grapple hook (artifact #12)

The phototograph is of the gapple hook belonging to my father, Fred Arthur Doyle.

First a little background concerning the water supply in rural America in centuries gone forever.  This is from my experience in the Ozark Mountains of NW Arkansas while growing up as a boy.  In earlier days, most rural water wells were hand dug to various depths.  Some were only a few feet deep, those under 15 feet were usually spring fed.  Wells under 30 feet or so were considered shallow wells.  Others were considered deep wells, some approaching 200 feet in depth.

They were hand dug through soil of various types and rock strata until water was struck or the well was abandoned as a dry hole.  The desirability or value of the farm or homestead was often determined by the type and amount of water supplied by the well.  A well may supply either soft or hard water.  Some wells may produce sulfur water, which smells much like rotten eggs.  Some people, out of necessity, have used sulfur water when nothing else was available.  I have forced myself to drink a little sulfur water; coffee tastes horrible and is next to impossible to drink when made with sulfur water.

After a well was found to be productive, it would be lined from bottom to top with rectangular flat rock of a somewhat uniform thickness.  It was usually extended upwards for 4 feet or so, creating a curb.  Often times a cover would be placed over the rock to keep out debris.

Potable water was quite essential to a family and animals as livelihood and productivity depended upon water.  I have known people who hauled water in barrels, either by team and wagon or by truck.  Some people have gone busted for lack of water and moved on.

For whatever reason, when something was lost or was at the bottom of the well it was prudent to at once make an attempt to remove or retrieve it.  It may be needed, if it was the well bucket rope, which had slipped through the pulley, as no water could be drawn until it was retrieved.  Should it happen that an animal falls into the water and drowns, it must be removed in some manner.  If the item can be removed using the grapple hook, the work is easy.  However, should this not work, it is then necessary to draw down the well so that a person can be lowered to the well’s bottom for a hand retrieval.

The grapple hook was attached to a length of chain and then usually to a rope.  The chain provided the weight needed to lower the grapple hook to the bottom of the well.

When I was a boy, this grapple looked in good shape.  But today it is terribly rusted and I do not know the reason unless the iron was of such poor quality that it simply rusted from moisture in the air.

Charles D. Doyle  5/7/03