I begged the old gun from the Barlows and Father took me and it, back to Mr. Gager after he was 80 years old, to have the lock fixed. Mr. Gager said when we went to get it later, that "he thought the settrigger was dangerous for boys" so he had put a common lock on it. This nearly broke my heart. I have shot the old rifle many times but it was never accurate since I have known it. Some time about 1954 I gave the old rifle to Benton Dew, who polished it up and hung it on display. The wire which held it broke and the fall finished the old cherry stock, made by the Barlows. Later I took it home and over the period of a year, made a new stock from black walnut which grew in this North yard, here at the old home. Lumber from the same tree was used to make the Alter in the South Amenia Church a few years ago, also the flower stands. They were made by an old German cabinet maker of Rosendale, N. Y. I gave the lumber. At the time I made the stock, I also bushed parts of the lock, made a new trigger and support, and repaired the trigger guard.
CHARCOAL by William A. Benton, 2nd.
In the old days, 125 years or so ago, when the "Blast Furnaces" all through this section, Dover Furnace, Wassaic, Sharon Valley, Irondale, Rudd Pond, Copake Iron Works, Kent, Macedonia, Lime Rock and others (In 1843 there were ten furnaces within twelve miles of Amenia, according to Smith's history) were turning out great quantities of "Pigiron", they required an immense amount of fuel to render the ore. This fuel was charcoal made from the wonderful stands of chestnut, oak and other woods covering these hills of ours. Oak we still have but chestnuts are gone, due to the blight which killed the last of them soon after the turn of the century. The process of changing these forests into fuel was an herculean task, performed with hand labor and oxen. First there had to be roads carved out of the mountain sides so that the coal could be hauled out to the furnaces. Then the trees were chopped to four foot lengths, "Point to Calf" and were split to "Cordwood" size which could be handled easily. "Pit Bottoms" had to be made in accessible places, round, level and about 25' in diameter. Then the wood was either hauled on sleds by teams or wheeled to these pit bottoms and stacked four or five tiers high, on end, with perhaps 30 degrees slant to the center, to make it stand up safely and also hold the covering of dirt. The whole was then covered air-tight with dirt and sods, with the exception of a, hole in the top and a number of small holes at the bottom for air intakes. 56
