Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 23 April 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #16 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, While reading this week I came across a biographical sketch about a youth who began hauling freight across the Alleghenies. His name was Moses Hartz and he later became an Amish minister. However, the interesting eye catcher for me was that this young man was one of the early Conestoga wagon teamsters. The Conestoga Wagon, according to Grandma Oliver, was the vehicle that moved her sister, Fanny Sutliff, and her husband, Pleas Howell, to Alberta, Canada in the late 1800s. When we are listening to these wonderful stories, we don’t ask enough questions. As a student of history, I thought I knew what such a wagon was all about, and therefore, I needn’t ask about details. For instance, Conestoga Wagons didn't have seats in the front of the wagon as did the popular wagons portrayed in those movies of the western movement. There were lazy boards, where the driver would sit if he didn't want to ride one of the horses or walk. A neat picture of one is found at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacahs/wagon.htm>. So, did Great Aunt Fanny walk all the way to Can-nee-dah? Or, did she ride somewhere inside the wagon? Gideon Weaver built these wagons in the Conestoga Valley from 1836, but he wasn’t the originator of this style of carrier. The origin of these wagons is actually lost in history, but supposedly the earliest known mention of it was in 1717 in the journal of James Logan, secretary to William Penn. In the 1730s there was a tavern in Philadelphia called "Sign of the Conestoga Wagon". The name "Conestoga" has been applied to an early Indian group, to a river, to a valley, to a trail and road, to a manor, and to a now-extinct breed of horses. All of these are identified with Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, known as "the nation's breadbasket." It was across the rich farmlands of that county and on the road connecting Lancaster with Philadelphia that the massive four-wheeled wagons, generally drawn by four to six Conestoga horses, first appeared. It was one of the chief freight carriers in the East from 1750 until the coming of the railroads. The boat-shaped body prevented loads from shifting and gave the wagon a distinctive appearance. No two wagons, however, were alike, since they were often custom built. Now one thing leads to another; Grandma Oliver didn’t know about the Oliver ancestors named McMahan. John Samuel McMahan, father-in-law to our ancestor, Samuel Oliver, was a member of the North Carolina Continentals during the Revolutionary War. That unit listed John Samuel McMahan as being from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So the question comes to mind, “Did the McMahans leave Pennsylvania in Conestoga Wagons? Did they use oxen or horses? Most of the wagons we see are pulled by six horse teams; however, traveling through the wildernesses of America before the Revolutionary War, we often see them pulled by teams of oxen. As mentioned, the Conestogas were developed in Pennsylvania by descendants of German colonists. Conestoga wagons were large, heavy, and had beds shaped somewhat like boats, with angled ends and a floor that sloped to the middle so barrels wouldn't roll out when the wagon was climbing or descending a hill. Like the covered wagons of the western pioneers, it had a watertight canvas bonnet to shelter the cargo. Conestogas were pulled by teams of six or eight horses and could haul up to five tons. The traders on the Santa Fe Trail adopted the Conestoga design because it was durabile and a “rightly” size, but they found that bullwhackers or muleskinners were preferable to teamsters -- the immense distances and scarcity of good water along the Santa Fe Trail precluded the use of horses as draft animals. Teams of up to two dozen oxen or mules were used to haul the heaviest loads. [Shades of the 24 mule team Borax wagons.] Sometimes a second wagon, or "backaction," was hitched behind the lead wagon. [Shades of the one or two “backactions” attached to present day eighteen wheelers on our highways and now our city streets.] “Overlanders” on the Oregon Trail quickly learned that Conestoga wagons were too big for their needs: the huge, heavy wagons killed even the sturdiest oxen before the journey was two-thirds complete. Their answer to the problem was dubbed the "Prairie Schooner," a half-sized version of the Conestoga that typically measured 4 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet long. With its tongue and neck yoke attached, its length doubled to about 23 feet. With the bonnet, a Prairie Schooner stood about 10 feet in height, and the wheelbase was about 5 or more feet wide. It weighed around 1300 pounds empty and could be easily dismantled for repairs en route. Teams of 4 to 6 oxen or 6 to 10 mules were sufficient to get the sturdy little wagons to Oregon. Manufactured by the Studebaker brothers or other wainwrights specializing in building wagons for the overland emigrants, a Prairie Schooner in good repair offered shelter almost as good as a house. As a listener to the stories, one never thinks about “green” or “seasoned” wood. The wagon box, or bed, was made of hardwoods to resist shrinking in the dry air of the plains and deserts the emigrants had to cross. It was 2 or 3 feet deep, and with a bit of tar it could easily be rendered watertight. Thus, they could be floated across slow-moving rivers where the water was deeper than the wheels. The side boards were beveled outwards to keep rain from coming in under the edges of the bonnet and to help keep out river water. The box sat upon two sets of wheels of different sizes: the rear wheels were typically about 50 inches in diameter, while the front wheels were about 44 inches in diameter. Why were they of different sizes? [Another question we let slip by while listening to stories.] The smaller front wheels allowed for a little extra play, letting the wagon take slightly sharper turns than it would otherwise have been able to negotiate without necessitating a great deal of extra carpentry work to keep the bed level. All four wheels were fitted with iron hoops or "tires" about 4 inches wide to protect the wooden rims, and they were likewise constructed of hardwoods to resist shrinkage. Nonetheless, many emigrants took to soaking their wagon wheels in rivers and springs overnight, as it was not unheard of for the dry air to shrink the wood so much that the iron tires would roll right off the wheels during the day. Hardwood bows held up the heavy bonnets. The bows were soaked until the wood became pliable, bent into U-shapes, and allowed to dry. They would hold their shape if this was done properly, which was important to the emigrants: if the wagon bows were under too much tension, they could spring loose and tear the bonnet while the wagon was jostled and jounced over rough terrain. The bonnets themselves were usually homespun cotton doubled over to make them watertight. The bonnet was always well-secured against the wind, and its edges overlapped in back to keep out rain and dust. On some wagons, it also angled outward at the front and back to add protection to the contents of the wagon. Wagons inevitably broke down or wore out from the difficulty and length of the journey. Equipment for making repairs en route was carried in a “jockey” box attached to one end or side of the wagon. It carried extra iron bolts, linch pins, skeins, nails, hoop iron, a variety of tools, and a jack. Also commonly found slung on the sides of wagons were water barrels, a butter churn, a shovel and axe, a tar bucket, a feed trough for the livestock, and a chicken coop. A fully outfitted wagon on the Oregon Trail must have been quite a sight, particularly with a coop full of clucking chickens raising a ruckus every time the wagon hit a rock. There was only one set of springs on a Prairie Schooner, and they were underneath the rarely-used driver's seat. Without sprung axles, riding inside a wagon was uncomfortable at the best of times. Many historians like to interject humor into their accounts, but it sure seems to fit; some stretches of the routes were so rough that an “overlander” could fill his butter churn with fresh milk in the morning, and the wagon would bounce around enough to churn a small lump of butter for the evening meal. The simple leaf springs under the driver's seat made that perch tenable, but not particularly comfortable. The brake lever was usually located so it could be pressed by the driver's foot or thrown by someone walking alongside the wagon, and it was ratcheted so the brake block would remain set against the wheel even after pressure was taken off the lever. While Prairie Schooners were specifically built for overland travel, many emigrants instead braved the Oregon Trail in simple farm wagons retrofitted with bonnets. Farm wagons were typically slightly smaller than Prairie Schooners and not as well sheltered, as their bonnets usually were not cantilevered out at the front and back, but they were quite similar in most other respects. The next time you watch John Wayne lead a wagon train across our western plains, place your critical eye on the details of the wagon used in the film. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) and Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://www.deannedurrett.com/codetalkers.html PostScript: = = = = http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html