Martha Drew Smith - Female Blacksmith

On May 23 1904 Martha Drew was born in Dexter, Michigan. Her parents Margaret Ferris and Alfred Drew had two sons and one living daughter (as well as a daughter who had previously passed away) when Martha was born and a year later her brother Leonard died of tuberculosis just after his 6th birthday. Margaret and Alfred went on to have three more boys between 1908 and 1912. Alfred and his brother-in-law George Smith Sr owned a blacksmith business and Martha picked up the trade at a young age. The boys at school would tease Martha, calling her a tomboy because she was strong and husky and could work just as hard, if not harder, then any of them. Martha didn't appreciate this name calling one bit, so she beat the living daylights out of a few of them, and they mostly left her alone after that.

At the age of 17 she married 36 year old Herbert Young. The marriage did not last long however. Martha soon left her husband and moved to New York where her father's business partner and his son George Jr had opened up a blacksmith shop in Manhattan. Martha and George Jr fell in love and after her husband finally filed for divorce she and George married.

Martha and George opened up their own smithy shop in Greenwich Village and Martha became the only female blacksmith in all of New York, possibly all of the country. She was a large woman, measuring in at 5'10 and almost 200 pounds. Her husband, though smaller then she, loved every bit of his wife. He said that while during the day she could hammer a horseshoe better then most men he knew, at night she dressed in frilly dresses with bright red nail polish and begged him to take her dancing. Once he asked her to leave the trade so they could start a family. She told him no that she wasn't ready. He said he never asked her again.

In 1942 Martha became ill and it was determined she had Cancer, the couple moved back to Michigan where Martha's family still lived. On April 17, 1944 Martha passed away at the age of 39. She was survived by her husband, both her parents, her eldest sister, and 3 brothers.

Martha is my husband's 1st cousin 3x removed (her husband George is my husband's great granduncle)

Check out Martha's grandmother Martha Sheldon Drew's story here