CLUTTER BLACKSMITH SHOP MUSEUM REMAINS IN USE

NAYLOR, Mo. -- The smell of coal smoke fills the air as visitors' eyes adjust to the dim light in the Clutter Blacksmith Shop Museum, the last remaining blacksmith shop in Southeast Missouri.

Although no one has earned a living at the shop since 1971, it still is used for the town's fall festival and when visitors stop in for demonstrations.

The shop is as it was in 1882, explained archaeologist James Price. It's a complete blacksmith shop that started in the 19th century, progressed through the automobile age and was in operation until 20 years ago.

Andy Taylor was the first blacksmith to work in the shop. He shoed horses and did buggy and wagon repair. B.F. Frealy of Naylor owned the shop after Taylor. However, he never ran the shop and resold it to John Clutter.

Clutter bought the shop and its inventory in 1915. The final signing was on Aug. 11, 1915. He borrowed $100 to purchase the shop and paid about $146 for all of its contents.

Clutter did welding and cut metal and was able to move into the automobile age, Price said. "He literally repaired a lot of automobiles and was a Chevrolet dealer for a time."

Generally, blacksmiths catered to the agriculture business, repairing everything from plows to automobiles and trucks.

In addition to his blacksmithing and welding, Clutter sold mower, machine, cultivator, plow and auto parts. "One room still has a full inventory of brand-new parts that have never been used," Price said.

Clutter was "very busy," Price said. "The records reveal that. He probably worked 10 hours a day, especially during the busy agricultural times."

Price said the museum has all of the shop's records "from day one" of everyone who ever walked into the shop between 1882 and 1971.

"We have every ledger," he said. "It's hard to imagine the number of people who walked through this door; it's pretty amazing."

Along with all of Taylor's and Clutter's tools, "we have a complete set of history," Price said.

"John Clutter made his living here, and so did Andy Taylor," Price said. "December 1971 was the last time (Clutter) worked in here. He was getting pretty feeble by that time."

It was in 1984 that Mr. and Mrs. J.C York, who was the stepson of John and Lou Ella Clutter, donated the blacksmith shop to the city.

"It was a nice thing for the little town," Price said. "York could have sold out, but he was generous and wanted to save history.

"It's significant because it's the last blacksmith shop, and he gave it to the city; it was quite a gift."

The shop is just as it was, Price explained. "We just left it the way John left it. Someone said we should get rid of the scrap iron (lying around), but it was his material."

Price explained "clutter" isn't the word for the museum. Although the shop part had been left actually the same, the house portion now display's Naylor's history.

Among the items on the display are Mo-Pac depot and the Railway Express Agency signs, the first television in Naylor, a sorting table from the Post Office, a quilt and a possum board for stretching possum.

They're all things that "have to do with this area," Price said.

Contents inside the shop include a washing machine from the 1920s and an old potbellied stove.

Visitors could stand in the shop for an hour and keep seeing different things hanging around the shop, Price said. "Something is poked everywhere. It lives up to the name of clutter."

Entering into the blacksmith shop is truly a step back in time.

When older people come in for the blacksmith demonstrations, the first thing they smell is the coal smoke.

"They'll say, `I haven't smelled that in years.' It brings back a lot of memories," Price said.