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- Courier Express - 1935
Courier-Express Niagara Falls Bureau Niagara Falls, Feb. 23—Next time you lift your glass to sing a toast to the Schnitzelbank, let it be to one of the "species" still doing duty on the Lockport Road farm of Supervisor Andrew R. Laur of the Town of Niagara. For everyone in the room with you will be able to join in a shouted and emphatic "Ja, das ist eine Schnit zelbank," for this sturdy old shaving stool has done service for 120 years. Abraham Wilmer, grandfather of Mrs. Lauer, constructed this vise in 1815 after arriving in the Lockport Road area. He followed the tradi tional pattern of thc:c built by car penters in Germany since about tne seventeenth century. It has survived the advent of the lathe, so far as those who have followed Abe Wil mer are concerned. Managed by a foot pedp'., the up per arm grips firmly the wood on which the workman is whittling with a draw-knife. From the blocks that the Witmer-Laur schitzelbank has clung onto have come axe handles, chair rungs, table legs, wagon tongues, handles for shovels and many other articles. All these pro ducts defy comparison with ma chine-made counterparts. Supervisor Laur used it in mak ing a gavel which he presented to County Judge William A. Gold re cently. That schnitzelbanking shall not become a lost art in the Laur house hold, the jovial supervisor is dilli gently training his nephew, John Laur, in the art, and John, It may be said to his credit, responds with a foot and arm action that would make any schnitzelbank content.
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1906 - 1944 (37 years)