Iowa Heritage Illustrated

Our Readers Talk about Iowa in Hollywood Film

Schaefer, Matt

Boxing and Being a Man

English

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, vol.80 no.3, Fall 1999

Walker, Donna

Matthew Edel and his Blacksmith Shop: Artisan and Inventor in Haverhill, Iowa

Elevators and Ether, 
Weather Bureaus and Fountain Pens: 
19th-century Requests to  the 20 th
Editor's note: At the turn of the century, a professor at Tufts 
College compiled thefollozving list of what the 19th century had 
received as legacies from the 18th, and what it bequeathed to the 
20th. The compendium, which appeared in various versions in 
the nation's newspapers and periodicals in December 1900 and 
January 1901, reminds us today of the astounding technologi­
cal advances of the 19th century.
"We received the horse and ox; we bequeath the loco­
motive, the automobile and the bicycle.
We received the goose quill; we bequeath the foun­
tain pen and typewriter.
We received the scythe; we bequeath the mowing ma­
chine.
We received the sickle; we bequeath the harvester.
We received the sewing and knitting needle; we be­
queath the sewing and knitting machine.
We received the hand printing press; we bequeath the 
cylinder press.
We received the typesetter; we bequeath the linotype.
We received the sledge; we bequeath the steam drill 
and hammer.
We received the flintlock musket; we bequeath auto­
matic Maxims.
We received the sail ship, six weeks to Europe; we be­
queath the steamship Majestic, six days to Europe.
We received gunpowder; we bequeath nitroglycerin.
We received the hand loom; we bequeath the cotton 
gin and woolen mill.
We received the leather fire bucket; we bequeath the 
steam fire engine.
We received the wood and stone structures; we be­
queath twenty-storied steel structures on which the sky 
may rest.
We received the staircase; we bequeath the elevator.
We received Johnson's Dictionary with 20,000 words; 
we bequeath the Standard Dictionary with 240,000 words.
We received 22,000,000 speaking the English lan­
guage; we bequeath 116,000,000.
We received the painter's brush and easel; we be­
queath lithography and photography.
We received the lodestone; we bequeath the electro­
magnet. .
We received the glass electric machine; we bequeath 
the dynamo.
We received the tallow dip; we bequeath the arclight 
and the Standard Oil Company.
We received the four-inch achromatic telescope; we 
bequeath the four-foot telescope.
We received two dozen members of the solar system; 
we bequeath 500.
We received a million stars; we bequeath 100,000,000.
We received the tinder box; we bequeath the friction 
match.
We received ordinary light; we bequeath Roentgen rays.
We received the beacon signal fires; we bequeath the 
telegraph, the telephone and wireless telegraphy.
We received the weather unannounced; we bequeath 
the weather bureau.
We received less than twenty known elements; we 
bequeath eighty.
We received the products of distant countries as rari­
ties; we bequeath them as bountiful as home productions.
We received history as events remembered and re­
corded; we bequeath the kinetoscope.
We received the past as silent; we bequeath the pho­
nograph, and the voices of the dead may again be heard.
We received pain as an allotment to man; we be­
queath ether, chloroform and cocaine.
We received gangrene; we bequeath antiseptic sur- 
gery.
We received the old oaken bucket; we bequeath the 
driven well and the water tower.
We received decomposition helplessly; we bequeath 
cold storage.
We received foods for immediate consumption; we 
bequeath the canning industry.
We received butter solely from milk; we bequeath 
oleomargarine.
We received the pontoon; we bequeath the Brooklyn 
bridge.
We received the hedgerow and the rail fence; we be­
queath the barbed wire fence.
We received cement steel; we bequeath Bessemer 
steel.
We received unlimited dependence upon muscles; 
we bequeath automatic mechanism." ❖
Source: Originally published at the turn of the century in the Congregationalist and 
since reprinted in Michael E. Stevens, ed„ Yesterdays Future.The Twentieth Century 
Begins (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1999), 61-63
Winter 1999 167


Elevators and Ether, Weather Bureaus and Pountain Pens: 19th-century Bequests to the 20th

Cochrane, Sharlene Voogd

Come Home at Once': The 1917 Letters of Neva Stockdale

Kuecker, Susan

Reverberations of the War: Cedar Rapids in 1965

Wood, Sharon E

Savage Girls: The 1899 Riot at Mitchellville Girls School

Swaim, Ginalie

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, vol.80 no.1-2, Spring-Summer 1999

Hippee, G B

Tour the 
Matthew Edel 
Blacksmith 
Shop Today
If Matthew Edel were to return to 
Haverhill today, he’d find his shop 
much as he left it when he died in 
1940. And so will you, when you take 
a step back into the past and visit 
this fascinating historic site, owned 
and preserved by the State Histori­
cal Society of Iowa.
Tour the blacksmith shop, hear sto­
ries from the resident blacksmith 
about Iowa before the days of au­
tomobiles and tractors, and walk 
the grounds surrounding the Edel 
family home. (The small building on 
the far left was built in I 996 by the 
Upper Midwest Blacksmith Associa­
tion. Equipped with a forge and 
tools of the trade, it is used for dem­
onstrations, classes, and meetings.)
The Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop 
is open daily, noon to 4 p.m., Me­
morial Day weekend through Labor 
Day weekend. For more informa­
tion or to schedule a group tour, 
contact the local manager: Histori­
cal Society of Marshall County, Box 
304, Marshalltown, Iowa 50158, 
phone 515-752-6664.
Ames
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Marshalltown •
Haverhill 
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Tour the Matthew Edel Blacksmith Shop Today

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