The History of Covered Wagons and their Design – with Giveaway By Donna Schlachter

When we hear the words Covered Wagon, we likely envision a long train of wagons with white canvas covers pulled by four prancing horses, while the parents sat side by side facing forward, and the children skipped alongside or rested in the wagon bed.

However, the reality of traveling west included long, hot days; cold, stormy nights; raging rivers overflowing their banks; miles of desert with no sign of water; discarded belongings along the trail; and five months of walking more than 2,000 miles, hoping to find something better than they left behind.

The majority of wagons were made from ordinary farm wagons, with bent metal or wooden hoops from which to hang the canvas covering. Often this cover was patched together from various sources, or perhaps wasn’t even canvas—flour sacks, saddle blankets, and bedding might be used in a pinch.

These wagons needed to be strong enough to carry the people, their goods, and supplies for the trip, without wearing out the team hauling it. Many overloaded their wagons, and found themselves forced to discard family heirlooms which impeded their progress when the wagon sank to its hubs in mud.

The use of metal was kept to a minimum, since iron and other heavy metals were all that was available. Tires were rimmed so they wouldn’t wear out, and moving joints, such as axles and hounds—which connected axles to axle assemblies and the tongue.

 

An icon of the Westward Expansion folklore is the Conestoga Wagon. With its raised floor bed, bow-shaped front, and 12,000 pound capacity, however, the Conestoga was too heavy for most of the trails heading west. Instead, this gargantuan vessel—which garnered the name of Prairie Schooner that was soon applied to all covered wagons—was better suited for the undeveloped roads of the colonial East, falling out of favor due to the arrive of the railroad, by the 1870s. However, some headed west later on, mostly used as cargo wagons that traveled the better developed trails between cities, hauling cargo and supplies. Conestoga wagons originated in Germany, and were thought to have been introduced to German settlers to haul cargo to Philadelphia around 1718. While there was a pull-out board called the lazy board where a teamster could rest if needed, usually he walked alongside.

Most often oxen were used as the draft animals hauling the wagons. They were cheaper, more reliable, and almost as fast as horses or mules. Horses had less stamina and more physical problems, particularly where fresh grass and water were in short supply, and mules—well, the saying stubborn as a mule isn’t an exaggeration.

While a covered wagon averaged about 40 square feet, additional storage was established by framing in empty spaces, such as under the driver’s seat for tools, brackets or hooks to hold water barrels, a feed box hung on the tailgate, and a bucket containing tallow or grease hanging from a nail on the rear axle to keep the joints lubricated.

You can watch a video I took of crossing a river in a covered wagon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3xfD10YWQo



Question: What would be something you couldn’t possibly leave behind on your journey westward? Please disguise your email address so I can contact you should you win. Name AT carrier DOT extension. For example, donna AT Livebytheword DOT com



I will draw from all responses for a print (US only) or ebook copy of Calli, my latest Prairie Roses Collection release. You can learn more about Calli and the rest of the series at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R8DSMB4

About Donna:
A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both.

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog




Resources: photos from WikiPedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covered_wagon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_wagon

https://oregontrailcenter.org/the-wagon

Wagon Train, Ho! By Donna Schlachter – with Giveaway

Pioneers crossing the Plains of Nebraska (wikipedia)

Whenever somebody says “wagon train”, various images are conjured in our minds. The iconic television program of the 1950s. The multitude of westerns produced over the years. Bonnets, long skirts, horses, whips, campfires, rugged terrain, mountains, butter churns, running out of water, blazing hot sun, freezing winter storm, stampedes—but most always, the western migration to the Pacific coast is the goal.

So it might surprise you to learn that wagon trains are neither a product of the 1840s and onward, or an American invention. In fact, one of the most famous wagon designs, the Conestoga, is first officially mentioned in 1717. James Hendricks purchased the wagon named after the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, PA. The design was perhaps introduced by German settlers.

Line drawing of a Conestoga wagon with oxen (wikipedia)

Conestoga wagons were initially used during colonial times as a cargo wagon, pulled by up to eight horses or twelve oxen. A special breed of draft horse, the Conestoga, was developed for hauling these heavy freight wagons in the 1700s.

Covered wagons were a variation of the Conestoga wagon, a pared-down version because the heavy Conestoga was too weighty for the thousands of miles of travel required. Often a farmer used an ordinary farm wagon with a series of bent saplings and a canvas cover strung over the top. Oxen were most common, although mules and horses were also used. 

Perhaps the favorite of the covered wagons was the chuckwagon, a type of field wagon used to store and prepare food. The invention of the chuckwagon as we currently know it is attributed to Charles Goodnight, a Texas rancher, in 1866. Following the Civil War, the beef market in Texas expanded, and thousands of cattle drives meant tens of thousands of men on the trail for months at a time. He added a “chuck box” to the back of a wagon with drawers and shelves for storage, along with a hinged lid for a flat cooking surface. With a water barrel and a canvas firewood sling, the rig was complete.

Wagon trains had a hierarchy of sorts. There was a leader or a captain who rode in the first wagon. The rest of the wagons fell into an unspoken position usually based on the fastest team or lightest wagon. If one of the families fell sick, they were moved back in the train since they’d probably have to stop more often, and perhaps because nobody wanted the germs “blowing back” on them. Later arrivals joined the end of the train until they proved themselves worthy of moving forward. The chuck wagon usually came before the sick.

To save wear and tear on their animals, migrants walked a good part of the day. Only the very young, very old, or infirmed would ride in the wagon. With oxen, many times the driver would also walk alongside.

Scout riders rode ahead to check for safe passage, while several rode up and down the wagon train, checking that everybody was keeping up. If a wagon broke down, those behind would halt and help with the repair. Sometimes this was also a good time to light a fire and have something hot to eat.

Any cattle included in the wagon train were watched over by a couple of riders, then when the train stopped for the night, were driven into the inside of the circle of wagons for safekeeping and so they didn’t wander off in the night.

In my book, Christmas Under the Stars, I used oxen to pull the covered wagons because that was a tidbit of history that I thought readers would enjoy. Driving oxen is a skill unto itself, and so I did research into the words used, such as “gee” and “haw” (right or left).

To enter a random drawing to win a print (US only) or ebook copy of Christmas Under the Stars, please leave a comment.

About Christmas Under the Stars:

November 1858, Utah Territory

Edie Meredith strives to keep her temper and her tongue under control as she heads west with her brother to California. Raised in an itinerant preacher family, she promises she will never marry a man of the cloth.

Tom Aiken, drover of the wagon train, longs to answer his true calling: to preach, and while he realizes not every woman would choose a preacher for a husband, he hopes to soon find his help-meet.

Suspicious ‘accidents’ plague their journey. Is someone trying to keep them from reaching their destination? Or will misunderstanding and circumstances keep them apart?

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.





www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com

www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter

Books: Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq and Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2gZATjm

What Can Be Online University: https://what-can-be-online-institute.teachable.com/