Saddletree Factory Tour!

What's a saddletree? Great question! A week ago, I couldn't have told you. But now I know!

While we were having afternoon coffee in Madison last Saturday, Ryan found information about a little factory in town that offered tours. We love a good story and a bit of local history, so we walked over to check it out! We lucked out in being the only people there at that time, so we got our very own private tour!

The Schroeder Saddletree Factory is no longer in operation, but it provided a fascinating glimpse into manufacturing in another time. Our tour guide compared it to Pompeii, because when it ceased operating, nothing was moved or cleaned up. It all just sat as it had been and gradually fell into disrepair until a grant provided the funds to restore it and make it a part of Madison's history.

Ben Schroeder was a German immigrant who began his own saddletree business in the late 1800s, and his children carried on his legacy after his death. Oh wait...you might still not know what a saddletree is! It's the wooden part of a saddle that you really never see, because it's covered by another material - usually leather.

Ben came to America with nothing and apprenticed in this trade under another local saddletree maker and eventually opened his own shop. He was a bachelor when he started out, so he built a simple house and it served as both home and workshop. He got married, and his wife lived with him amid all the sawdust and projects. After they started having children, she suggested he build a separate workshop area so they could have a defined home, so he did! His home is what you see in the first picture above, and the factory buildings are in the second picture. The tour guide told us his goal was never to make a bunch of money, but just to make quality products. So at the most, his operation ran with about a dozen people.

We got to walk through the actual shop areas and see how they worked!

The bucket to the left of the stove, which kind of looks like a butter churn, is actually a paint barrel still stained with yellow paint. The guide (who is in the back of the picture there) told us the stove warmed up the cans of glue they used in manufacturing.

 If you look closely, you'll see a metal hand (minus a thumb) sticking up off that table. In addition to manufacturing saddletrees, they made a few other odds and ends, including gloves. This was the glove making area!

 The light makes this kind of hard to see, but if you look to the right of the clamp on the table, you'll see how the wood dips a bit from the top and bottom. That's where the guys sat to work, and eventually their *ahem* seats actually wore away the wood! They flipped the whole work plank over and started carving again from the other side. Lots of hours of sitting for a double-carved seat, right?

 More work stations.

This was the blacksmith area. The guide told us this stove was originally the stove that heated the house, but they upgraded to a better (read: less messy) model in the living quarters, so this one took on a new job in the shop. Also interesting: ever seen wooden floors in a blacksmith shop?

These pictures are from the separate building workshop. Lots of saws and belts and boilers in this area!

 The guide told us Ben was kind of a hoarder, so there were all kinds of papers and records left over in addition to the things in the shop!

 A catalog of yore.

 Oh yeah - forgot to tell you they made clothespins too!

 The big tumbler where they combined raw clothespins with walnuts to sort of sand down the clothespins and give them a bit of a stain.

 Trial runs at patterns. He said most were made out of food boxes or other random paper/card products found around the place.

 Tried and true patterns were made from wood.

Always good to know where the bathroom is while you're on a tour, right?

And another classic Ryan:

Such a fun tour. Worth the time and very affordable. ($4.00 per person.) Check it out sometime!