818-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 14, 1994
Harness Shop Meets Needs Of Amish Community
GAIL STROCK It used to be. long ago, that evcry-
Mifflin Co. Correspondent one worked directly with what the
RPM VTT .I .E (Mifflin Co.) good earth offered in order to pro-
ar-cut edges and neat stitches are trademarks of bri
dles, harnesses and straps made In this harness shop.
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74 Kurtz Rd., Denver, PA
vide for themselves. Hands'churn
ed milk into butler, readied the
garden soil for the seeds they'd,
saved from the previous year, and’
wove straw from the fields into
hats. Before machines, electricity,
tractors, cars, and Walmarts, fami
lies literally lived off the land. It
used to be a way of life.
Some would say 'used to be’ is
dead now, but the private lives of
the Old Order Amish of Mifflin
County attest to it differently. We
always called them “white-top
pers,” in reference to the color of
buggy they drive, and they live as
close to the good earth's gifts as
anyone.
One member of the Old Order
Amish called my father his child
hood friend, so the three of us
talked. He said he didn’t mind
visitors to his harness shop as long
as they obeyed the rules of decen
cy don’t take advantage, don’t
steal, and don’t come back to har
ass or vandalize.
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Their privacy is important, but
my father’s friend fields visitor’s
questions with some of his own
do you go to church? He said I
could write an article about his
work if his name wasn’t used or
his address revealed.
Wasted space is one thing not to
be found between the wood floor
and low ceiling of the one-room
harness shop. Walls are lined with
shoes of all sizes, long work
benches, and foot-powered sew
ing machines for stitching leather.
And in between hang hooks, clips,
chains, leather straps, bridles, and
shelves of ointments and medi
cines for man or beast. The wood
stove takes up the center of the
room.
My father’s friend makes horse
bridles and straps. He said he or
ders the hides from Ohio, picking
up examples to show us. Steer
hides are more uniform in thick
ness throughout. Bull hides thick
en at the neck of the hide and are
harder to work with and sew.
Beside the bench he starts to un
harness a cutting machine. He
literally muzzeled the crank-hand
led machine for safety’s sake.
With a turn of the handle crank, he
slips a tough 3/Bth-inch leather
scrap through the razor-like disk
blades, cutting it like, as the say
ing goes, a hot knife through but
ter, leaving clean edges. Under
standably, he re-muzzels the ma
chine before showing us his
stitching machines.
Leading us to one of two ma
chines by a window, our friend
shows us up close, like introduc
ing one old friend to another, how
this Champion Shoe Machine
works. He says he bought it some
30 years ago and it wasn’t new
then.
Reaching for an already cut
strap, he bends it in two and be
gins to sew sturdy white thread
onto rich, brown leather. As he
(Turn to Pago B 19)
arming