William MacLeod Day Book
Day Book Accounts (1893 - 1836) of
William MacLeod, Blacksmith
Polglass, Coigach
My grandfather William MacLeod was the blacksmith in Polglass, Coigach. My mother, sister and I were evacuated to Polglass for 18 months 1942-43 and I remember the old man sitting in his chair in the house or in a chair in the smiddy watching my uncle, Kenny John, working with the furnace and the anvil. When he died in 4th May 1943 my parents did not tell me about it because it was my birthday - a serious error on their part because my grandfather mysteriously disappeared from my life.
He seems to have been a great character with big hands which could nevertheless do delicate work fixing clocks.
Around about 1910, as did many men from Coigach, he went to Montana to work as a shepherd. He would be out on the prairie alone for up to 3 months. He seems to have enjoyed the life because he came back and was all set to emigrate there with his family but his wife would not go. So he used some of the money he had saved to buy new bellows for his smiddy.
His wife Iseabail (a Campbell from Coigach) died on 19 August 1943.
The copy of his Day Book i.e. accounts for his business as a blacksmith, that follows gives insight into what was happening in Coigach in his time. He did mainly farrier work and maintenance of equipment rather than in making things.
IAM May 2019
