The Conestoga wagon, also simply known as the Conestoga, is a horse-drawn freight wagon that was used exclusively in North America, primarily the United States, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such wagons were probably first used by Pennsylvania Dutch settlers in the early 18th century. Named after the Conestoga River, such wagons were in use as early as 1717.
Conestoga wagons are larger, heavier versions of covered wagons, covered by hemp cloths stretched over hoops, with large wheels for traveling over primitive roads, and curved sides and floor to keep the contents centered. They were pulled by a team of four to six horses. The first examples of this type may have been built at home by farmers but later were produced commercially by wagon makers and wheelwrights.
Conestoga wagons were used to carry up to of produce or manufactured goods between farms and towns. They were most often used in the northeast United States, especially Pennsylvania, and were rarely used further west than the Mississippi River; lightweight and cheaper covered wagons were preferred by westbound pioneers. The similar but lighter Nissen wagon was used in the southeastern states. Conestoga wagons fell out of use as canals and railroads proliferated in the 19th century, which proved to be more efficient means of transporting goods.
Origin
The exact origins of covered wagons (or prairie schooners) and the derivation of Conestoga wagons from earlier covered wagons remain not well known. The less adequately documented history of Conestoga wagons is in part due to the overall lack of specificity of the wagon types from early American colonists of the 18th century. Knowledge of wagon production in colonial America originated from that of English and German immigrants of Great Britain and central Europe where a variety of wagon designs were already created. They also may have brought early farm wagons with them. Wagons would have proven increasingly necessary in North America due to the need to haul farm goods and trade goods such as furs to other settlements such as Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania and to ports for Europe.
There is no documented record of any strictly "first" Conestoga wagon to have ever been made. Covered wagon designs may have been standardized in design within colonial America, making it differ from the varied designs of English farm wagons of the 18th–19th centuries. They may have derived from both English road wagons and large wagons of Germany although this remains speculative. The earliest documented usage of the American wagons was in 1716 when Philadelphia fur trader James Logan, who took over William Penn's business estate after his death, wrote in his account book the usage of an individual wagon by the wagoner John Miller for hauling goods from Philadelphia to the Conestoga River Valley in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Two other wagons were built and put to use by other individuals from the Conestoga valley named James Hendricks and Joseph Cloud in 1717. In November of the same year, Logan established a store for selling hardware and household goods to German settlers and Native Americans in Conestoga. Logan then purchased what he called a "Conestogoe Waggon" from James Hendricks on December 31, 1717, thus making this the earliest known mention of the wagon name.
The name "Conestoga wagon" likely derived from the Conestoga River Valley, which was a settlement area for American colonists by the early 18th century that was about from Philadelphia and from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The earliest usage of the name "Conestoga" was previously applied to a river stream by the Bohemian merchant Augustine Herman in 1665, and it was also used as a name for the now-extinct Susquehannock tribe. The slang term "stogie", used for long and cheap cigars made from rolled leaves and at times smoked by Conestoga wagoners, may have derived from the Conestoga wagon term.
Farm wagons became increasingly prevalent in Philadelphia since after 1720, many of which were referred to as "Conestoga" or "Dutch" wagons. Advertisements in The Pennsylvania Gazette indicate that the former term saw common usage by February 5, 1750, for a Philadelphia tavern named "The Sign of the Conestogoe Wagon". The synonymous term "Dutch Waggon" was also used for the location for another advertisement in the same newspaper published on February 12, 1750.
Description
The Conestoga wagon is a more robust variant of covered wagon – it has the general characteristics of being a wooden wagon with both hickory bows on top to hold up a waterproof canvas and wooden wheels. Covered wagons are generally pulled by draft horses and act as both a transport vehicle and mobile home. They were specialized vehicles for transversing on rough roads, although walking or horse-riding would have been preferred in other circumstances by travelers. Although they generally made for uncomfortable travel experiences, covered wagons are considered by historians to have been vital to pioneer families whose possessions required long-distance travel while acting as temporary shelters for when the pioneers needed to sleep. Wagoners did not ride inside the Conestoga wagons themselves; instead they either walked beside the wagon's team, rode on the backmost and left-sided horse (known as a "wheel horse"), or sat on the "lazy board" of the wagon's left side in front of its rear wheel. The difficulty of Conestoga wagon travel was weighed largely on the road surface conditions, the poorer conditions leading to larger rolling resistance.
Conestoga wagons derived in design from earlier covered wagons. They had general boat-like shapes, their sides slanting outwards. The interior floors of the wagon type were slightly curved. The wagons combined with three pairs of hauling horses could have measured up to long. Depending on the weight load of the wagons, the terrestrial vehicles were transported by some four to six horses. In comparison, American western frontier covered wagons were often transported by oxen instead of horses, but travelers tended to prefer the latter option. The largest Conestoga wagons may have been capable of carrying up to of goods. Some Conestoga wagons had as many as 8 draft horses, but none ever had fewer than 4 of them.
The Conestoga horse was a specialized breed of heavy and large draft animal as well as one of the few horse breeds to have originated from North America. The origins of the breed is unknown, but they probably originated from a few individual horses from Pennsylvania. They were popularly used because of their abilities to haul loaded heavy Conestoga wagons. Conestoga horses typically came in black or bay hair coat colors but were sometimes dapple gray. The Conestoga horse breed went extinct likely as a result of the decline of Conestoga wagon usage.
The pack horses were often equipped with bells, but when such a practice started is unknown. The bells are small-sized and located on wearable "Conestoga bell arches", sturdy iron pieces measuring to . The lead horses (or front horses) often had five small bells, the middle horses four, and the pole horses (back horses) three larger ones for a total of twenty-four bells on the entire team. The bell sounds coming from the Conestoga team were often seen by wagoners as a source of pride and some would tune them for better sound. Traditionally, a Conestoga wagon team that arrived without any bells on, usually the result of forfeiting them to another team when they needed assistance on a damaged or stuck wagon, was seen as a source of humiliation. The archaic American phrase "I'll be there with bells on" therefore derived from this now-obsolete tradition.
Wagon body
The Conestoga wagon model is a uniquely American design with no close European equivalent, being well-suited for transversal through American roads that were not yet macadam, or built from hard stone. It is boat-shaped in terms of both crosswise (horizontal) and lengthwise (vertical) dimensions, thus ensuring the ability for sagging, or curving downwards in the middle, during movements through hills and valleys so that the loads remained centered. However, the curvatures of the boxes could have also been for stylistic purposes, as consumers may have preferred their designs over those of straight-sided wagons.
The wagon body of a Conestoga wagon, known also as a "box" or "bed", has a complex design compared to typically simple rectangular wagon boxes. The designs of the Conestoga wagon's body were intended to make the wagon last a long time and be flexible for traveling through roads that are normally rough for heavy-loaded vehicles. As a result, the Conestoga wagon is more representative in technological niches as a large-sized basket on a set of wheels than a box. Its designs were meant to replicate large-sized watercrafts that serve the dual purposes of carrying heavy quantities of goods and withstanding hostile environmental conditions such as currents. Historians George Shumway and Howard C. Frey considered nonsensical the suggestions in early United States history books that the Conestoga wagon boxes allowed for traveling passengers and goods across rivers—the boxes were not water-tight and would have leaked if placed in water bodies.
The wagon bed is typically created from the hardy woods of white oaks (Quercus alba). It measures in length from its front to rear ends and never more than in width. Six to twelve sloping hooplike hickory bows or "tilts", reaching individual grounded heights of , are arched over the wagon's bed to hold the white canvas sheet that covers them. The canvas, a cloth made from hemp fiber, was tied down to both sides of the wagon body but were left overhanging at both its front and rear ends. The white sheet measures approximately long. The positioning of the canvas serves to shield the wagon's contents from rainfall while allowing for air circulation for cargo and passengers. The Conestoga wagon was extensively painted given the prominence of flair in Pennsylvania Dutch culture. The wagon box has light blue color tones whereas the ironworks were black and the wheels, other running gear (the components allowing a vehicle to move and stop), and sideboards were vermilion in color. The prominence of color in Conestoga wagons make it partially differ from other covered wagons, many of which had no painted colors due to concerns that draft animals were frightened by bright colors.
On the left side of the Conestoga wagon is a short but strong white oak board known as the "lazy board". It is able to bear the weight of the wagon driver, or his helper if he hired one, who managed his draft animals plus team and operated the brake there. This meant that the driver had a habit of operating Conestoga wagons from the left side. The heavy and sturdy brakes served to slow down the wagon's wheels when the driver held the iron handle (or "lock patent") down, and the handles were also used to lock the brakes. The brakes were vital for managing the wagon through rough roads. The tongue, or a long board in the wagon's front area, may be plated in iron before being painted.