‘Doc’ forged a successful life as a blacksmith
Earl Cuthbertson was a popular entrepreneur in the early 20th century
Throughout its history the Village of Norwood has always had unique individuals woven into the community’s threads.
That very ingenuity and creativity that made them so interesting also gives them a special almost legendary status. One such individual was Earl Cuthbertson, although most people would have known him as “Doc,” a nickname he earned as a youngster when he dressed up for an ice carnival as a popular comicstrip figure at the time called “Doc Sawbones.”
Doc grew up in Norwood on his parent’s farm on the corner of King and Mill streets. His father, Hugh Cuthbertson, operated a dairy business, delivering milk by horse and cart. Doc helped his parents on the farm in his early years before becoming one of Norwood’s most well-regarded blacksmiths, a profession he came to more by chance rather than choice.
In the early 1920s, as a young man of around 20, he brought some farm machinery of his father’s to the village blacksmith shop for repairs. The smithy, a family friend by the name of Charlie Blake, was busy at the time and told Doc he could use his tools to do the work himself. Impressed by his skills, Charlie decided to hire him on, part-time at first until he eventually became a full-time employee, earning the princely sum of $1 a day. In1929 Doc took over the shop and business and Doc’s shop was born.
In the early part of the 1900s horses were still major forms of both transportation and “farm power” and thus horseshoeing as well as buggy and equipment repairs made up most of a blacksmith’s daily business. However, by the 1930s cars and trucks had become common and Doc’s original shop was now too small to work on the larger vehicles.
In 1936 Doc dismantled the original building and, true to the pioneer spirit, he recycled everything possible to create his new workshop, bartering much of the work from people who owed him money for work he had done. It took about two months to build and cost about $1,500.
Located on Highway 7 between the present-day post office and the Bowes and Cocks office, the building had only an old barrel stove for heat and Doc recalled having to warm up his tools on really cold mornings just to keep them from sticking to his hands. The building served Doc well over the years, and while many a motorist and farmer went away happy with their repaired vehicle, the shop was also the site of much socializing for the villages menfolk and stories of practical jokes and good-natured kidding by Doc and his many friends can still be recalled by some in the village today.
One such the story that embodies Doc’s sense of humour and fun-loving nature was his own recollection of paying a kid 10 cents to hammer away on his anvil so his wife Ruby would hear the noise from their nearby home and think he was working, while he and a few friends had actually went off to Hastings to enjoy some libations. Somehow I doubt Ruby was fooled.
For the first few months of operations the shop had a set of Supertest gas pumps, but they did not last long as Doc quickly deemed them as a “big nuisance” if someone stopped for fuel when he was busy in the shop. For a while the village fire truck called Doc’s shop its home; Doc was the one who had essentially built the fire truck out of an old Buick car, so it made sense that it should also reside there and Doc did also serve as fire chief for a few years.
Doc retired from blacksmithing and closed his shop in 1950. The building itself has had a few other uses over the years. In the early 1950s it was the location of an auto body shop operated by Jack Bitten. It also at one time had a dedicated bicycle shop in it and apparently a lawn mower repair shop operated out of it for a few years as well.
In the 1980s and 1990s a flea market of sorts called Dagnall’s and a refrigeration repair shop called Gabriel’s were also brief residents. Sadly, the structure was in a steady state of decline for many years and considering its prominent location on Highway 7 it was becoming a bit of an eyesore. In 2010 the owners of the property, Bowes and Cocks Realty, decided it was time to give the exterior a facelift with some new siding and doors.
Doc’s shop, however, still sits empty today perhaps waiting for the next unique individual, with an ingenious new idea to bring it back to life.