The Conestoga Wagon:
Netherlanders Had a Hand In It
A Dutch Next Door Feature Article

by Lee Myles

[Ed.: Lee Myles' article originally appeared in the Summer 1997 issues of the Freeholder. Our thanks to Mr. Miles for permission to reproduce it here.]

The "Regulars" were haughty men, Since five or six they always drove, With broad-tread wheels and English beds, They bore their proud and lofty heads, And always thought themselves above, The homespun, plain, "Militia-men," Who wagoned only now and then.      from Wagoning by H.L. Fisher

Someday we will discuss the wagons introduced by the Dutch and used on Long Island and on the New York and New Jersey mainland. Our present subject however, takes us to the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Fisher's lines above refer to the large, long distance freighting industry, founded early in the 18th century and centered in Pennsylvania but penetrating widely into other areas. The industry and its chief vehicle, the Conestoga wagon, trace their history to 1716, just two years before Penn's death. Although folklore says the Conestoga wagon was "invented" or "developed" by the German immigrants, called Pennsylvania Dutchmen, who lived in Lancaster County's Conestoga Valley, that fiction was already being contradicted when Fisher's poem was published in 1888. Fisher did mention in another stanza, the "plain red [Pennsylvania] Dutch beds that were driven by the 'Militia-men.'" The militiamen were farmers, often Germans, who were doubling as teamsters during periods of slow work at home. Their wagons, built by the same wheelwrights who built the big Conestoga freighters, were smaller than the freighters and employed four or fewer horses. They had, however, the same general features and design as the wagons of the "Regulars" and undoubtedly shared the same ancestry.

The general features of a Conestoga are to be found for the most part in earlier wagons of Dutch and English make. Actual examples of Dutch and English wagons dating before 1800 are almost non-existent but there are a number of pictures which support this view. Further, Dutch and English wagons contemporary with Conestogas seem to have inherited features from their antecedents that match those of the Conestoga. As the likelihood that the Conestoga could have influenced overseas developments is infinitesimal, it must be concluded that shared features are either independent inventions or an inheritance. The weight of evidence seems to bar independent invention.

The features that define a Conestoga wagon are: more or less canted front panel and tailgate; carving on front panel and tailgate; front panel and tail gate mortised or notched to engage extended side rails; rails of side panels bow downward at center although on some examples bottom rail is nearly straight; a cloth tilt or wagon cover supported by wooden hoops; rear wheels of greater diameter than front wheels; extra side pieces curved to match the bow of the top rail but straight at the top; metal hubcaps on some examples; blue painted wagon bed over red running gear; feed trough suspended across tailgate; toolbox mounted on left side panel; wagon jack, ax and tar pot carried as regular equipment; an arched ring of bells mounted just ahead of the horse's withers; and much decorated iron work.

As has doubtless been noted by readers of The Dutch Next Door pieces, I believe that the men and women of the low lands across the North Sea from the sceptered isle made many contributions, often not importantly noticed, to the culture of the English at home and to the settlers they sent across the Atlantic to populate their thirteen American colonies. One of these contributions was the Dutch influence on the wagons of England and early America. I had not progressed far with this idea when, ten years ago, I read in New World Dutch Studies an article by David Steven Cohen, "Dutch-American Farming: Crops, Livestock and Equipment, 1623-1900." One of the pieces of equipment Cohen discussed was the Dutch wagon. Cohen referred to opinions and evidence that supported the notion that the English wagon was descended from that of the Dutch. I had collected similar material and was pleased by his thoughts on the subject, but more pleased by his feeling that the Conestoga wagon was descended from the Dutch one by way of the English. Can we find support for the possibility Cohen suggested?

Cohen is not the only student of the subject who has mentioned the English debt to the Dutch for four wheeled transport. J. Geraint Jenkins, the English folklorist, offers a similar opinion in The English Farm Wagon. James Arnold, whose beautiful and meticulous drawings of English wagons are famous, notes kinship especially between some of the North Lincolnshire wagons and the early Dutch ones. Incidentally, an 1829 wagon from North Lincolnshire in his The Farm Wagons Of England and Wales has a remarkable resemblance to some of the still existing Conestogas. Laszlo Tarr commented in his History of the Carriage, "The wagon with shaft came to England from Holland, as indicated also by its very name, the word 'wagon' being of Dutch origin." Originally the Dutch spelt it "waghen" as the English often did in the 16th century. An English mathematical treatise of 1570 noted, "As, the force which one man hath with the Duche waghen rack, therewith to set up agayne, a mighty waghen laden, being overthrown." "Mighty waghen" tells us that large wagons were nothing new when Pennsylvania wheelwrights began to build them and the "Duche waghen rack" says the same thing about wagon jacks, a feature of the Conestoga.

Although no Conestogas are left to us that date before 1800 we know from the researches of Evelyn A. Benson in the account books of James Logan, the commercial representative of William Penn, that the wagon of that name dates to the second decade of the 18th century. In 1716 Logan established an irregular freight wagon service between Philadelphia and the Conestoga Valley in Lancaster County using one wagon. By the end of the next year the fleet had grown to three and Logan was referring to the wagons as "Conestoga" wagons because that was their destination. Not only had the era of long distance transport in America begun, but the wagons employed had received a name that was to stay with them long after they ceased to be the chosen vehicle of the industry.

We don't really know what the Conestoga wagon of 1716 looked like or how much it resembled the vehicle that many of us would recognize from illustrations or visits to museums. Edwin Wolf III says in Philadelphia that Logan adapted the vehicle used for army supply trains in Europe. He offers no documentation, but even if it is a guess, it is a reasonable one. "Europe" as a source, however, seems less likely than England.

British military wagon, as illustrated by W.H. Pyne before 1808. It is not hard to see this wagon as a descendant of a prototype of the Conestoga.

Assuming that Logan and his drivers dealt with English wheelwrights in Philadelphia, as would have been likely in the town's early years, English models are more likely than Continental ones. The English had large military freight wagons. A map of the Battle of Naseby, 1645, shows a number of them and some of the features of the Conestoga can be distinguished, although there is no substantial resemblance. However a British military wagon, perhaps made for the purpose, perhaps conscripted from some farmer, was illustrated by W.H. Pyne before 1808. It is not hard to see it as a descendant of a prototype of a Conestoga.

Let us consider whether the characteristic features of the Conestoga can be found in Dutch and English wagons. We will not be finding every feature on every wagon. Some will have none, some few, some many, but I think we will find enough to credit the Dutch with handing to the English the features that define the Conestoga.

The most noticeable feature of the Conestoga is its tilt or wagon cover supported by wooden hoops. The feature is very old but its appearance in Netherlandish art has meaning for us. For example, Brueghel's 16th century. picture of skaters in Flanders shows a cloth covered wagon with large wheels behind and down-bowed sides. Many such wagons can be found in Dutch and Flemish art. English pictures post-dating the believed 16th century. introduction of the "waghen" offer many representations of covered wagons with large rear wheels. Down-bowed sides are also to be seen.

Dutch and English wagons show the same notching or mortising of tail gates to accept extensions of the side rails by which the gates are retained in place. Where there are front panels similar features are found. These features are repeated on the Conestoga.

Side extensions to increase the depth of the wagon bed are found on all three types. Where front or rear panels are not already higher than the side panel, extensions for these also appear.

Conestoga wagons were traditionally painted red for the running gear and blue for the wagon bed. These colors were by far the most common on 19th century English wagons and were often employed on those of the Netherlands. The so-called "tool" box side-mounted on the Conestoga appears, although infrequently on English wagons of the 19th century. I have found none on Dutch wagons. More or less carving, at least on tail gates, is found on all three vehicles. The highly decorated iron work found on Conestogas apparently does not appear on English or Dutch wagons, leaving that feature to be claimed for the Pennsylvania Germans.

I think a case is made. What do you think?