CORNWALL — Over the fireplace in the first selectman’s office in Town Hall, a large painting hangs above the mantel. In it, an elderly man with a white beard is seated and holds a forged tool of some kind. A blonde child stands at his elbow. The man’s leather apron clearly indicates that he is a blacksmith. Except for their proximity, the man and child seem to have no connection, making it a portrait that sparks the imagination.
Doubtless this reporter is not the only one who has wondered about it, but never remembered to ask. An article in the latest United Church of Christ (UCC) newsletter, written by Peg Keskinen, made it easy to answer some questions.
The blacksmith in the portrait by Arlington Yutzler at Town Hall, is William Oliver, whose skills at his forge on River Road were matched by his artistic creativity. The child is little Betsy Hart, a relative of Oliver’s.
The dignified pose painted by Yutzler may have been created to honor or even glorify a man who plied what was an ordinary, if not vital, trade beginning in the late 1880s. He made the wagon wheels, tools and hardware that people needed, and shod their horses.
He was also a deacon for 50 years of what was known as the Second Church and he was superintendent of its Sunday school. In 1907 and 1908, he was Cornwall’s representative in the state Legislature. He was a self-taught expert on local geology.
What he is remembered for most are his wrought-iron pieces that still grace places like the village and North Cornwall meetinghouses.
The wall sconces and wagon-wheel chandelier at the North Cornwall church that he made were commissioned in 1926. At the UCC church in Cornwall Village, the five-branched candelabras have an air of lightness even though they are made of iron. Their forged leaves perch atop gracefully arching stems. Oliver’s candleholders, andirons and more can still be found in many Cornwall homes.
Oliver chose to move here, to the land of opportunity, from Cornwall, England, perhaps because of the attraction and comfort of the name. He came in 1887, a young man of 23 who had been apprenticed to a blacksmith in England. His childhood had been rough. At the age of 10, he was working in a tin mine while still attending school.
He worked for a year at a Roxbury forge before moving to Cornwall proper and establishing himself as a farrier for about 350 local horses. He then returned to Cornwall, England, for a time, where he opened a shop while his wife recovered from an illness. As soon a possible, however, they returned home to Cornwall, Conn.
It was the farm that got his full attention in the early part of the 1900s, when he gave in to the horseless carriage craze. But after six years away from his forge, something motivated him to fire it up again. He began turning about the ornamental Many of his pieces remain today in Cornwall. They might not be museum pieces. But they are a cherished bit of local history.
