The last of many smithies that lined Main Street when it was known
as
the Oakland
Highway, the Winsor shop was opened in 1926. The Winsor brothers,
Tom
and George,
who built their establishment on this site were decendents of John
Winsor, an Englishman
who settled in Milpitas in the 1860s after a stay in Iowa.
[Image c. 1926 when the Winsor
brothers opened their blacksmith shop.]
The last of its breed, the Winsor shop catered to the many
ranchers,
farmers and
orchardists in the area. The agricultural tools made by the
Winsors may
still be
stored in barns and sheds in the foothills. The Winsors made the
branding irons used
by many area ranchers. The irons were tested by heating them red
hot
and burning
the design into the south wall of the shop. When some
partially rotted boards were replaced on the south wall in 1994,
several of these
historic brand marks were thrown away as trash. When the
structure was demolished, the remaining brands were salvaged,
preserved, and mounted for display near the parking garage
entrance of the Milpitas Public Library.
[Image c.2006 of the interior south wall of
Winsor Blacksmith shop showing brands.]
It is fitting that this blacksmith shop should have been the last
survivor of
its kind in
Milpitas, for John Winsor himself was a true survivor. The
following
account is taken
from Milpitas: The Century of Little Cornfields by
Patricia
Loomis.
“Winsor almost didn’t get to Milpitas. Coming overland in 1852, he
became ill and
was left beside the wagon trail in Utah Territory to die. Nursed
back
to health by
Indians, he spent the winter trapping and then joined another
California-bound train.
“At the mines on the American River, Winsor met a man newly
arrived
from his hometown
in Iowa who told him his wife had learned of his death and
remarried."
(An oral history from a Winsor descendent told the story that
Winsor
found gold while prospecting. He returned to his wife and
her new
husband in Iowa and gave them a bag of gold. Then he
retraced his
journey back to California where he married, raised a family, and
lived
out his days.)
“Winsor gave up mining in 1856 and after working a while on a farm
in
the San Joaquin
Valley, came to Mission San Jose where he met and (in 1858)
married an
Irish girl
named Catherine Costello. For about five years the Winsors lived
back
in the hills
in the Smith Creek area, then came to Milpitas and bought 40 acres
on
the Milpitas-Berryessa
Road (now Capitol Avenue).”
Today the blacksmith shop is gone. It was destroyed in 2006
to make a driveway to the new library
that was being built to the north. The water tank house used
at the blacksmith shop was preserved and can be seen on the east
side of Winsor Street near the library parking garage south
entrance.