Miscellaneous, Phinney Blacksmith Shop

The Phinney Blacksmith Shop

Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY

Bainbridge Republican, December 21, 1898



 

Charles Phinney is quite ill at his home on South Main street [Bainbridge, NY].  A complication of diseases has rendered him feeble for some time and incapacitated for his business, that of blacksmithing.  A blacksmith shop has been run in Bainbridge by some member of Mr. Phinney's family for many years.  His father, Ansil Phinney, deceased, conducted fifty years ago the blacksmith stand now owned by George Robinson, and it was a lively place, the proprietor and his workmen driving things ahead with a rush.  It was also a picturesque place in the early winter mornings of four or five o'clock, when the shop was brilliant with the glowing fires of several forges and the showers of sparks flying from the anvils, at which men were briskly hammering the red hot iron, making the most cheery kind of music.  Ansil Phinney's blacksmith shop was one of the specially bright and active features of Bainbridge in those times.  The business has been continued since the father's death by his son Charles Phinney at the lower end of the village.  We trust the son will soon be restored to health and the click of his hammer will resound as merrily as ever.

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Charles K. Phinney Obituary

Bainbridge Republican, Jan. 11, 1899

 

Charles K. Phinney, a life-long resident of the village of Bainbridge, died early Saturday  morning last at his home in this village, from a complication of diseases, consumption and kidney trouble being dominant.  The deceased was 59 years of age.

 

Mr. Phinney was a blacksmith by trade and was a substantial and well-liked citizen.  His health had been impaired for four years or more and to a degree that he was obliged to abandon work at his business.  He was able to be about however on the streets until two months ago when he was confined to the bed and passed weeks of severe suffering which resulted in death.

 

Mr. Phinney was the son of Ansil Phinney who was one of the pioneer business men of Bainbridge.  He was a blacksmith and the deceased was associated with his father for a number of years in a shop located where Anderson's hotel now stands on North Main St.

 

Later Mr. Phinney erected a shop on South Main street where he has worked industriously for more than thirty years past.  In or about the year 1869 the deceased was married to Adelia Paddleford who now survives him.  There is also surviving one brother Frank B. Phinney of this village and two sisters, Mrs. Sarah Joralemon of Brooklyn and Mrs. Emma Joralemon of Utica.  The funeral was largely attended yesterday afternoon at the residence on South Main street, Rev. C.H. Sackett, officiated.  Burial was in Green Lawn cemetery [Bainbridge, NY].

 

In Memorium

 

It was an exquisite winter day,

With the sun at its best

Shining most beautifully

When he was borne to his rest,

An old acquaintance

Known to almost everyone--

But rather early in life

His work is done.

On the pleasant hillside,

Where sunshine and shadow play,

He is sleeping most sweetly,

Awaiting eternity's day.