Charlebois Shop

The first location for the Charlebois Blacksmith Shop was at 1^st Street and 1^st Avenue Southeast in 1887. They eventually moved to 313 East Central Avenue where the business continued until closing in 1984.  John Charlebois, who started the blacksmith shop also had a homestead in the 188o’s. His homestead covered a large area in Minot east of Main Street and up South hill. John Charlebois donated a lot of the land to the Rosehill Cemetary. The term blacksmith came to imply an assortment of tasks as time went on. Starting out in 1887 doing a lot of horseshoeing, that has become a thing of the past. At one time they would sharpen 1500 to 2000 plow shares a season. That task disappeared with the coming of throw away” plow shares. At the end of their reign in Minot, the Charlebois Shop did a lot of ornamental iron work. I remember delivering Coke products to The Charlebois Shop on Central Avenue. In the late 60’s they had one of the few table top Coke machines that still dispensed the 6 ounce bottles for a Nickel.
The first picture I believe is from 1888. The other picture is from 1886.