Blacksmith Profile: Emmett Jones

by Paul Vincent, Contributing Researcher

Craft workers like blacksmiths and wheelwrights were, and still are, held in high regard for their unique set of skills—so much so that one of these artisans, Emmett P. Jones, became part of a 1999 exhibit at Museum of the Albemarle entitled Fixing the Farm.

WHEELWRIGHTS AT WORK, 1998

Emmett P. Jones (right) and Armie Riddick set an iron tire to a nearly completed wagon wheel.

Courtesy Museum of the Albemarle

Born in Gates County in 1914, Jones began learning the craft from his father at the age of three. His early days of turning the forge and helping strike iron grew into managing his own shop and fabricating complete carts. The dump carts he built used a hinged design, which kept the horse or mule from having to be unhitched. In his later years, Jones continued his vocation by teaching welding classes at Chowan High School. Apart from being an educator, he worked as an aviation metalsmith with the U.S. Coast Guard in Elizabeth City from 1954 to 1970.

The cultural contributions Jones made through his life’s work were recognized by the North Carolina Folklore Society when he was awarded the Brown Hudson Folklore Award in April 2000. The Fixing the Farm exhibit sought to document the ever-fading rural traditions, kept alive by craftworkers like Emmett Jones, for future generations.