Antique farm equipment, mills on display during East Huntingdon event aimed at preservation, education

The blade of a 135-year-old shingle mill efficiently slid through a rectangular block of wood Sunday to create shingles, which were once used for roofs and siding.

Meanwhile, a pair of horses were the engine pulling an old-fashioned plow through a field.

They were sights that might have been common decades ago, but important ones to recreate every year, said Zane Lape of Salem, president of the Fort Allen Antique Farm Equipment Association.

“It’s just to show young people how hard and labor intensive it was for our grandfathers, our great-grandfathers,” he said. “It wasn’t hop on a machine and steer.”

The East Huntingdon association’s annual Hammer-In and Plow Days over the weekend aimed to educate visitors and give them a taste of skills, trades and history. Plus, there was a bit of fun — ribbons were handed out Sunday to the winners of a cast-iron skillet toss in which participants had two tries to see how far they could lob an 8-inch cast-iron skillet.

Association member John Johnson of Mt. Pleasant Township demonstrated how the shingle mill worked. He manned the wooden 1888 model owned and restored by member Melvin Bailey. The association bought it after Bailey’s death in an effort to preserve it for future generations.

Johnson said the mill would have cut cedar blocks to create tapered wooden wedges during that era. The association now uses it only for demonstrations.

“Operating it is pretty simple, you just have to watch your fingers,” Johnson said.

The shingles were then taken over to blacksmiths Wayne Kelley of Ruffs Dale and Ray Kipp of Ligonier Township, both association members, for branding. They showed visitors how they make hooks and crosses out of pieces of metal.

“It is a craft,” Kelley said, adding that it is an important one for young people to learn.

There was old-fashioned farm equipment on display, including plows, tractors and cultivators, as well as activities for children. Lape said the ways of the past are becoming a lost art and it is important to remember and preserve them.

“I’d like to see some more young people come to this,” he said.