Written by: John Kennett, Lafayette Historical Society | Photos Provided
Back when Lafayette was little more than a crossroads surrounded by farms and orchards, Fourth of July celebrations came with a thunderous boom — courtesy of Peter Thomson’s anvil.
Lafayette’s earliest recorded blacksmith shop was founded by Jack Elson around 1853. In August 1859, he hired a young blacksmith named Peter Thomson, a Canadian-born craftsman who had sailed from New York earlier that spring. Within just a few years, Thomson purchased the shop himself.
The blacksmith shop stood in a grove of black walnut and locust trees on the northeast corner of what is today Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Moraga Road, now the site of Bank of America. For more than 50 years, Thomson shoed horses, repaired farm equipment, and forged tools and square nails for Lafayette’s early ranchers and farmers.
But the real story — and the loudest one — was his famous anvil.
When news arrived that the Civil War had ended in 1865, local residents celebrated the historic surrender announcement by “touching off” Thomson’s anvil. Gunpowder was packed into the hole at the end of the anvil and ignited with a 25-foot iron rod heated red-hot in the forge. The result was a booming blast that echoed across the valley.
Apparently, Lafayette enjoyed the tradition so much that the anvil became part of Fourth of July celebrations for years afterward. Emma Hough wrote to her husband on July 9, 1876:
“They shot the anvil off 4th July about 48 times.”
Forty-eight times! One can only imagine the racket rolling across the little farming community beneath the summer sky.
Eventually, one particularly enthusiastic celebration cracked the anvil. Thomson repaired it with a metal patch, and remarkably, the old survivor still exists today — patch and all — on display at the Lafayette Historical Society on Golden Gate Way.
As America celebrates its 250th birthday, it’s hard not to picture those early Lafayette Fourth of July evenings — neighbors gathered together beneath the summer sky, proud of their country, while Peter Thomson’s anvil thundered across the valley like a cannon salute from another time.
Special thanks to Aegis Living Moraga (aegisliving.com) for sponsoring our Lafayette History section.
