[320130]
| N.C. District: | No. 2 |
| Worker: | Mary A. Hicks |
| No. Words: | 381 |
| Subject: | THE BLACKSMITH |
| Person Interviewed: | Alonzo Haywood |
| Editor: | G. L. Andrews |
| Date Stamp: | "AUG—1937" |
THE BLACKSMITH
An interview with Alonzo Haywood, 67 years old of 1217 Oberlin Road.
On East Cabarrus Street is a blacksmith shop which is a survival of horse and buggy days, and the smiling blacksmith, a Negro, although he has hazel eyes, recounts the story of his father's life and his own.
My father was Willis Haywood and in slavery days he belonged to Mr. William R. Pool. Mr. Pool liked father because he was quick and obedient so he determined to give him a trade.
Wilson Morgan run the blacksmith shop at Falls of Neuse and it was him that taught my father the trade at Mr. Pool's insistence.
While father, a young blade, worked and lived at Falls of Neuse, he fell in love with my mother, Mirana Denson, who lived in Raleigh. He come to see her ever' chance he got and then they were married.
When the Yankees were crossing the Neuse Bridge at the falls, near the old paper mill, the bridge broke in. They were carrying the heavy artillery over and a great many men followed, in fact the line extended to Raleigh, because when the bridge fell word passed by word of mouth from man to man back to Raleigh.