Sunday was a hot day for blacksmithing, but George Spallinger didn’t seem to mind.

He paid no attention to the sweat dripping from his round spectacles and down the back of his 19th century-inspired outfit.

He is used to standing in front of the fire while pounding out his work with hammers and tongs and Sunday’s 90-degree temperatures didn’t get in his way of enjoying the Harvest Frolic and Trades Fair this past weekend at Lincoln Log Cabin.

The annual fall celebration hosted agricultural and trades fairs Saturday and Sunday to demonstrate what harvest time in the 19th Century was like, said Matt Cassady, an Eastern graduate student studying historical administration.

Cassady works at Lincoln Log Cabin and said they tried to make the event as real as possible.

“It was common in the 19th century to have a fall harvest so we’re trying to create what that would have been like,” Cassady said.

Along with blacksmithing demonstrations, there were also pie-eating contests, corn husking bees and plenty of homemade root beer and ham and beans to go around.

Cassady was manning the lye soap-carving tent where you could try your hand at whittling soap into shapes with a knife.

“It’s just something fun to do to pass the time,” Cassady said in his straw hat and period clothing.

It was common for families to make or buy their own soap and then carve it into shapes for a hobby, he said.

He did his best to carve a dog, while 14-year-old Rex Colgrove of Mattoon was busy carving a water-well to add to the bowl and mixing spoons he had carved earlier.

Colgrove was one of many volunteers that came to help with Harvest Frolic dressed in period clothing to add authenticity to the weekend.

Kathy Spallinger was dressed as a colonial wife and sat sowing near her husband while he made miniature horseshoes with his forge.

She was also playing the role of doctor and was on guard to help in the case that anyone got too close to the fire.

“I’m a registered nurse and when the blacksmith plays in the fire I have to fix him up,” Kathy said.

Despite the heat, crowds were large this year with many families from Eastern’s Family Weekend making the trip to Lincoln Log Cabin, Cassady said.

“We’ve had a lot of families come out,” he said. “We try to have lots of different things that appeal to lots of different people.”

9-year-old Harvey Norris of Toledo found something he liked on the Sargent Farm where the agricultural fair was being hosted.

He swung his first sledgehammer to try his hand at rail splitting. He smacked the wedge a few times before getting tired and passing it off to friend 10-year-old Dakota Frick.

Harvey liked swinging the sledgehammer but realized “it would be exhausting” to split rails all day.

He had his fill of what life would have been like 150 years ago.

Wood shavings surround Glen Summers as he uses an axe to hollow out a hand-crafted bowl that he was making at the Harvest Frolic and Trades Fair at the Lincoln Log Cabin Sunday morning. Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News

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