Original Document

In 1755, the assembly at Philadelphia sent Ben Franklin to Lancaster to secure horses and wagons for the expedition which General Braddock was to make against the French at Fort Duquesne.


May 22nd, 1755 Ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette placed by Benjamin Franklin:
"Forty-one waggons are immediately needed, to carry each a Load of Oats and Indian Corn from Philadelphia to Will's Creek, for which they are to be paid at their Return Twelve Pounds for each Waggon. Protections and Passes will be given the Waggoners by Authority of the General, to prevent their being impressed or detained after Delivery of their Loads. They are to set out together on Thursday the 28th Instant. Apply to Benjamin Franklin, in Philadelphia. Note–Several neighbors may conveniently join in fitting out a Waggon, as was lately done in the Back Counties. If the Waggons cannot thus be obtained, there must be an impress."



Written response fourteen days later:

"We hear from Wills Creek that the wagons and horses lately contracted for in the counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland were safely arrived at the camp and gave great satisfaction to the General and the other officers, being for the most part by far the best of any that have been engaged in the service of the army since their arrival."


Pennsylvania Gazette, June 5, 1755


"A large and strong wagon covered with linen cloth is an essential part of the furniture of a German farm. In this wagon, drawn by four or five large horses of peculiar breed, they convey to market over the roughest roads between two and three thousand pounds weight of the produce of their farms. In the months of September and October it is no uncommon thing, on the Lancaster and Reading roads, to meet in one day from fifty to an hundred of these wagons on their way to Philadelphia, most of which belong to German farmers."



Benjamin Rush's Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, 1789

"In 1795 seventy to eighty wagons passed through Lancaster in a day. It was frequently necessary to assign numbers to the wagons as they came to a ferry so that each might keep his place in line to be ferried across the Conestoga River. At times,one hundred fifty-four and six horse wagons would be in line. It would take twenty-four to thirty-six hours to ferry this many across."



"It is scarcely possible to go one mile on this road without meeting numbers of wagons passing and repassing between the back part of the state and Philadelphia. These wagons are commonly drawn by four or five horses which are yolked in pairs. The wagons are heavy, the horses small, and the drivers unmerciful; the consequence of which is, that in every team, nearly, there is a horse either lame or blind…Market or High Street in Philadelphia, the street which these people come into town, is always crowded with wagons, and horses that are left standing there all night. Food for the horses is always carried in the wagon, and the moment they stop, they are unyolked and fed whilst they are warm. By this treatment half of the poor animals are foundered. The horses are fed out of a large trough carried for the purpose and fixed on the pole of the wagon by means of iron pins."

A traveller through the States, 1799



"We passed hundreds of Pittsburgh wagons in the crossing. Many of them had broken axles and wheels, and in more than one place, it was pointed out to us, that teams had plunged down the precipices and had perished. In descending the ridges, a winding road, just wide enough to admit one carriage, was carried round the verge of the declivity, perhaps for more than a mile. In the case, if two carriages met, there would be no alternative but to retreat to the commencement of the narrow way. To prevent this, it is necessary that the carriage, which is commencing the ascent or descent, give notice by blowing a horn, or sending a messenger in advance. These people who drive between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, were to me, in their manners and way of living, an new species, perfectly unique in their appearance, language, and habits."

A traveller in 1826