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road boxcars either, before the 1830s)?
Schooner size
This brings us to wagons. No, not the Red Rider you pedaled around as a kid. We’re talking industrial strength vehicles able to move all those hogsheads about. When we think of wagons from the 1800s, the image likely to arise is that of a train of Prairie Schooners headed through Monument Valley, Arizona with Ward Bond as wagon master. Ward’s wagons were but puny little brothers of the ones necessary to move our barrels however. What we need is a genuine Conestoga wagon!
Developed in the 1700s by Germans near Conestoga, PA, these behemoths were the ’18 wheelers’ of their day. Approximately 25 feet long, 11 ft high, and weighing around 3500 pounds, the Conestoga was especially suited for hogshead trans[>ort.
The wagon bed was ower in the middle than at the ends so that shifting loads would not fall out or put undo strain on the front or tailgates. This resulted in a profile something like a boat and the wagon was sometimes referred to as the ‘ship of inland commerce’. The white canvas forming the roof of the wagon was known as the ‘bonnet’ due to its resemblance to a woman’s hat. The canvas was sometimes also likened to a sail - hence the term Prairie Schooner later applied to smaller derivatives of the original wagons.
The load capacity of these babies was staggering for the time, up to 8 tons; that’s one heck of a lot of cigars, Groucho! In fact so much cigar ‘tobaccy’ was transported in Conestogas that the smokes acquired the famous nickname ‘stogies’. Teams of six to eight horses were used to haul the great wagons. The ‘driver’ did not ordinarily sit on the wagon. Instead, he rode one of the team-horses or walked along the left side to direct the team.
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