THE INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HORSE


The Legacy of the Horse

Chapter Three

A Chronological History of Humans and Their Relationship With the Horse


Table of Contents

1680 - 1840
Racing in England - The Demise of the English Stage Coach






HAULING THE GOODS

1733 - The Conestoga Wagon

In the early 1700s the agricultural region near the Conestoga River in Pennsylvania was growing prosperous. This area was located nearly 70 miles from Philadelphia, and it was difficult and expensive to carry produce to market by pack horse. Bringing back necessary supplies to the valley was also a problem. Necessity being the mother of invention, the Germans of the Conestoga Valley developed a wagon which could safely and economically carry produce and supplies for the area's farmers. No traditionally constructed wagon would do. The roads in that area were sometimes barely passable.

The Conestoga was a Masterpiece of Design

The wagon was made with the finest materials by the careful craftsmanship of the German Mennonites. The various elements of the wagon were made of different woods, each with special properties. The wheels had hard hickory spokes and hubs made of gumwood. The frame was constructed using oak beams, and the sideboards of the bed were made of poplar. Each piece of wood was carefully chosen and joined. The wagon's wheels were painted bright red and the body deep blue. The bed, covered with a cloth roof of linsey-woolsey, was higher at the ends than in the middle. If goods shifted during transport, they would fall to the center and not seriously affect the wagon's balance. Conestoga wheels were larger than ordinary, so the wagon could travel through bogs and over humps as smoothly as possible.


The Great Red, White, and Blue Wagons Came to Symbolize America's Pioneer Spirit

The Conestoga fulfilled their initial function as freight wagons, but later were adopted by pioneers moving west to settle the vast reaches of the American interior. These wagons, with their unique design and sound craftsmanship, carried Americans across the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails to the Pacific coast and in doing so contributed far more to the nation's growth than their original builders could have ever anticipated.

Conestoga Drivers Began American Custom of Driving on the Right

The Conestoga was driven by a "waggoner" who rode the near (left) wheel horse. He managed his team of six horses with verbal commands, a single jerk line, and a long blacksnake whip which cracked the air yet hardly ever touched a horse. Because of his position on the left of his team, the driver held to the right side of the road. Smaller on-coming vehicles were forced to their right to pass. Soon it was custom for all drivers to keep to the right of the road. However, other vehicles placed the driver on the right until Henry Ford established the driver on the left side in 1909.



Ferrying a Horse

In the days before bridges, it was not easy to cross a river or a swollen creek with a horse. Many horses would refuse to ford or swim the stream; regardless, the rider was sure to get wet. The alternative was to search out a farmer with a ferry. Ferries were often than a deck and rails attached to two dugout canoes. Two parallel boards with cleats across them served as a gangplank for bringing the horse aboard. A gangplank was kept on each shore. Most horses would board easily, but now and then a nervous nag would have to be blindfolded. The horse was kept in the middle of the board by cross-tying him to the boat's side rails. The average fee for ferrying a horse and rider was about 12 cents.



Assembling a Packhorse Train

Groups of farmers joined forces to pack their wheat to market. Each horse carried over 160 pounds of grain in two coarse linen sacks, lashed to the pack saddle and covered with a square tarpaulin as a guard against the elements. The pack horses were grouped into strings of fourteen or fifteen animals. Each string was led by a man on horseback who fastened the halter rope of the first pack horse onto his saddle. Each lead horse wore a bell on a strap around his neck as they made their way through the woods to market.



"Horse,"the Post Rider

On the route between Philadelphia and New Brunswick, New Jersey, the post rider was a wizened elderly man known as "Horse," though his name was actually Horace. Nobody knew his last name which was Smith. His mail traveled in two leather pouches slung behind the saddle across the back of his languorous nag. One pouch held letters for people along his route; the other was for through mail...Even in summer when the roads were dry, a letter took three weeks to get from Philadelphia to Boston. Postage for letters delivered between two points on his route went into "Horse's" purse. "Horse" also picked up some profit by carrying small packages or doing errands along the way. He was very lonely on most trips, but when "Horse" announced his arrival at a stop with a blast of his horn, the people hurried to gladly greet him. His steed knew the road and ambled along it half asleep; "Horse" passed the time knitting stockings and mittens, which he sold by the wayside to whoever would buy. &Quot;(Edward Tunis, "The Tavern at the Ferry")




BUILDING THE ROADS TO SETTLEMENT

The Pioneers of the American West Were Rugged Horsemen

The movement of many people and all their goods into the interior of America required the construction of roads. The virgin forest reluctantly yielded each foot to construction crews. At first, Indian paths were widened to a size sufficient to allow the passage of pack-horses which carried up to 200 pounds of goods. But it cost a month's wages (five dollars) to have merely two iron kettles or two sacks of ham and bacon carried 100 miles was too much for poor settlers. These routes were later enlarged to a width of 12 feet, the minimum size for the movement of wagons. Yet the forest was not the only obstacle impeding travel, since it had allies in the form of high mountains, deep ravines, and rushing rivers.

1755 - The First Roads Were Roughly Hacked Out of the American Wilderness

In 1755, General Edward Braddock was authorized to build a military road between Fort Cumberland, Maryland, and Fort du Quesne (Pittsburgh). Even his force of 600 soldiers and axmen could clear no more then a five miles a day, and many days they made no more than two miles of passable roads. These first roads were gradually improved by a "corduroy" road of logs laid over swampy portions of the road, but the going remained rough for both man and horse.

Good Roads Smoothed the Way for Rapid Settlement of the American Wilderness

The American frontier was opened up to settlers with the construction of good roads, capable of carrying their loaded wagons. Beginning at the turn of the nineteenth century, toll roads such as the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpikes (1795), Zanes Trace (1797), the Catskill Turnpike (1802), and the Santa Fe Trail (1822) brought settlers into the American West.

1823 - Macadam's Design Improved the Quality of Early Roads

The greatest innovator in road design since the time of the Roman Empire was John Loudon MacAdam (1756-1836). Born in Scotland, MacAdam lived in America during the Revolution. He returned to Scotland following the war to research highway design. MacAdam's specifications for a proper roadbed required that it contain stones weighing no more than six ounces and no larger than two inches in diameter. The roadbed consisted of several layers of stones uniformly spread and rolled, with a depth of 15 inches at the center. MacAdam's roads were 20 feet wide, allowing the passage of vehicles from both directions at the same time. Today, "MacAdam" is still a synonym for a hard-surfaced road. The first MacAdam road in America was built in 1823 in Maryland. The first MacAdam road west of the Alleghenies was built from Maysville to Lexington, Kentucky in 1835 (now US Route 68).



Private Vehicles

The Pleasure Wagon

When roads became worn between town and farm, a lighter wagon became practical. The "pleasure wagon" had a cantilevered seat on two hickory "springs" while other wagons had none at all. Even so, riding in the pleasure wagon would have been far from a pleasure. For farmers , who could afford to have such a vehicle and a pair of horses, the pleasure wagon hauled the crop to town and took the family to church on Sunday in good weather.

The One-horse Shay

Some folks drove a one-horse shay on local errands. It was called a "shay" or a "cheer," after the Yankee rendering of the French word "chaise" meaning chair. It had two wheels, a fixed top, and its body hung on straps. The chaise had two very large strong wheels that could absorb some of the roughness of a corduroy road or span the holes, ruts, and bumps of most other roads. It could be pulled by one strong horse.

The Farmers' Horse

In the 1700s much of the heavy farm work was done by oxen. The horse was most important for transportation. On the farm, the horse did light work such as snake rails when the men built fences, or pull a wooden flop rake when the hay was gathered into windrows. When the hay wagon was piled high, the horses teamed up to bring it to the barn. The horse was enlisted to haul the harvest to market, and when all the work was done, the farmer's horse was often asked to win a race for a wager between the neighbors.




THE PUBLIC STAGE WAGON

Most people traveled by horseback in the 1700s, while some endured uncomfortable journeys by public stage. Two big horses normally pulled the stage wagon, but in bad weather four horses were needed. Nine to twelve passengers sat three abreast on backless board seats. The wagon had roll-down curtains in case of rain, but had no springs to soften the ride. Established stage lines advertised their schedules in the newspaper and these schedules were often not convenient to the passengers. For instance, the stage for Lancaster, Pennsylvania left Philadelphia at three-thirty in the morning and didn't stop at an inn for breakfast until nine.



Justin Morgan - Figure of Greatness

The patriarch of the Morgan breed was the legendary horse named Figure. He soon came to be known by the name of his breeder and first owner, Justin Morgan, a singing teacher and sometime horse breeder from Randolph, Vermont. There has grown over the years a great deal of controversy and romance regarding Figure's origin and early life. But the simple fact is that Figure was sired by a Thoroughbred named True Briton, also known as "Beautiful Bay" and "Traveler," who was foaled in 1768 in England. Figure's dam was by the Diamond and was foaled in 1784 in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the same town in which Figure was foaled in 1789.

Contrary to popular opinion, Figure spent his early life, beginning at age three, at stud in various locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1793, 1794, and 1795 he stood at stud in Vermont. Contemporary descriptions say that he stood about 14 hands and weighed about 950 pounds.

A Sad Life for Figure, Now Called Justin Morgan

It is difficult to sift the fact from the legends concerning Figure's later life, but the accepted story is not a pleasant one. In 1798, Figure's owner, Justin Morgan, died of tuberculosis. Figure was given to Sheriff Rice, Morgan's friend. (Figure's name was then changed to that of his first owner according to the custom in that area.) Rice in turn sold Justin Morgan to a farmer named Robert Evans who put the horse to work in the woods. Evans also raced Justin Morgan and put him to stud. Evans went bankrupt in 1804, and Justin Morgan was acquired by Colonel John Goss. Goss rode him in military reviews, attracting great attention. But in 1811 Justin Morgan was sold, first to a man named Sanderson and then to Jacob Langsmade. He was put in team to pull freight wagons and Langsmade abused the aging horse. More owners and further suffering followed. Too old and worn out to work, Justin Morgan was turned out to open pasture and left without shelter to fend for himself. Finally he was kicked in the flank by another horse and died from the inflamed wound. Justin Morgan's greatness lived on through the blood of his sons. Justin Morgan is now remembered as one of the greatest heroes in the history of the American horse.




STAGE TRAVEL IN BRITAIN

The Fast and Efficient Transportation of Goods and People Depended on the Construction of Improved Roads

Until late in the 1700s, in both Europe and America, most roads were either rough tracks created by hoof and wheel or mere paths blazed through the wilderness. People traveled by horseback or on foot between towns. During cold or wet seasons, traffic was especially difficult or impossible. Only within cities could wagons move with relative ease.

1706 - The Origins of English Stage Travel

In 1706, a company was formed to manage stage travel between York, in northern England, and London to the south. In 1734, one could travel from Edinburgh, in Scotland, to London in no less than 10 days. (One hundred years later the same trip of 329 miles took only 42 ½ hours!) The term "stagecoach" is derived from the fact that these vehicles traveled in segments, or "stages" of 15-20 miles in length. At a stage stop, horses would be changed and travelers could refresh themselves or sleep for the night at the taverns which served the coaches. In the early days of stage travel, the going was rough, even though the coach body was suspended on leather straps, called thorough braces, to absorb some of the road shock. Weather, wrecks, and road hooligans made the stage trip a memorable adventure.

The Golden Age of Stagecoach Travel in Britain in the 1780s

In 1784, John Palmer of Bath persuaded the government to allow him to carry the Royal Mail by stage to and from London. After this time, the term stagecoach was replaced by "mail coach." This innovation earned Palmer the position of Postmaster-General. Carrying the mail by coach ended the era of the post-rider, who had gained the reputation of being intoxicated, unreliable, and frequently in league with or prey to highwaymen. The introduction of the turnpike also improved the quality of coach travel. Turnpike owners charged tolls for passage, and in return they maintained the roads. The combined refinements in coach design and road construction and maintenance allowed the heavy coach horses to be replaced by teams of faster half-bred or pure Thoroughbred horses.

The Demise of the English Stagecoach

Despite all these refinements, the mail coach was finally outrun by the railroad. The era of the English coach was finished by 1840, except in out-lying regions. From the horse's point of view, this may have been just as well. The average life of a mail coach horse in service was a mere three years.




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