Before the second edition of this book was printed I visited Rufeen and Thelma Lichtenberger, in their home, and obtained some further information. This is a continuation of their story.
“Thus far there has been no mention of the sawmill, which operated at the east end of Stevensville on the corner of East Main Street, and Winger Road.
“This first belonged to Ben Dean, who was Thelma’s grandfather. He lived just north of the C N railroad tracks on the west side of Winger Road, which was not far from the sawmill. Harry Cook later lived in this house. It has since burned down and there is no house standing on the site at the present time.
“When Ben was no longer able to run the business, Frank Zimmerman and Dave Dean (Morley Dean’s grandfather) continued with it.
“During this time Thelma’s Uncle Dave got his leg caught while changing the belt on the sawdust carrier. It was normal procedure to turn the engine off under these circumstances, but he thought he could do the job with the engine running slowly. He was caught and carried around the belt. He was rushed to the hospital in Buffalo as there was no hospital in Fort Erie, at that time. Of course there were no ambulances at that time, so they flagged down the train at the station in Stevensville. Complications set in, after he was sent home from the hospital, and the leg had to be amputated.
“The sawmill was run using a steam engine which burned sawdust. This sawmill and the sawmill on Pirson Street, were operating at the same time.
“There was a great deal of lumber in the Stevensville area at that time and large piles of lumber were seen in many areas. Teams of horses hauled much of this lumber to Buffalo.
“Before it was hauled away it was taken to my Uncle Phil Lichtenberger’s large scales, which was out in front of his business on the corner of Stevensville Road and West Main Street. This was the only large scales in the area and they were used for weighing not only the lumber, but for other things such as hay and loads of grain.
“When this scales was taken out the Stevensville Planing Mill put one in. It was removed some years ago.
“The Dean-Zimmerman sawmill burned down in 1920. The cause is believed to have been arson.
Before there was a blacksmith shop on Stevensville Road, Ben Anger had a shop on East Main Street across from Percy Beam’s. He did all the shoeing of horses in this area.
“There were about eight or ten different sizes of horseshoes. The shoes came with no caulks. Two heel caulks and one toe caulk had to be welded on. There were little pins, right in the caulk, and when the shoe was red hot, the blacksmith would put some welding compound on the shoe, set the caulk on it and hit the hot caulk with a hammer and knock it together. That would weld the caulk and the shoe together. The caulk made the shoe so the horse wouldn’t slip. In the wintertime they would put a special ice caulk on the shoe. These were sharp, with a tapered end, almost like a knife. Most of the horses had to be shod twice a year.
“There were two types of forges. One had a hand crank, which operated a fan. The other kind had a bellows which was operated by a treadle.
“Now, a little more about Pat Robinson’s store. The first thing you saw as your walked in the door was a large block of cheese. Above the block was a large knife which was pulled down to cut the cheese when a customer requested a specific amount.
Mr. Robinson always gave free samples. This cheese was covered, to keep the flies off it.
“Beside the cheese was a coffee mill with a hand crank, where the coffee beans were freshly ground.
“When I (Rufeen) was a young lad, I lived on a farm near the old shipyards. We sold milk to the people at the shipyards for five cents a quart.
“One of the largest ships ever built at the shipyards was the O.E. Osler.
“The following diagram shows what the shipyards looked like in my day, when I was about five or six years old.”