A fully rigged Conestoga wagon was a union of graceful craftsmanship and rugged utility. With running gear painted vermilion, sides a bright blue and topped with white canvas on graceful bows, wagon and team could be as much as 60 feet long. It was said to be not only a stirring sight but noble!
Frederick Klees notes in “The Pennsylvania Dutch” that by 1775, more than 10,000 Conestoga wagons made the trip to Philadelphia annually.
“The wagon itself was boat-shaped with slanted ends and a sag in the center of the wagon bed, both cross wise and length wise….”
Barrels were the universal shipping containers for both wet and dry cargo, and the belly in the wagon floor kept them always shifting toward the center.
On any day in colonial and federal times, the Reading Road, now old Rt. 422 through Pottstown, as well as the Swamp Pike and Big Road may have together carried up to 100 Conestogas, each freighted with as much as eight tons of anything: “glass, pottery, linen, salt, sugar, tobacco, grain, flour, flaxseed, whiskey, cider, fruit, charcoal, pig iron, butter, rags, clover seed, molasses” and anything else under the sun.
Freighting by wagon was profitable. In 1750 it cost about a shilling to carry a bushel of wheat (60 pounds) 100 miles. At that rate, an average load of five to six tons carried 100 miles would cost 10 pounds sterling, a considerable sum. Klees notes that “Before the revolution the cost of freight by wagon for fifty miles from Philadelphia was more than that by ship for the three thousand miles across the Atlantic.”
Conestoga wagon-making was centered in the Conestoga Valley area of Lancaster County. Sizes varied from a 16-foot-long bed to smaller farm-type or short-haul wagons, but they all had the characteristic sag in the middle.
The large back wheels were five to six feet high; the front ones smaller. The lighter farm-type wagons often came with another set of even smaller front wheels. The large wheels rolled better and kept the wagon body higher on rough roads, but made the wagon impractically high for farm use. So the back wheels could be replaced with the smaller front wheels, and the spare set of quite small wheels put on the front, thus lowering the whole rig while maintaining the pitch.
The usual hitch for freight employed six and sometimes eight horses, and they were mighty animals: 16 to 18 hands high and weighing up to 1,800 pounds. Unfortunately, the Conestoga Draft Horse breed has gone extinct. The driver rode on the wheel-horse (left side horse closest to the wagon) or rode the “lazy board.” True freight wagons had a board that slid out in front of the left back wheel on which the driver could sit or stand.
Horse collars and harness were made for pulling, but there was no way the horses could hold a load back on the downhill. From the lazy board, the driver could work the brake handle which levered wood-blocks against the back wheel rims to brake on the downhill. Sometimes they would nail an old shoe sole in the groove of the brake wood-block as leather provided better friction than wood, hence the term: “brake shoe.” On steep down-hills they could chain one back wheel fast to the wagon so it just slid.
The Conestoga teamsters rode on the left side of the wagon which placed the wagon on the right side of the road where we auto drivers have stayed to this day.
The teamsters led a rough life on the roads, sleeping in the wagons in fair weather and on the floor around tavern fireplaces in the winter. In bitter cold, the wagon would be driven on planks overnight so the wheels wouldn’t freeze fast. Supplied with a jug of rum and a pocket full of “stogies,” strong black cigars four for a penny, the teamster was ready to harness up. They only averaged 12 to 15 miles a day, as the roads were often deep mud making the rig much harder to pull. The Reading Road had no bridges on the Perkiomen and Skippack Creeks until the 1790s.
A full outfit, wagon, horses and tack, cost as much as $1,200. Treatment of the horses depended on the character of the teamster. Some were humane and others were, by some accounts, brutal.
The rigs were called “Six Horse Bell Teams” because of the practice of having a bow with three or four brass bells suspended over each collar in the Russian manner, except on the wheel horse, which the teamster rode. The tinkling of 20 bells was a warning for all to get out of the way. When a wagon got “stumped” on a snag or stuck in mud, the next driver along would unhitch his team and help to free the mired wagon. The fee was a hoop of bells. Thus the origin of the phrase “to be there with ‘bells on,'” meaning to arrive trouble free.
The Lancaster County Germans made these wagons by the thousands. There’s a small Conestoga wagon made in 1850 at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.
It’s humbling to examine a wagon closely. The skill of the blacksmith and wood-worker is astonishing. For example, the ends of the axles are tapered just as in a modern automobile. This taper fits with an opposite taper in the hub and assures the wheel will always ride snugly and not wobble. There are four iron, bearing plates inlaid into the hickory axle on which the bearings imbedded in the wheel hub ride. There are three other forged iron rings keeping the wheel on and running true. The whole wagon is crafted and fitted in like manner. We counted 221 forged pieces of ironwork on that one wagon, many of them gracefully embellished. Additionally, over 100 iron rivets hold the wooden body together. Wagons were heavy and made for rugged use. Empty Conestoga wagons weighed about 3,000 pounds.
The canals and railroads put an end to the wagon trains. By 1840, there were 954 miles of canals in operation in Pennsylvania, more than any other state; but the real doom came from the railroads. In 1839 a line was completed between Reading and Philadelphia through Pottstown and carried an astonishing volume of freight. By 1842 it extended into the coal regions. Anthracite, which had been $14 a ton in the city, came down to $5.50. The smaller wagons were then used to haul freight to and from the railroad depots. The large ones were generally too heavy for use as farm wagons, so they went over the mountains and became prairie schooners heading west. A few probably now rest in California museums.
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.
