Cleveland County

Striking while the iron’s hot: Arkansas 4-H club teaches blacksmithing skills to new generation

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

RISON, Ark. — The metallic clang of hammers rang out at the Pioneer Village in Rison, where members of the Cleveland County 4-H Blacksmithing Club forged their own tent stakes from low-carbon steel.

The club’s monthly meeting took place April 19 during the Pioneer Craft Festival. The Pioneer Village, a collection of historical homes and structures dating back to the 1800s, includes a blacksmith’s shop built by local volunteers. Ed Montgomery, leader of the Cleveland County 4-H Blacksmithing Club, said the location has been perfect for their group.

“This was specifically built to be a blacksmith’s shop,” Montgomery said. “Two retirees named Bill Gray and Luther Drye built this from used sheet metal and lumber from Luther’s sawmill. They donated their time in addition to the building materials. It’s been a great thing for the kids and the Pioneer Village.”

Montgomery said his passion for blacksmithing first began as a kid, when he was a member of the Scott County 4-H Buckskinners.

LESSONS IN FORGING — At a meeting of the Cleveland County 4-H Blacksmithing Club, held at the Pioneer Village in Rison, club member Millie Montgomery explains how club volunteer Jeff Frey and his son Brayden Frey are heating a piece of low-carbon steel to be hammered into a tent stake. (Division of Agriculture photo.) 

“Our club wasn’t all about blacksmithing, but as part of it, we had a forge,” Montgomery said. “None of us knew what we were doing with it, but we just got out there and learned what we could. It really took for me. I don’t do it for a living, but I just love to do it. Since then, I’ve collected as many tools as I can and just continually learned about it.”

The Cleveland County Blacksmithing Club began meeting in the fall of 2023, and its members include Montgomery’s three children.

“I enjoy showing this to them,” Montgomery said. “It’s passing on something that I feel is an important skill.”

At their April meeting, 4-H members shaped small pieces of low-carbon steel into tent stakes by tapering and sharpening one end to be hammered into the ground, then using the tip of an anvil to curl and press the top of the stake into a tight hook.

Members also operated hand-cranked blowers to keep a stream of oxygen flowing into three separate forges, which were heated using blacksmithing coke. Blacksmithing coke is coal that has been heated to burn off moisture and other substances, resulting in a fuel that burns hotter and produces less smoke. To get the coke burning, members first kindled a small wood and coal fire.

Montgomery said club members have made hand-forged nails, wall hooks and dinner bells.

As part of their blacksmith training, club members have also been taught hammer signals, which are helpful for team striking, when two people take turns hitting the same piece of metal.

“That’s a traditional way of communicating in a blacksmith’s shop,” Montgomery said. “At times, it can be too loud in a blacksmith’s shop to hear verbal instructions clearly. Taps on the anvil with a hammer can tell the ‘striker’ when to start and stop.

“And they’re learning teamwork – there’s no time for a kid to argue in this,” he said. “Participants learn that when the metal comes out of the fire, work must start on it immediately.”

David West, Cleveland County extension agriculture agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the 4-H Blacksmithing Club is “helping get kids active, build self-confidence, teach them a useful and practical skill and help them build relationships.

“It has so many positive layers to it,” West said. “Learning safety with tools and how to follow instructions, and expressing your artistic ability and imagination through heating, hammering and forging. I heard one student say it can even be therapeutic to hit some steel with a hammer.”

The club was recently awarded an Innovative Grant from the Arkansas 4-H Alumni Association and Arkansas 4-H Foundation. The grant recognizes 4-H programs that benefit more than just one club.

“Through Ed’s leadership and direction, along with many volunteers who have stepped up, this club is showcasing 4-H and 4-H’ers to their entire community,” West said.

Hands-on learning

Montgomery’s daughter Millie, 15, has participated in the club since it started.

“It’s a dying art, blacksmithing is,” Millie said. “Nobody really knows how to do it. I really enjoy it, and I like to help other people do it because it’s fun.”

Montgomery’s son John, 16, said he enjoys blacksmithing as a creative outlet.

“I was inspired, like many others, by a show called ‘Forged in Fire’,” John said. “I would say that blacksmithing is a good way to get some experience working with your hands. You have fun, you can work, and you can make money.”  

Desiree Frey, whose son Brayden, 13, is a club member, said the experience has helped her son practice his creativity and improve his social skills.

“I never knew anything about blacksmithing until we got into 4-H, then when they started this, I thought, ‘Oh Brayden, that would be really cool to get into,’” Frey said. “He’s made a lot of things. He’s made a couple of dinner bells, plant holder hooks, a spoon and nails.”

Jeff Frey, Brayden’s father, is a club volunteer. He said it’s important for young people to learn about hands-on trades and explore different career paths.

“College is great, but it’s not for everybody,” Frey said. “Blacksmithing might not be something you do day in and day out, but to be able to see you can do something like this, it’s good. I work in a paint and auto body shop, and you do all that work by hand. There’s a pride in that work, and that’s what I see in a lot of the kids here. Whenever they see the final product, they look at it, and they’re like, ‘I made that.’”

Katie Jo Strother, 14, who recently joined the club, said she enjoys coming to meetings to see her friends and take advantage of the unique opportunity to learn.

“You don’t see this kind of stuff anywhere around,” Strother said. “To be in my hometown and doing something that we all love, it’s just fun.”

Montgomery said his goal for the club is for members to continue growing in their confidence and abilities.

“We’ve really seen their skills increase, from barely being able to hit the metal to really hitting accurately,” he said. “I want to see them progress in their skills and make more and more complex things. My goal is for them to be able to work with their hands and work with their intellect, that way they diversify their abilities as they enter adulthood.”  

To learn more about the Cleveland County 4-H Blacksmithing Club, contact Ed Montgomery at edmontgomery100@gmail.com. For more information about Arkansas 4-H, visit 4h.uada.edu.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Ryburn family donates 1940s veterans quilt to Cleveland County

By Tracy Courage
U of A System Division of Agriculture

RISON, Ark. — A 1940s quilt embroidered with the names of more than 900 Cleveland County World War II veterans has quietly been passed down through generations of Artie Ryburn’s family — and now it has once again changed ownership. Its new home is the Cleveland County courthouse, where it will be permanently displayed.

A RICH HISTORY — Pamela Ryburn Pruett and her family gather by the Service Men's Quilt that Pruett's grandmother helped make in 1944. From left to right, back row: Luke Pruett, Tim Scholes, Kim Ryburn Ferguson, Thomas Pruett, Pam Ryburn Pruett, Lauren Mitchell, Penny Ryburn Scholes, Liam Pruett, Ken Pruett, Alicia Baldwin, Sara Mitchell, Pat Ryburn. Front: April Pruett and Elliot Pruett (Division of Agriculture Photo.)

The quilt is a gift from Pamela Ryburn Pruett, a Mississippi County Extension family and consumer science agent with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Pruett’s grandmother, Artie Elizabeth Hamilton Ryburn, helped hand-stitch the red, white and blue cotton quilt.

“It has been a prized possession in our family for many years,” Pruett said. “We thought it only right that it return home to Cleveland County for the families of these servicemen to enjoy.”

The Cleveland County Service Men’s Quilt was unveiled Nov. 11 — on Veterans Day — inside the courthouse in downtown Rison where more than 50 residents gathered to see the quilt’s unveiling and to celebrate Veterans Day.

Stitching history

The late Artie Ryburn and her husband, Albert Alexander Ryburn, were Cleveland County natives, and Artie was a member of the Mount Carmel Home Demonstration Club — the precursor to today’s Extension Homemakers Clubs. She was among the group of women who made the quilt in 1944 as a home demonstration club project to raise money for war bond effort.

The 9-by-9-foot quilt has 36 squares, and each square includes the names of 24 servicemen embroidered with red or blue thread. More names are embroidered in white on the quilt’s red side panels. Gold stars were stitched by the names of those who died in combat, and silver stars indicate acts of valor.

“The quilt was raffled in 1945 to raise money, and my grandmother won the raffle,” Pruett said.

When she died, the quilt passed to her son, Doyle Ryburn, who served in the Army on the European front and whose name is on the quilt. His wife, Marilyn, then passed it on to Pruett.

“My grandmother wanted the quilt to stay in our family,” Pruett said. “Our family wanted to do something very special to honor its story and the many veterans who served their country. We want their families to be able to enjoy it too.”

Pruett, who works with Extension Homemakers Clubs in Mississippi County, reached out to Karen Bell Fox, a member of Cleveland County Extension Homemakers Council. Fox and the EHC club worked with the county officials and the Cleveland County Historical Society to secure a place inside the courthouse to display the quilt.

Extension Connection

Home demonstration clubs, like the one Artie Ryburn was a part of, were an important outreach of the Cooperative Extension Service, which started in the early 20th century as an experiment in adult education. The home demonstration agents taught farm women improved methods for accomplishing their household responsibilities and encouraged them to better their families’ living conditions through home improvements and labor-saving devices.

“During the war, there was a need to teach families how to can and preserve food, how to care for families, how to stretch a budget, even how to make a mattress,” Fox said. “Extension Homemakers have a rich history in Arkansas, and our mission continues to be education, leadership and community service.”

Stories of sacrifice

Vickie Padgett was one of the Cleveland County residents who witnessed the quilt’s unveiling. Padgett brought along a framed photo of her uncle, Marvin Ed Terry, who is listed on the quilt as “PFC Buck Terry,” as he liked to be called. Terry was serving with the Fifth Armored Division in Luxembourg, Germany, when he was killed in action on Sept. 30, 1944. He was 28 years old. His body was the first to be returned home by train to Cleveland County, and the event was well-documented in local newspapers.

“An Army Jeep was sent out to bring my grandmother into town because she lived two miles from Rison,” Padgett said. “I always thought it was so thoughtful that the ‘business houses’ on Main Street closed until his body reached the funeral home.”

On Saturday, Padgett admired the quilt and took photos of her uncle’s name embroidered in navy blue thread.

“It’s just beautiful,” she said. “I don’t have the words.”

Wartime quilts

Quilts like the Cleveland County Service Men’s Quilt are significant as both an art form and for the history they help preserve.

“During wartime, women made quilts for their sweethearts, husbands, sons and other family members who were fighting overseas. A lot these quilts have been collected and placed in museums and exhibits across the U.S.,” Annette Rawls, Cleveland County Historical Society treasurer, said.

Pruett’s cousin, the late Elizabeth Ryburn Ferguson, documented the quilt’s history, which is housed at the Cleveland County Library.

Some of that history is now included in a new booklet created by the Cleveland County Extension Homemakers Council and Cleveland County Historical Society. The 38-page publication details the quilt’s history with several pages dedicated to close-up photos of each quilt square. The names of additional Cleveland County veterans not on the quilt are listed in the booklet.

“We realized a lot of servicemen from Cleveland County didn’t have their name on the quilt,” Rawls said. “Some of them enrolled after 1944 when the quilt was made. We researched and found another large group of names, and we included those in the book.”

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.