fort, they being loo heavy and requiring large horses 

 for the shafts. . . ." '•' Another communication from 

 Morris slates ttiat he ''dispalched fifty-two waggons 

 from this town, each carrying fifty bushels of grain, 

 one half oats llie other Indian Clorn." "" This makes 

 a load of about 2,200 pounds, •'' quite in agreement 

 with the statement in the Gentlemen's Magazine of 

 August 1755, that loads were commonly around 

 one ton. A load of one ton is small in comparison to 

 those hauled bv later wacions that sometimes carried 

 as much as five or even six tons. 



An approximate description of the size of the wagon. 

 taken from the earliest existing speciinens of the same 

 type shows a bed about 12 feet long on the bottom 

 and 14 feet on the top. Depth of the bed ran about 



'" Orme's Journal, in Sargont, op. cil. (footnote 2), pp. 331-32. 

 English wagons were equipped witli pairs of shafts, similar to 

 those of a spring wagon or buggy of recent times. Wagon 

 shafts were, however, much heavier than the latter. 



2" Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 4, vol. 2, Morris to Braddock, 

 June 12, 1755. 



■' R. Moore, The universal assistant, p. 205, New York, 

 n. d. The weight of corn is given at 56 pounds per bushel, 

 and oats at 32 pounds per bushel. 



Figure 6. — Restored Freight-Carrying Conestoga 

 VV^^GON, about 1830, in the collection of the author. 

 The tongue is not full length. {Photo by the author.) 



?>2 inches and the width was approxiinately 42 to 46 

 inches. Though there was little standardization in 

 most features, eight bows usually supported the dull 

 white homespun co\er. The diameter of the front 

 wheels \aried from 40 to 45 inches, while the rear 

 wheels ran 10 to 20 inches larger.^' 



For a 1759 expedition it was recommended that 

 wagon accessories include drag chains, grass cutting 

 knives, axes, shovels, tar buckets (for lubricating axles), 

 jacks, hobbles, and extra sets of such items as clouts 

 (axle-bearing plates), nails, horseshoes, hames, linch 

 pins, and hamestrings,^' It is doubtful if many 

 teamsters in the 1755 expedition had so complete a 

 selection of equipment; campaign experience in the 

 mountains of western Pennsylvania was necessary to 



-- One light wagon of about 1800 had smaller wheels, the 

 front being 37 inches and the rear 49 inches in diameter. 



-' Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, vol. 3, advertisement of General 

 Stanwix for wagons, May 4. 1759. 



146 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM IIIK MUSEUM Ol HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



