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.





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Peeling a Cookie in a Wagon

Sometimes the best history is the micro-history. You know, the stories that you heard your grandpa or grandma tell.
This one happens to be about a neighboring town close to my house, Canby. It is now a growing  city booming with industry.
But up until 1838, it was nothing but wilderness. James Baker moved in and built the first house. And ten years later Philander Lee and his wife Ana along with a pile of children moved into the neighborhood. The Lee’s took up residency by claiming “squatters rights.”

More and more people gathered. Soon there was a store, a postmaster, a school clerk, a sheriff, a druggist, a blacksmith and some carpenters. The area flourished and drew the interest of the train companies.

The Lee’s proved up their claim and became candidates to own the land they inhabited via the Donation Land Claim Act. That claim gave them ownership of 647 acres. 647!

Philander and his family planted apples on 80 of those acres and soon they were one of the main supplies of apples to California for the miners working the gold rush. When the harvest was on, the Lee’s loaded their wagon and drove the apples along the winding roads to Oregon City, where they could be shipped down the Willamette River and on to California.

Lee and his sons were irritated by the fact that when they reached Oregon City they had to drive six to nine miles out of the way in order have enough room for to turn the wagon and the oxen around because the streets were so narrow and crowded.

So when the train company offered to buy 111 acres to plot this new city, Canby, Philander Lee said only if the streets were built wide enough to turn an oxen-pulled wagon. Herman Lee, Philander’s son, hitched a team right then and there and peeled a cookie right in the dirt.

The distance was measured and the streets widths were marked down as eighty feet wide. The plans for the town of Canby went forward. And Philander’s son Herman Lee became the first Mayor.

I wish you had time to tell me about a local piece of history that charms you. I look forward to reading your comments.

Thank you for stopping by. I started a podcast. If you are a podcast listener and you need a dose of joy-meets-common sense, and some author interviews come on over to Life Caraphrased.

Cara Grandle is a Historical Romance Novelist who prefers to write about the early settlers of the Pacific Northwest. Think trappers and loggers and scroungy-backed woodsmen. She is represented by the Steve Laube Agency. Cara leads the author4TheAuthor writers group on Facebook, home to 190 writers. Together they're pressing back on busy and making a space for their dreams.  Cara is currently out on submission. Follow her journey on her Facebook author page. Prayers much appreciated.

Tidbits About Carriages

A couple years ago I self-published a book "19th Century Carriages & Wagons A Writer's Resource Guide." In the book I have several photos and illustrations of what various Carriages from different parts of the century looked like. Today we can still find carriages in Central Park, Savannah, St. Augustine and a host of other historical places to visit. What you find are fancier carriages, don't get me wrong, padded cushions were developed during the 19th Century, it's just that we have things like foam rubber to pad the seats and our backsides that our 19th Century counterparts did not have.

Today I thought I'd share a couple of photographs and tidbits between a type of single passenger carriages (some had room for two) that look similar but each had a different purpose.

The first is a Sulky.

Sulkies were primarily used for racing. But they were also common for a single gentleman to go to and fro.







The next is a Gig. These were designed for quick travel. Some had places to carry luggage.

The Chair is similar to the Gig but a wee bit heavier in the build.

The Chaise is a bit fancier built to take one around the city in comfort. This image is actually a Lady's Chaise from France note the dash in the front to keep a ladies attire clean and to make certain the wind doesn't blow up the skirt.

And last is the Cart it is a modified sulky, keeping it light but also allowing the user some place for storage.

Here is an example of an 1890 mail cart.

Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 40 years. Lynn's newest novel "Winning the Captain's Heart" was released a couple months ago. It is the first in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series. In Nov. the second novel of the series will be released. If you are interested in 19th Century Carriages & Wagons follow the enclosed link.
Check out her 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog if you like exploring different tidbits of history. a Rafflecopter giveaway