The Rise and Fall of the Conestoga Wagon

The Rise and Fall of the Conestoga Wagon or the Little Covered Wagon in the Barn Figure 1 Photo at Florida Frontiersmen, Inc. Property 12/16/2016 Ron Clark January 25, 2017 Dedicated to Jimmy Gibson, John Stickles and Jimmie Sweat who worked to preserve the covered wagons displayed at the Alafia River Rendezvous®. May they rest in peace. Table of Contents Images and Photos .............................................................................................................................................. 2 My Introduction to the Conestoga Wagon ................................................................................................ 3 The Rise of the Conestoga Wagon ................................................................................................................ 4 Conestoga Wagon Description ....................................................................................................................... 4 Braddock’s Expedition ....................................................................................................................................... 7 The Classic Era ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 Nissen Wagons ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................ 11 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Contributions, Sayings, and Organizations ............................................................................................ 11 Known Wagoners.............................................................................................................................................. 12 Songs of the Classic Era .................................................................................................................................. 12 Works Cited .............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Notes....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Images and Photos Figure 1 Photo at Florida Frontiersmen, Inc. Property 12/16/2016 ................................................ 1 Figure 2 Jimmy Gibson's Wagon at the Alafia River Rendezvous® ..................................................... 3 Figure 3 Colonial Sense Image ............................................................................................................................ 5 Figure 4 Wheel horse or Driver's Saddle........................................................................................................ 5 Figure 5 Drawing by Donald W. Holst. ............................................................................................................ 6 Figure 6 Braddock Laid to Rest in the Middle of the Road ..................................................................... 7 Figure 7 Fairview Inn, Three Mile House on Old Frederick Road. Oil on Canvas by Thomas Coke Ruckle, 1814, Maryland Historical Society ............................................................................... 8 Figure 8 Nissen Wagon Manufacturing Co., Wagons, Carts, Wheelbarrows, &c. P. Nissen, Salem, N.C. ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 9 Photo at the 2017 Alafia River Rendezvous® .......................................................................... 11 2 My Introduction to the Conestoga Wagon While perusing craigslist® for horse drawn farm wagons, I found a wagon listed in Georgia that looked like a Conestoga wagon. I showed the listing to my friend John Stickles. John was also interested in Conestoga wagons, and had purchased a full-scale replica from the estate of our good friend Jimmy Gibson. Jimmy use to bring his covered wagon to the Alafia River Rendezvous® for many years. This was a tradition that John would carry on after Jimmy’s death. So I asked John if he would be interested in purchasing this Georgia wagon with me? If we got it we would have two wagons to display at the Alafia. He agreed; so he, my brother-in-law Jimmie Sweat, and I drove to Georgia (pulling a car hauler) to check it out. The owners had pulled the wagon from out of their barn for us to see. It looked like a Conestoga wagon. It had hoops and was boat shaped but it was small. Under the dust, grime, and Georgia red clay one could still see the blue painted wagon box and the faint trace of the red Figure 2 Jimmy Gibson's Wagon at the Alafia River Rendezvous® painted running gear and wheels; and it even had a toolbox! It wasn’t in perfect condition. There were a couple of missing hoops, and several broken ones, some dry rot on one of the wheel fellows, but overall, it was in pretty good shape. The owners thought it was a Nissen wagon. We bought it. I had read in Shumway and Frey’s Conestoga Wagon 1750 - 1850 Freight Carrier for 100 Years of America's Westward Expansion, and on some Internet postings about Conestoga wagons, and had concluded that though we had a wagon that was defiantly influenced by the original Conestoga wagons, this was not a true Conestoga wagon. Conestoga wagons were pulled by six big horses, and hauled freight from “1750 to 1855, particularly in Pennsylvania and the neighboring states of Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio.”1 They were big freight wagons that could carry six tons. This wagon at best could carry maybe one ton. This could not be a Conestoga wagon because it was from the south and not Pennsylvania, built as late as the 20th century, and much too small to be a Conestoga wagon. Regardless, our little wagon could still serve as a good Conestoga wagon representation at the Alafia River Rendezvous®. In 2015 while researching for the book, On the Web Road a Traveloue of Braddock's Expedition F & I Grand Encampment July 16-19, 2015, I came across an online, PDF book by Berkebile, “Conestoga Wagons in Braddock’s Campaign, 1755,” that caused me to rethink my conclusions about the little covered wagon in the barn. 3 The Rise of the Conestoga Wagon What is now Lancaster County [formed May 2, 1729] 2 Pennsylvania was once the territory and home of the Conestoga (Minqua, Susquehannock) Indians, an Iroquoian tribe whose name was given to the lower Susquehanna River region.3 Also living here later were Shawanese [Shawnee], Ganawese [Conoy, Piscataway], and Delaware [Lenni Lenapi]4 resulting in many Indian traders moving into the area, and setting up trade with the natives as early as 1615.5 Increasingly the fur traders and merchants with their deerskins and furs traveled the old “Minquas Path,” a distance of about 70 miles from Conestoga to the Philadelphia merchants for exporting; and on which the Indian trade goods and Palatine immigrants traveled back to the Conestoga area from Philadelphia.6 In 1700 a line was surveyed on the ancient path to begin improving the road that would later become known as the Great Conestoga Road.7 After William Penn’s stroke in 1712, James Logan, his secretary and family steward, took over the Indian trade business at Conestoga establishing a storehouse in November 1717. In December of that year Logan recorded the first known reference to a wagon being called Conestoga in his “Account Book, 1712-1719,” “…to James Hendricks of Conestogoe viz. Conestogoe Waggon & Store….”8 Improvements to the Conestoga Road were made in 1718 9 bettering it for horse drawn wagons “…carrying merchandise from Philadelphia to Lancaster County, and for carrying furs down to Philadelphia.”10 These early farm and freight wagons were called “Dutch” or “Conestoga” wagons. They were the farm wagons built by and for the German farmers living in Pennsylvania, and used as freight wagons by the Philadelphia merchants and traders. Does our little wagon look like one of these early wagons? Conestoga Wagon Description The Conestoga wagon has been described as being “like a basket on a set of wheels.” The wagon’s shape helps it to take the stress, strain, and bumps of the rough roads much like that of a boat going through the waves. The wagon bed only makes contact on three points, two at the stern and one at the bow11. The box floor is curved having the lowest near the center and sloping upwards at the ends to keep the load centered.12 The wagon’s running gear was painted vermilion red, the body was a light indigo blue, the side boards red and the cover white. The Conestoga was always loaded and emptied from the tailgate at the stern of the wagon box.13 It has feedbox and feedbox chains, water bucket, a wagon jack, and tar pot full of tar to keep the wheels rolling, bows and bow staples, toolbox, axe holder,14.15 The water bucket usually hung at the rear axletree on the pole or on the side of the wagon bed.16 The left front hound holds the iron sheath where the axe was kept. This feature is almost exclusively found on the running gear of a Conestoga wagon and can be regarded as a small but important detail. The axe obviously was important to the Conestoga wagoner, and it was particularly important in the earlier days when the roads cut through miles of woodland.”17 The wagon jack was red, the tar pot black, the feed box blue, and the bucket either red or unpainted. Buckets had the name of the owner painted upon their sides and his initials and the date were put in iron upon the wagon jack.18 When arriving at the 4 Figure 3 Colonial Sense Image19 stopping place, the feed box was unslung from the rear end gate, and placed on the wagon tongue. One end had a flat projecting iron at the bottom, which slid into a staple on the tongue; the other end had a projecting piece with a hole in it. The wagon hammer was lifted, the doubletree passed back, and the hole placed over the hole in the tongue, inserting the wagon hammer to hold it.20 The Conestoga wagoner did not ride inside his vehicle but either walked beside his team, rode the wheel horse (the rearmost horse on the left), or perched himself precariously on the lazy board, a stout oak board that pulled out from beneath the wagon bed immediately in front of the left rear wheel.”21 Wagons that had a flat floor, straight bottoms side rails, and did not have feedbox chains and staples for bows, were probably not a Conestoga wagon.”22 Our little covered wagon had all the Conestoga wagon attributes including the iron sheath on the left front hound for holding the axe. Figure 4 Wheel horse or Driver's Saddle 5 Figure 5 Drawing by Donald W. Holst. a: Bed and running gear, right side: 1, Bows for supporting cover. 2. Ridgepole, or stringer. 3. Top rail, with bow staples and sideboard staples. 4. Sideboards, removable. 5, Feedbox in traveling position. 6, Rubbing plates to prevent wheels wearing wooden frame. 7. Sideboard standards, forming framework of sides (on the inside, a few of these sometimes project a few inches above the top rail to support the sideboards). 9, Securing rings for the ends of the spread chains, two of which span the bed to give extra support to the sides against inside pressures. b: Tongue, or pole, top and side views: 1. Doubletree hasp, shown in proper position over the doubletree in the lower drawing: the hammer-headed doubletree pin goes through it, then through the doubletree and the tongue. 2. Wear plate for doubletree pin. 3, Feedbox staple; in use, the feedbox is unhooked from the rear, the long pin on one end of the box is passed through the hole for the doubletree pin, and the lug on the other end of the box is slipped through the staple. 4. Hitching rings, for securing horses while feeding. 5. End ring.23 6 Braddock’s Expedition In 1755 at the start of the Seven Years War in North America when British General Braddock was kicking off his ill-fated expedition to attack the French at Fort Duquesne, he was without the wagons needed for transporting the supplies that were necessary to sustain his 2100 troops, livestock, and for carrying equipment. It was Benjamin Franklin who came to his rescue. “Mr. Benjamin Franklin, postmaster in Pennsylvania, who has great credit in that province, to have one hundred and fifty wagons…”24 with teams and drivers.25 It is from Franklin’s advertisements for wagons and packhorses that we can glean an idea of what the Conestoga wagon’s might have looked like in the mid 1700s before the Conestoga Wagon’s “classic era.” “WHEREAS 150 Waggons, with 4 Horses to each Waggon….26 If Waggons cannot thus be obtained, there must be an impress.” 27 “…the load of each wagon or cart not to exceed twenty hundredweight [2000 lbs.].”2829 Each Waggon should be furnished with a Cover, that the Goods laden therein may be kept from Damage by the Rain, and the health of the Drivers preserved, who are to lodge in the Waggons. And each Cover should be marked with the Contractor’s Name in large Characters. … Each Waggon, and every Horse Driver should also be furnished with a Hook or Sickle, fit to cut the long Grass that grows in the Country beyond the Mountains. … As all the Waggons are obliged to carry a Load of Oats, or Indian Corn. 30 George Washington was also on this expedition and was very sick much of the way from Ft. Cumberland, and was forced to ride in one of the wagons because “My illness was too violent to suffer me to ride [his horse]; therefore I was indebted to a covered wagon for some part of my transportation; but even in this, I could not continue far, for the jolting was so great, that I was left upon the road with a guard….”31 Of the 146 Conestoga wagons hired for the expedition it is believed that “Only the wagon of William Douglas…seems to have survived the campaign intact.”32 Figure 6 Braddock Laid to Rest in the Middle of the Road33 7 Though no surviving wagon remains from this era, we can estimate the size by its 2000-pound load it was required to carry, and that it took four horses to pull it. This would be a much smaller wagon from that of the later freight wagons that could carry six tons, and were pulled by six horses. Our little wagon was also rated to carry 2000 lbs. The Classic Era The Conestoga wagon’s classic era in Pennsylvania and the neighboring states of Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio was from about 1750 to 1855.34 This is when the wagons were the primary vehicles for hauling freight. “These wagons carried flour and other farm products from the hinterland to the cities, and they brought back commodities needed by the farmers and their families.”35 The wagons had become larger and heavier around 1815 based on surviving wagon jacks that had become larger to lift the heavier wagons.36 Having larger wagons was possible due to the construction of the National Road. In addition to the eastern major roads like the Conestoga Road in Pennsylvania and the Great Wagon Road leading to the south through Virginia, there would now be another road to the West from Philadelphia to Wheeling known as the National Road. Congress proposed the Bill for its construction in 1797, and it was completed in 1818. 37 Now with a good road going over the mountains the large freighters could haul the much-needed goods to the west. 38 During the Conestoga wagon’s peak activity between 1820 and 1840, the wagon traffic was so heavy that the wagoners would sometimes wait in line for three days before their turns came to be ferried across the Susquehanna River at what is now Harrisburg Pennsylvania. 39 Sometimes there would be twenty to a hundred wagons following one another in a row, and at one time there were said to be ten thousand around Philadelphia.40 In 1848 Robert S. McDowell counted 133 wagons pulled by six-horse teams pass along the National Road in one day. He took “no notice of as many more teams of one, two, three four and five horses.” Figure 7 Fairview Inn, Three Mile House on Old Frederick Road. Oil on Canvas by Thomas Coke Ruckle, 1814, Maryland Historical Society41 8 Often a prosperous teamster would own several Conestoga wagons, and driving the leading and handsomest one himself, would start off his proud procession. Usually the horses were matched, all blacks, or bays, or grays; they moved along with proudly arched necks, conscious of their importance and the distinction and pomp of the pageant. To accommodate all these wagons and wagoners taverns also called stations lined the Turnpike vying for their business. From Chambersburg to Pittsburg alone there were on an average a tavern for each mile, and as the distance between the two places was 150 miles, the total number of taverns was 150.42 The turnpike was lined with teams, and all taverns had a good trade.43Jesse Peirsol, a wagoner remembers a night at a tavern where there were 30 sixhorse teams parked in the wagon yard.44 When a wagon pulled into a tavern in the wintertime the wagon was driven upon planks, so that the wheels would not freeze to the ground during the night. Then the wagoner took his mattress, that was about two feet wide and four inches thick and that he carried in a roll in the back of the wagon, threw it on the barroom floor, where he chose to sleep before the fire.45 At McGowan's tavern, there was a fifteen-foot fireplace, and at Captain Statler's tavern the fireplace was twelve feet wide, and a horse hauled in the great logs through a special door. At the corner of the bar room was a short bar, where whiskey in clear glass bottles, carefully labeled Old Rye or Monongahela, might be had from mine host or the bar maid for three cents a glass. The cost of a night's lodging, feed for six horses, meals for the teamster, and three drinks of whiskey, one before supper, a night cap, and one before breakfast, was about seventy-five cents.46 David Elby wrote in his 1908 journal about his days as a wagoner from 1849-1853, “In 1849 my father put me on the road to wagon, at which I continued at intervals until the Pennsylvania railroad was completed in 1853, and for five years more, at “piece” wagoning to intermediate points between Chambersburg and Bedford.47 The canal systems and the expansion of America’s railroad lines in the middle of the century rapidly brought their use to an end.48 So how did we find a small wagon that looked like a Conestoga wagon in Georgia? Nissen Wagons Twelve single Moravians brothers left Bethlehem on October 8, 1753, and headed their heavy-bodied horses and stout wagon down a trail known as the Great Wagon Road that crossed Maryland and then wandered down the great valley of Virginia. The Brothers entered North Carolina through what is now Stokes County. They worked their heavy wagon through the woods, around the wall of the Sauratown hills to establish a settlement in the Wachovia tract what is now Forsyth County North Carolina.49 Invented in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, these vehicles carried Moravians and their belongings to their new land. They were used to transport materials, supplies, and needed goods back and forth from the newly settled area back to Pennsylvania and with their goods to Charleston, SC. The Conestoga wagon was incorporated into Carolina’s material culture. 50 Among the many different trades that came to the new settlement was Pennsylvania wagon makers. Tycho Nissen arrived at Salem on September 10, 1770. He was apprenticed “to Br. Transou in Bethania, to learn more about his profession as a wagon maker….”51 Early records of the settlement make a number of references to him as a wagon builder. 9 By 1919 Nissen Wagon Works, as it was later named, was producing over 15,000 wagons per year, or about fifty wagons per day that would be sold throughout the south and beyond. The business was located in Waughtown, North Carolina (in the present-day Winston-Salem) and was operated by various members of the Nissen family from 1834 until 1925, when it was sold to F. B. Reamy for about one million dollars. Under new ownership, Nissen wagons continued to be produced until the 1940s, when the popularity of automobiles eclipsed demand for the wagons.52 Our little wagon’s roots can be traced back to Pennsylvania where the Conestoga wagon was born, and the Nissen wagon carried on that Pennsylvania Dutch culture. Figure 8 Nissen Wagon Manufacturing Co., Wagons, Carts, Wheelbarrows, &c. P. Nissen, Salem, N.C. 53 10 Conclusion So, the little covered wagon in the barn turns out to be more than a representation of a Conestoga wagon. It’s the little wagon with a big story to tell. The story of America’s colonial days when the Palatine people escaped persecutions in their home lands across the ocean and came to America for religious freedom, and who created the wagon; the days of the early Indian trade and the exchange of cultural materials among the many nations hauled in the wagon; real American craftsmanship in architecture, woodcraft, wheelwright, fabric weaving, and ironwork was assimilated in the design and construction of a wagon seen nowhere else; and the story of America’s transportation system starting with the small wagon traveling on the winding paths through the wilderness, the building of the wagon roads enabling the large wagons to haul the growing Nation’s commerce, to the construction of the United State’s Figure 9 Photo at the 2017 the River Rendezvous® first National Road and its rules of the highway where driving on the right side of the road instead of the left was born. The railroads caused the great Conestoga wagon’s demise in the north, and the pickup truck caused its passing in the south. Now the Conestoga wagon’s American legacy remains only as a story in a few books, an image in a painting or in print, and as historical artifacts in museums and private ownership. Though the Conestoga wagons are only a small part of our history, they played an important role, and must be preserved as an important part of our American story so that our children can have a “… historical appreciation of the era and equipment.”54 Appendix Contributions, Sayings, and Organizations “Driving from the left side of the Conestoga, when other vehicles were driven from the right, made this a forerunner of the current practice of driving from the left side of the vehicle.”55 This may have developed from the farmers who worked from the left side of the wagon or horse. Since these wagons were originally farm wagons operated by farmer, it stands to reason that the left side driving practice became the standard for hauling on the roads. 11 The Conestoga wagon gave its name to the “Stogie cigar” made for the wagoner, and supposed to have been originally a foot long.56 Stogie cigars were produced by the Marsh Co in Wheeling, West Virginia from 1840 till 2001.57 “When a pint of whiskey was purchased on temporary credit, the letter P was written on a slate board, and Q would be entered when a quart was taken. Some of the heavier users, after treating themselves and their friends, would have accumulated a number of P’s and Q’s under their name. Eventually the proprietor would remind these fellows that their bills were mounting up by cautioning them “Mind your P’s and Q’s.”58 “…if a teamster was so unfortunate as to get his wagon stuck or mired so as to require the help of another passing teamster, he would have to forfeit his bells. To arrive at the destination without bells was a disgrace which hurt both the pride and pocket book. From this early custom we have the fine American expression, “I’ll be there with bells on.”59 “A Little Brown Jug, and a gimlet [a hand tool for drilling small holes, mainly in wood, without splitting] would have been used, perhaps, by a wagoner to steal his whiskey supply from the whiskey barrels he hauled. To do this he would force up a hoop, bore a hole with his gimlet, fill the jug, plug the hole, and replace the hoop.”60 Known Wagoners Like the living legends of today, there were many famed wagoners of the day, but over time like the wagons themselves those names have faded from memory, however, there are two well-known Americans whose early life was that of a wagoner, Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan. Both Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan were on the Braddock expedition. Daniel Boone was with a North Carolina unit, and acted as a wagoner and blacksmith. Daniel Morgan, a cousin of Daniel Boone and general during the revolutionary war, served as a civilian teamster. Boone and Morgan were able to escape by cutting the traces of their teams and mounting one of their horses. After returning from the advance on Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) by General Braddock's command, Morgan was punished with 499 lashes (a usually fatal sentence) for punching his superior officer. Needless to say Morgan acquired a hatred for the British Army. 61,62 Songs of the Classic Era Wagoner’s Curse on Railroad Come all ye bold wag’ners turn out man by man, That’s opposed to the railroad or any such plan; But the goods are now hauled on the railroad by steam. May the devil get the fellow that invented the plan. It’ll ruin us poor wag’ners and every other man. It spoils our plantations wherever it may cross, And it ruins our markets, so we can’t sell a hoss. If we go to Philadelphia, inquiring for a load, (Learn NC 2008)They’ll tell us quite directly its gone out on the railroad 12 The rich folks, the plan they may justly admire But it ruins us poor wag’ners and it makes our taxes higher. Our states they are indebted to keep them in repair, Which causes us poor wag’ners to curse and swear. It ruins our mechanics, what think you of it, then? And it fills our country full of just a lot of great rich men. The ships they will be coming with Irishmen by loads, All with their picks and shovels, to work on the railroads, When they got on the railroad, it is then that they are fixed. They’ll fight just like the devil with their cudgels and their sticks. The American with safety, can scarcely ever pass, For they will blacken both his eyes for one word of his sass. If it wasn’t for the torment, I as leave would be in Hell, As upon the cursed railroad, or upon the canal. Come all ye bold wag’ners that have got good wives; Go ome to your farms and there spend your lives. When your corn is all cribbed up and your small grain is sowed. You’ll hae nothing else to do but just to curse the damned railroad. Conestoga Wagoner's Complaint by Vivien Richman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQKXxGY8fU0 Some early American songs that were song by the wagoners: Arkansas Traveler; Barbara Allen; Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines; Chimney Joe Bowers; Jordan Am a Hard Road to Trabel; Little Brown Jug; Little More Cider, Too; Old Dan Tucker; Old Joe Clark; Sweet Rosy O’Grady; The Girl I Left Behind Me; The Three Crows; There Is a Tavern in the Town; and Turkey in the Straw.63 Works Cited Berkebile, Don H. Conestoga Wagons in Braddock's Campaign, 1755. Vol. 218. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1959. Clark, Ron. On the Web Road a Traveloue of Braddock's Expedition F & I Grand Encampment July 16-19, 2015. Dover, FL: Ron Clark, 2015. Coachbuilt.com, Inc. "Nissen Wagon Works." Coachbuilt.com, Inc. Coachbuilt.com, Inc. . 2004. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/n/nissen/nissen.htm (accessed 12 13, 2016). Davis, Chester S. Hidden seed and harvest; a history of the Moravians. https://archive.org/stream/hiddenseedharves00davi_0/hiddenseedharves00davi_0_djvu.t xt. Internet Archive, 2013. Eby, David. Retracing of famous old turnpike between Chambersburg and Pittsburgh by David Eby -: A wagoner 1849-1853. 2nd Edition. PA: Franklin Repository Press, 1914. 13 EIR Online’s Electronic Intelligence Weekly. "This Week in History November 4 - 10, 1734 Daniel Boone: Leading American Settlements Westward from the Ohio to the Missouri November 2012." The Schiller Institute. November 2012. http://www.schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/eiw_this_week/v4n44_nov4_1734.html (accessed 12 13, 2016). Eshleman, Henry Frank. Lancaster County Indians: Annals of the Susquehannocks and Other Indian Tribes of the Susquehanna Territory from about the Year 1500 to 1763, the Date of Their Extinction. An Exhaustive and Interesting Series of Historical Papers Descriptive of Lancaster County's Indians Prior to and During the Advent of the Paleface. Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Publishing, 2000. Florida Frontiersmen, Inc. "Preamble." Constitution of the Florida Frontiersmen, Inc. Homeland, FL: Florida Frontiersmen, Inc, October 5, 2014. Hall, Charles C. Part 5 Winter in August. April 21, 2009. http://www.fortedwards.org/braddock/article/b-part5.htm (accessed January 28, 2017). Hazard, Samuel. Archives, Pennsylvania Commencing 1748. Vol. II. Philadelphia, PA: Joseph Severns & Co., 1852. Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. https://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/conestoga-tribe.htm. Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1906. Hunter, J. B. Useful Information Concerning Yellow Tobacco, and Other Crops, as Told by Fifty of the Most Successful Farmers of Granville County, N. C. . unc.edu. 2004. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/hunter/ill12.html (accessed Janurary 25, 2017). Learn NC. Diary of a journey of Moravians. Edited by Adelaide L. Fries and others. 2008. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/2033 (accessed January 2, 2017). Maryland Historical Society. Fairview Inn, Three Mile House on Old Frederick Road . Maryland Historical Society. 2016. http://www.mdhs.org/digitalimage/fairview-inn-threemile-house-old-frederick-road (accessed January 24, 2017). MAYER, HOLLY A. "From Forts to Families: Following the Army into Western Pennsylvania, 1758–1766." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Pennsylvania State University. January 2006. https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/viewFile/58919/58645 (accessed January 28, 2017). Mombert, Jacob Isidor. An Authentic History of Lancaster County: In the State of Pennsylvania. Lancaster, PA: Gale Cengage Learning, 1869. Moravian Archives. 250th Day by Day. Morvarian Church. 2014. http://moravianarchives.org/whats-new-news/winston-salem-250th/250th-day-by-day/ (accessed January 28, 2917). NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION. RECORDS OF THE MORAVIANS IN NORTH CAROLINA. https://archive.org/details/recordsofthemora02frie . Edited by m.a. Adelaide L. Fries. Vol. 2. https://archive.org/details/recordsofthemora02frie , 2014. Omwake, John. The Conestoga Six-Horse Bell Teams of Eastern Pennsylvania. Cincinnati: The Ebbert & Richardson co., 1930. Phillips, Deb. Nissen Wagon Museum. May 22, 2010. http://lewisvillephotos.com/nissenwagon-museum.html (accessed January 14, 2017). Reist, Arthur L. Conestoga Wagon: Masterpiece of the Blacksmith. Forry & Hacker, 1975. Shumway, George, and Howard C. Frey. Conestoga Wagon 1750 - 1850 Freight Carrier for 100 Years of America's Westward Expansion. Third. York, PA: George Shumway, 1968. 14 Terry, George D, and Lynn Robertson. Carolina Folk: The Cradle of a Southern Tradition. McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1985. Wallace, Paul A. W. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1971. Weingroff, Richard F. On The Right Side of the Road. Federal Highway Adminatration. November 11, 2015. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/right.cfm (accessed January 23, 2017). Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. AMERICAN HISTORY The National Road - First Highway in America. July 2015. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-nationalroad.html (accessed January 1, 2017). Wikipedia. Daniel Morgan. December 29, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Morgan (accessed January 14, 2017). —. Marsh Wheeling. June 29, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Wheeling (accessed January 12, 2017). Wilkinson, Norman B., and George R. Beyer. The Conestoga Wagon. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1997. Wright, Bryan. Wagon Makers of Lancaster County. Colonial Sense. 2017. http://www.colonialsense.com/SocietyLifestyle/Signs_of_the_Times/Conestoga_Wagon/Wagon_Makers.php (accessed January 25, 2017). Notes 1 (Wilkinson and Beyer 1997) p. 1 (Mombert 1869) Pages 112-114 3 (Hodge 1906), https://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/conestoga-tribe.htm 4 (Eshleman 2000) p 286 5 Ibid. The Indian Traders recorded and years documented were; 1615 John Pory p15, 1625 Clayborn p 15, 1682 Jacob Young p 123, 1689 James Letort p 138, 1690 James Letort p 139, 1690 William Penn p 139, 1700 Peter Bizalion’s Trading House p 155, 1704 Martin Chartier p 138 177, 1704 James Letort p 177 178, 1730 Issac Miranda p 315, 1731 Edmund Cartiledge p 319 320, 1731 Davenport, Letort p 320, 1734 Edmund Cartiledge, Edward Kenny, Jacob Ryatt [Pyatt], Tim’y Fitzpatrick, Wm. Dewlap, Jno. Kelly, Charles Poke, Thomas Hill, Henry Baley, Olliver Wallis, Jno. Young, James Denning, Thomas Moren, Jno. Palmer, Jonas Davenport, Laz. Lowry, Jmes LeTort, Fran’s Stevens, James Patterson, Peter Cheartier [Chartier] 6 (Wallace 1971) p. 64 7 Ibid. p. 156 8 (Shumway and Frey 1968) pgs. 15-17 2 15 9 (Eshleman 2000) p. 234 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 18. “The use of wagons by traders increased as the army built the road and brought in its own wagoners.” (MAYER 2006) 11 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 185 12 Ibid p.186 13 (Omwake 1930) p. 75 14 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 2 15 Ibid p. 207 16 (Omwake 1930) p. 81 17 (Shumway and Frey 1968) pp. 197-198 18 (Omwake 1930) p. 74 19 (Wright 2017) 20 Ibid p. 76 21 (Wilkinson and Beyer 1997) p. 13 22 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 12 23 (Omwake 1930) pp. 57, 63, 87. 24 (Clark 2015) Letter from General Braddock to the Secretary of State, June 5, 1755, p. 115 25 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 19 26 (Clark 2015) p. 64, Advertisement Of B. Franklin For "waggons," 1755. Lancaster, April 26, 1755. Read (Hazard 1852) pgs. 907, 908 for the complete record of Franklyn’s advertising and efforts to acquire wagons for Braddock’s expedition. 27 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 39 28 (Hazard 1852) pgs. 907-910 29 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 48 30 (Clark 2015) p. 74, Advertisement Lancaster, May 6th. 1755. B. Franklin “Each Waggon should be furnished with a Cover, that the Goods laden therein may be kept from Damage by the Rain, and the health of the Drivers preserved, who are to lodge in the Waggons. And each Cover should be marked with the Contractor’s Name in large Characters. … Each Waggon, and every Horse Driver should also be furnished with a Hook or Sickle, fit to cut the long Grass that grows in the Country beyond the Mountains.… As all the Waggons are obliged to carry a Load of Oats, or Indian Corn, Advertisement Lancaster, May 6th. 1755. B. Franklin,” (Clark 2015), p. 74. 31 Ibid pp. 149-150, June 28, 1755 Youghiogany, 28 June, 1755 George Washingon letter to John A. Washington 32 (Berkebile 1959) p. 29 “Original size of conestoga wagon in the 1750s. “An approximate description of the size of the wagon, taken from the earliest existing specimens of the same type shows a bed about 12 feet long on the bottom and 14 feet on the top. Depth of the bed ran about 32 inches and the width was approximately 42 to 46 inches. Though there was little standardization in most features, eight bows usually supported the dull white homespun cover. The diameter of the front wheels varied from 40 to 45 inches, while the rear wheels ran 10 to 20 inches larger.“ (Berkebile 1959) 33 (Hall 2009) 34 (Wilkinson and Beyer 1997) p. 1 35 Ibid p. 1 36 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 209 10 16 37 (Omwake 1930) p. 101 (Shumway and Frey 1968) p. 210 39 Ibid p. 1 40 (Omwake 1930) p. 101 41 (Maryland Historical Society 2016) 42 (Eby 1914) p. 11 43 Ibid p. 6 44 (Weiser-Alexander 2015), “A newspaper of Cumberland, Maryland, in 1898, gives the following interview with an old Conestoga wagoner who drove on the Old Pike over half a century ago: “Mr. Jesse J. Piersol, of Smocks, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, visited Cumberland this week for the first time since 1854. When he left Cumberland it was as a wagoner over the old National pike. He commenced to drive a Conestoga, drawn by six horses, for his father, William Piersol, in 1844. He then lived near Brownsville, Pa., and his route was from Cumberland to Wheeling.” 45 (Omwake 1930) p. 100 46 Ibid pp. 100-101 47 (Eby 1914) p. 6 48 (Wilkinson and Beyer 1997) p. 19 49 (Davis 2013) p. 39 “A HISTORY OF THE MORAVIANS” 50 (Terry and Robertson 1985) p. 26. “At six o’clock in the morning on April 3, 1766, five wagons — three from Bethania, two from Bethabara — set out from Wachovia. They are bound for the port city of Charleston, South Carolina, and they carry a precious cargo: more than 9,000 pounds of deer hides. Now you know why our Salem Town Builders had been diverted from construction chores in Salem to dressing hides in Bethabara. It must take a lot of deer from all northwest North Carolina to make that much in hides, but they will be bartered and sold in Charleston for goods to be shipped back to Wachovia.” This is that convoy of five wagons that set out on April 3, 1766, to deliver 9,000 pounds of deer hides to Charleston for trading. (Moravian Archives 2014). “Bethlehem, Pa. June 11, 1760. “…Just now the only thing they can do is to bring by wagon from Pennsylvania the things they absolutely need, but if a Brother could be established as a merchant in Wilmington, and another at Springhill (both are on Cape Fear Eiver), and we could own a boat in which to bring up the necessary goods and to send back various commodities, it would not only benefit the Brethren in the Wachau but the entire surrounding country. Bethabara is enclosed in a stockade (of palisades).” “The Carolina wagon which brought us hither (we had a comfortable trip, and camped in the woods from the time we left Bethabara until we were nearly in Maryland) will now return, taking what things the Brethren in the "Wachau need, and also taking these two couples.” 1764“(c) Post Oak appears to be a kind of stunted White Oak, but there are some fine trees. Gives good wagon-wood. Grows on the poorest land. 5) Ash. A tree much like Walnut or Hickory; grows in the Bottoms; is good wood for wagon-making; and is very good firewood, particularly liked by the baker. It is a protection against snakes. 19) Pine grows in certain places on the Upland, where the soil is not of the best, but is sandy. Wagon tar is made from it, and fine boards.” 38 17 Bethabara, April 14, 1768, “sent by way of Charlestown. “Three small wagons took us and our baggage to Pinetree, and there, after a stay of a day and a half, we secured others for the rest of the trip…” Oct. 17, 1772“…a wagon from Pennsylvania, bringing with him Br. and Sr. Casper Fischer and their four children, and the Single Brethren Andreas Glotz and Rose…” Extracts from Bethabara Diary, Feb. 26, 1773 [The reason for sending these three wagons at this unusual season of the year was that there is no demand m Charlestown for the halfdressed skins brought in by the hunters, so we had to send what we had of hides still in the hair, and send them before warm weather brought worms to spoil them. If we could secure from Bethlehem a leather-dresser, as we have several times suggested, it would help us very much ; as it is our trade is much endangered. Marshall's Report to U. E. C] Dec 12, 1775.The first night it rained so heavily that we all became rather wet. It was fortunate for us that the wagon had a cover.” April 21, 1775 (Auf. Col.) “The Single Brethren present a plan for a wagon shed and a room for the teamsters;” The Diaries and Minutes of 1774 contain many references to the trades and professions in Salem. “Among the men, married and single, living in the Brothers House or outside…wagon-maker…. May 15, 1775 Peter Rose's light wagon, and Br. Heinzmann accompanied them on horseback. They are going to Pennsylvania, Feb 25 1775. “It was wet and unpleasant when we left Christian Frey's, but as we were in a covered wagon our concern was more for the Brn. TJtley and Wallis, who had to return home without protection. The first and the second nights we slept in the wagon, as we did also the last three nights before reaching Charlestown; the rest of the time we slept under our tent.” (NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 2014) 51 (Shumway and Frey 1968) pp. 243-253 52 (Phillips 2010) 53 (Hunter 2004) 54 (Florida Frontiersmen, Inc 2014) 55 (Wilkinson and Beyer 1997) p. 14 For more information about driving on the right side of the road read, “On The Right Side of the Road.” (Weingroff 2015) 56 (Omwake 1930) p. 118 57 (Wikipedia 2015) 58 (Shumway and Frey 1968) pp. 91-92 59 Ibid p. 162 60 Ibid p. 213 61 (EIR Online’s Electronic Intelligence Weekly 2012) 62 (Wikipedia 2016) 63 (Shumway and Frey 1968) 18