The Pomeroy Anvil Trail

The Pomeroy Anvil is symbolic of the Pomeroy family in North America. The town of Northampton, Massachusetts presented Medad Pomeroy with an anvil in 1660 in exchange for his services as the community’s blacksmith; it was passed down through many generations of Pomeroy blacksmiths. The original Pomeroy Anvil is currently housed at the Historic Northampton Museum.

The shape of the anvil is typical of English anvils of the time period.  There has been much speculation regarding where and when this anvil was manufactured.  Some anvil scholars believe it was manufactured in England, others believe it was manufactured in the American Colonies.

Stumbling upon the Pomeroy Anvil at the Historic Northampton Museum in 2002, Bill Pomeroy dreamt of erecting monuments in the shape of the Pomeroy Anvil in places that are historic to the Pomeroy family in America.

In February 2006, Pompey, New York became the site of the first monument. Since then, a total of 12 monuments were erected in New York, Ohio, Massachusetts and Maine.

North American Pomeroys were blacksmiths, authors, doctors, farmers, inventors, lawyers, and saloon keepers. They were dreamers, some were schemers; they lived in mansions, farmhouses, frontier cabins, and poorhouses. They were homebodies, adventurers, 49ers, ever moving west toward their next opportunity.  In tracing the history of the Pomeroy family, one traces the history of North America, and this history is important to preserve and to celebrate.