Background Information for Teachers
Challenging terrain
Pennsylvania's varied and rugged terrain made transportation a continuing challenge. The Allegheny Mountains confined settlement to the eastern part of the state for Pennsylvania's first 100 years. Even in the East, the rolling piedmont areas, though fertile for farming, proved challenging when it came time to ship those goods to market. Loads shifted going up and down hills. Roads were unpaved and rutted, bogged by mud in the wet seasons, chocked by dust in the dry summer. Putting down logs to "pave" a "corduroy" surface made well-traveled roads passable through most of the year, but created another set of problems: Traditional farm wagons were literally shaken apart by the rough surface!
An ingenious vehicle
The Pennsylvania Dutch ("Deutsch") settlers in the Lebanon Valley applied ingenuity to the problem of getting their goods to market and developed a vehicle that could not only travel on barely developed roads, but also carry a large cargo. The Conestoga wagon was named for the valley in Lancaster County where it was developed. It was such an adaptable design that it became one of the chief freight carriers in the East from 1750 until the coming of the railroads. What the Conestoga wagon did to open Western Pennsylvania to settlement and trade, its larger offspring – nicknamed the "Prairie Schooner" – later did for the Midwest.
The Conestoga wagon probably began as a farm wagon adapted for use on the rough, hilly ground in Lancaster County. A cover was added to protect the goods, and the bottom was bowed to keep them from sliding back and forth. The wheels were large in diameter, so the wagon could pass over streams without getting the goods wet, and broad to allow them to roll over stumps and rocks in the road. Four to six large draft horses – eventually named "Conestoga horses" – or a team of oxen provided enough strength to keep from getting stuck in the mud.
The wagons came in various sizes. The smaller ones were used on farms while the larger, 14 to 16 feet in length, were used to haul goods to Philadelphia and later, further west.
A variety of wood was used for construction. Some wood was better for wheels, while another made better sideboards. Cured wood that had been cut three or four years earlier made better wagons. Tar buckets were made of black leather and hung under the rear axle. Tar was used to grease the oak axles. The axles were banded with iron to withstand wear.
Owning and operating a Conestoga
The Conestoga wagon required vigilant maintenance to stay on the job. Paint provided essential protection from the elements. The colors were easily mixed on the farm: blue wagon body and red framework, running gear, wheels and sideboards. Metal parts were painted black. A white canvas cover finished the colorful picture.
If wagons were not cared for properly, their creaking and groaning would be heard for miles before the wagon approached! To keep the wheels rolling along easily, the wagoner would grease the axles and hubs before beginning the trip. When the wagon rested on a hill to let the horses catch their breath, the wagoner would dip a feather into the tar and insert it in the opening caused by the heavy load pushing the wheels outward on the hub.
The driver would walk along side the wagon, or he would ride the wheel horse or pull out the lazy board to sit. One who sat here ran the risk of being called lazy! There were no real seats on the wagon.
Equipment on the wagon consisted of a feed box for the animals, a bucket to water the horses, an ax to clear the road, a toolbox to make small repairs, a tar bucket to grease the wheels, and a jack to remove the wheels.
The driver sent directions to his horses through a long leather line that was connected to the lead horse. "Haw" meant turn left, and "gee" meant go right. The custom of driving on the right side of the road today is believed to have originated because the lead horse was on the left, and the wagon driver would walk on the left. If he needed to pass, he would do so on the left and drive on the right. When going downhill, the brakeman used a chain on the back of the wheel to keep the wheel from turning. It would slide down the wheel, slowing it down. A short board, positioned near the brake handle on the left side near the rear wheels, was also called a "lazy board." This nickname originated because the brakeman could avoid walking by sitting or standing on the board. On icy roads in winter, a heavy iron chain was fastened to the felloe of the left rear wheel and linked to the framework of the wagon to prevent it from slipping sideways. The same principle is applied today in the use of chains on automobile wheels.
The wagon traveled at a rate of three miles an hour–a moderate, steady walk. The 60-mile-trip from Lancaster to the farm markets in Philadelphia took several days, longer if it was muddy and shorter in the winter when the roads were hard and frozen. The trips were monotonous, so the wagoners puffed on a cigar almost a foot long as they walked along the road. This cigar, selling at four for a cent, was called a "stogie", derived from the word "Conestoga".
Before the Revolutionary War, 10,000 Conestoga wagons traveled from the Lancaster-Lebanon Valley to Philadelphia hauling whiskey, farm produce, iron ore, charcoal, and finished products and returning with items imported from Europe.
Over the mountains
Conestoga wagons played a critical part in moving people and goods over the Allegheny Mountains after wagon roads were opened across the mountains during the French and Indian War. The innovations that served so well in rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania were put to the test on the rough roads that crossed streams and hugged hillsides through the mountains.
Once the difficult three-week, 300-mile journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was made, the growing town of Pittsburgh served as the "gateway to the west" through the waters of the Ohio River. Emigrating settlers would load their wagon on a flatboat for relatively easy floating on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to find homes in the Midwest.
At their destinations in Pittsburgh, freight haulers would unload manufactured goods from Philadelphia and pick up western Pennsylvania's agricultural goods to make the return trip.
Conestogas were the most extensive carriers of freight for more than one hundred years. During their heyday, over three thousand wagoners and their teams passed daily back and forth on the National Road (now Route 40), the artery of travel to the West. Thousands also traversed Forbes Road, now U.S. Route 22, the main Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route.
The cost of shipping by Conestoga, however, created both problems and opportunities for western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania farmers could not compete with eastern farmers, who had the edge with lower shipping costs. So, western farmers tended to ship their most profitable and portable products east, which for them was whiskey. (When the new federal government decided to tax whiskey, these farmers protested in what has become known as the Whiskey Rebellion.) The West also paid dearly for manufactured items shipped over the mountains, which provided ample motivation – a protective tariff of sorts – to Pittsburgh entrepreneurs to start their own manufacturing enterprises. Thus, the high cost of shipping by wagon set the young city of Pittsburgh on its path to develop into the manufacturing center it was destined to become.
By the 1820s and 1830s canals became a better and cheaper method of hauling goods. The heyday of canals was eclipsed by the more efficient transportation of railroads. By 1850 locomotives had become so powerful that, depending upon the size of their engines, they could pull ten to one hundred times the load of the Conestogas. And they were faster! By 1852, the railroad had crossed the state, cutting the travel time across the state to 12 hours.
Pennsylvania's varied and rugged terrain made transportation a continuing challenge. The Allegheny Mountains confined settlement to the eastern part of the state for Pennsylvania's first 100 years. Even in the East, the rolling piedmont areas, though fertile for farming, proved challenging when it came time to ship those goods to market. Loads shifted going up and down hills. Roads were unpaved and rutted, bogged by mud in the wet seasons, chocked by dust in the dry summer. Putting down logs to "pave" a "corduroy" surface made well-traveled roads passable through most of the year, but created another set of problems: Traditional farm wagons were literally shaken apart by the rough surface!
An ingenious vehicle
The Pennsylvania Dutch ("Deutsch") settlers in the Lebanon Valley applied ingenuity to the problem of getting their goods to market and developed a vehicle that could not only travel on barely developed roads, but also carry a large cargo. The Conestoga wagon was named for the valley in Lancaster County where it was developed. It was such an adaptable design that it became one of the chief freight carriers in the East from 1750 until the coming of the railroads. What the Conestoga wagon did to open Western Pennsylvania to settlement and trade, its larger offspring – nicknamed the "Prairie Schooner" – later did for the Midwest.
The Conestoga wagon probably began as a farm wagon adapted for use on the rough, hilly ground in Lancaster County. A cover was added to protect the goods, and the bottom was bowed to keep them from sliding back and forth. The wheels were large in diameter, so the wagon could pass over streams without getting the goods wet, and broad to allow them to roll over stumps and rocks in the road. Four to six large draft horses – eventually named "Conestoga horses" – or a team of oxen provided enough strength to keep from getting stuck in the mud.
The wagons came in various sizes. The smaller ones were used on farms while the larger, 14 to 16 feet in length, were used to haul goods to Philadelphia and later, further west.
A variety of wood was used for construction. Some wood was better for wheels, while another made better sideboards. Cured wood that had been cut three or four years earlier made better wagons. Tar buckets were made of black leather and hung under the rear axle. Tar was used to grease the oak axles. The axles were banded with iron to withstand wear.
Owning and operating a Conestoga
The Conestoga wagon required vigilant maintenance to stay on the job. Paint provided essential protection from the elements. The colors were easily mixed on the farm: blue wagon body and red framework, running gear, wheels and sideboards. Metal parts were painted black. A white canvas cover finished the colorful picture.
If wagons were not cared for properly, their creaking and groaning would be heard for miles before the wagon approached! To keep the wheels rolling along easily, the wagoner would grease the axles and hubs before beginning the trip. When the wagon rested on a hill to let the horses catch their breath, the wagoner would dip a feather into the tar and insert it in the opening caused by the heavy load pushing the wheels outward on the hub.
The driver would walk along side the wagon, or he would ride the wheel horse or pull out the lazy board to sit. One who sat here ran the risk of being called lazy! There were no real seats on the wagon.
Equipment on the wagon consisted of a feed box for the animals, a bucket to water the horses, an ax to clear the road, a toolbox to make small repairs, a tar bucket to grease the wheels, and a jack to remove the wheels.
The driver sent directions to his horses through a long leather line that was connected to the lead horse. "Haw" meant turn left, and "gee" meant go right. The custom of driving on the right side of the road today is believed to have originated because the lead horse was on the left, and the wagon driver would walk on the left. If he needed to pass, he would do so on the left and drive on the right. When going downhill, the brakeman used a chain on the back of the wheel to keep the wheel from turning. It would slide down the wheel, slowing it down. A short board, positioned near the brake handle on the left side near the rear wheels, was also called a "lazy board." This nickname originated because the brakeman could avoid walking by sitting or standing on the board. On icy roads in winter, a heavy iron chain was fastened to the felloe of the left rear wheel and linked to the framework of the wagon to prevent it from slipping sideways. The same principle is applied today in the use of chains on automobile wheels.
The wagon traveled at a rate of three miles an hour–a moderate, steady walk. The 60-mile-trip from Lancaster to the farm markets in Philadelphia took several days, longer if it was muddy and shorter in the winter when the roads were hard and frozen. The trips were monotonous, so the wagoners puffed on a cigar almost a foot long as they walked along the road. This cigar, selling at four for a cent, was called a "stogie", derived from the word "Conestoga".
Before the Revolutionary War, 10,000 Conestoga wagons traveled from the Lancaster-Lebanon Valley to Philadelphia hauling whiskey, farm produce, iron ore, charcoal, and finished products and returning with items imported from Europe.
Over the mountains
Conestoga wagons played a critical part in moving people and goods over the Allegheny Mountains after wagon roads were opened across the mountains during the French and Indian War. The innovations that served so well in rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania were put to the test on the rough roads that crossed streams and hugged hillsides through the mountains.
Once the difficult three-week, 300-mile journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was made, the growing town of Pittsburgh served as the "gateway to the west" through the waters of the Ohio River. Emigrating settlers would load their wagon on a flatboat for relatively easy floating on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to find homes in the Midwest.
At their destinations in Pittsburgh, freight haulers would unload manufactured goods from Philadelphia and pick up western Pennsylvania's agricultural goods to make the return trip.
Conestogas were the most extensive carriers of freight for more than one hundred years. During their heyday, over three thousand wagoners and their teams passed daily back and forth on the National Road (now Route 40), the artery of travel to the West. Thousands also traversed Forbes Road, now U.S. Route 22, the main Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route.
The cost of shipping by Conestoga, however, created both problems and opportunities for western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania farmers could not compete with eastern farmers, who had the edge with lower shipping costs. So, western farmers tended to ship their most profitable and portable products east, which for them was whiskey. (When the new federal government decided to tax whiskey, these farmers protested in what has become known as the Whiskey Rebellion.) The West also paid dearly for manufactured items shipped over the mountains, which provided ample motivation – a protective tariff of sorts – to Pittsburgh entrepreneurs to start their own manufacturing enterprises. Thus, the high cost of shipping by wagon set the young city of Pittsburgh on its path to develop into the manufacturing center it was destined to become.
By the 1820s and 1830s canals became a better and cheaper method of hauling goods. The heyday of canals was eclipsed by the more efficient transportation of railroads. By 1850 locomotives had become so powerful that, depending upon the size of their engines, they could pull ten to one hundred times the load of the Conestogas. And they were faster! By 1852, the railroad had crossed the state, cutting the travel time across the state to 12 hours.
