial first pick-axe was struck into the ground to start construction of the Liberty Market House, a large grocery store.
A crowd estimated at 1,000 waited outside when Liberty Market House opened for business on Feb. 28, 1919.
