Father And Son Start Woodworking Business Together, Create Little Library For The City Of Wagoner

The city of Wagoner is asking its residents where they should put a new book house, where you can take or leave a book.

Before the city asked where to put the new little library, they asked Poor Boys Woodworking to make it.

8 years ago, Josh Seabolt was living with his dad, Allen, when Josh was clearing Allen's property and cut into a black walnut tree. Instead of using the wood for a fire, he made a log bench out of it.

Josh only had three tools to use to build that bench, which is how the name of his business came to be.

"Poor boys, I couldn't afford anything else. I had to make it work," Josh said.

Three months into working with wood, his dad joined in.

"Josh is the president, I'm the CEO, or you can switch em', whichever way you want to do it," Allen said.

The simple decision to join Poor Boys Woodworking redirected the course of Allen's life.

"That pretty much saved my life 'cause if I hadn't done that, I was just vegetating," Allen said. "If I hadn't started working with him, I probably wouldn't be here right now. I was just going nowhere, doing nothing, and now I'm doing something pretty much every day," Allen said. 

Not only do they share a love for creating, the Seabolts have another hobby: a love for reading, and when Josh was a teenager, it was his escape.

"For me, I had cancer when I was younger. During chemotherapy, I read a lot," Josh said.

So, when Josh's friend, the mayor of Wagoner, asked Poorboys Woodworking to build a book house, there was no hesitation from the Seabolts. 

"If one kid will read because of that box, it's paid us back," Allen said.

"Reading lets you go places you may not normally be able to go," Josh said. "It kind of lets you escape. Depending on what genre you're reading, you can go from reading a fantasy book and being a knight and killing a dragon to learning about law. It's a snowball effect. They may start out with fantasy books, and the next thing you know, they're reading law books and going to Harvard."

Josh and Allen say they give away more wood creations than they sell. But the Poorboys Woodworking is working on expanding their shop.