Conestoga

“ The next year the commissioners of property had agreed with Martin Kendig, Hans Herr, etc., “Switzers” lately arrived in this province, for ten thousand acres of land twenty miles east of Connystogoe. (This Connystogoe I cannot locate. The Conestoga Creek empties into the Susquehanna below Lancaster.)
The supplies of the colonists were at first scanty, until the seed sown in a fertile soil yielded some thirty-, others forty-fold. ”

“ All chronicles agree that a fully equipped Conestoga wagon in the days when those wagons were in their prime was a truly pleasing sight, giving one that sense of satisfaction which ever comes from the regard of any object, especially a piece of mechanism, which is perfectly fitted for the object it is designed to attain. ”

“ Despite the superiority of the new iron age that quickly followed the widespreading canal movement, there was a generous spirit and a chivalry in the "good old days" of the stagecoach, the Conestoga, and the lazy canal boat, which did not to an equal degree pervade the iron age of the railroad. When machinery takes the place of human brawn and patience, there is an indefinable eclipse of human interest. ”

“ Late in 1763 the Indians, especially the Conestoga, caused much suffering in the lower Susquehanna region and the territory between Harris’ Ferry and the Schuylkill. The terrible incursions perpetrated and the many murders committed by these savages resulted in having the provincial authorities place these Indians under their care in Lancaster, Conestoga and Philadelphia. ”

“ We are prone to pride ourselves in America on many things which we had no part in producing, on some which are in no way distinctive, and on a few which are not in the highest sense to our credit. Of the Conestoga wagon as a perfect vehicle of transportation and as an important historical factor we can honorably and rightfully be proud. ”

“ Conestoga in Pennsylvania, named from an Indian tribe, gave its name to the huge wagons used before the advent of rail- roads and also to the draft horses which drew the conestoga wagons, while a shortened form, stogie, is the name for a kind of cigar. Podunk, a neck or corner of land, has become familiar through its use by burlesque writers.
It is natural that the white men should have retained the Indian names of things peculiar to this country, such as ter- rapin, made famous by Uncle Remus ”

“ A fine Mennonite meeting house, lately built, is here; on the grounds is huge boulder, marked by the Lancaster County Historical Society. This is the richest agricultural county in the United States, of unexampled fertility; the tourist is impressed with the mammoth barns of this region; luxuriant crops of tobacco are of special note. The Conestoga River, with its affluents, drains an area of 315 square miles, it is crossed by many bridges. On the border of the city limits is a nine arch stone bridge, built by Abraham Witmer in 1800, which leads the Lincoln Highway over the Conestoga. ”

“ The Conestoga, and perhaps some allied tribes, occupied the country about the Lower Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and have commonly been regarded as an isolated body, but it seems probable that their territory was contiguous to that of the Five Nations on the north before the Delaware began their westward movement.
As the Cherokee were the principal tribe on the borders of the southern colonies and occupied the leading place in all the treaty negotiations, they came to be considered as the owners of a large territory to which they had no real claim. ”

“ The Conestoga Indians, notwithstanding their weakness, their local situation, and their peaceable and innocent habits of supporting themselves by making of wicker {29} baskets, brooms and other wooden ware, which they sold to their white neighbours, as well as the skins of the wild animals which they killed in hunting, became objects of terror to the panick struck whites. ”

“ Two types of inns thus came quickly 57 into existence: the tavern entertained the stagecoach traffic, while the democratic roadhouse served the established lines of Conestogas, freighters, and all other vehicles which poured from every town, village, and hamlet upon the great thoroughfare leading to the metropolis on the Delaware.
Among American inventions the Conestoga wagon must forever be remembered with respect. ”

“ This is a great wheat country, and from here was sent the first American grain across the Atlantic to feed Europe, the Lancaster County wheat, in the days before the railroads brought it from the West, ruling prices for the American markets. It was hauled out in the ponderous Conestoga wagons, named after the Indian tribe which formerly ruled this region—their name signifying "the great magic land." They were a quarrelsome people, fighting all the neighboring tribes, and becoming 282 deadly foes of the whites. ”

“ They became favorite resorts for citizens of their respective neighborhoods, who wished at times to escape from the drudge and ennui of their rural homes and gaze upon the world as represented by the dashing stages and long lines of Conestoga wagons. ”

“ At one time over three thousand ran constantly back and forward between Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania towns. Sometimes a hundred would follow in close row; “the leaders of one wagon with their noses in the trough of the wagon ahead.” These “Regulars” with fully equipped Conestoga wagons made freighting their constant and only business. Farmers and teamsters who made occasional trips, chiefly during the farmers’ dull season—the winter—were called “Militia.” ”

“ The certainty of such a penalty has prevented many an Indian assault.
As Shagbark and Abner Fleming stood by the wagon which had escaped the dreadful peril, the latter shuddered.
“What’s the matter?” asked the guide.
The other indicated the inanimate form that still lay on its face under the Conestoga.
“Can’t we get rid of that, Shagbark?”
“Nothing is easier; obsarve.”
Leaning his rifle against the tailboard, the hunter stooped, seized each ankle, and raising his hands so that they were at his own hips, and with a moccasin on either side, he ran fifty yards out on the plains. ”

“ The train was smaller than most of those which crossed the plains during those years when the lure of gold still drew men and their families from every quarter of the globe. The outfit consisted of six Conestoga wagons, each with six span of oxen, no mules, eight horses and twelve men, two-thirds of them with wives and from one to five children. In addition to the men, two youths, not quite grown, rode with them. One was Alden Payne and the other his African servant, Jethro Mix. ”

“ He knew that another shot would soon come from the grass in front, for the reports were heard on the other sides of the camp. He stood behind the wheel of the wagon, with gun leveled and alert for his chance.
He did not have to wait long. A spout of flame gushed from a point within a rod of where the former had appeared, and a thud told him the bullet had buried itself in the heavy timber of the Conestoga. Shifting his aim slightly to the left of the spot where the flash had shown, he let fly. ”

“ Two nations at this time were represented in this Conestoga band—the Senecas and the Shawanese.
The next year the governor himself, anxious to preserve their inalienable good-will, and to prevent their being seduced by emissaries from the French, went himself to visit them. On this occasion one of the chiefs made a speech, still preserved in the old records, which contains this passage: “Father, we love quiet; we suffer the mouse to play; when the woods are rustled by the wind, we fear not; when the leaves are disturbed in ambush, we are uneasy ”

“ We must leave it in five minutes, come what may."
"We will never leave it alive," the Indian said calmly. "The dogs have us fast. The Chief of the Conestogas will die in a strange land; his bones will be a plaything for the wolves of the mountains; his scalp will hang before the wigwam of an Algonquin dog. He will never see the village and the pleasant river, never will he smoke the peace pipe, he and his braves, with the Wyandots and the Lenni Lenape, sitting beneath the mulberries in front of the lodge. He will never see the cornfeast. ”

“ Starting from Natchitoches some twenty days ago, it has reached the Colorado river, crossed it, and is now wending its way towards the San Saba, a tributary of the former stream.
It is one of the largest caravans that has yet passed over the prairies of Texas, counting between twenty and thirty “Conestoga” wagons, with several “carrioles” and vehicles of varied kind. Full fifty horsemen ride in its front, on its flank, and rear; while five times the number of pedestrians, men with black or yellow skins, keep pace with it. ”

“ But the problem slowly forced itself upon all sections of the country, and especially upon Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose inhabitants began to fear lest New York, Alexandria, or Richmond should snatch the Western trade from Philadelphia or Baltimore. The truth that underlies the proverb that "history repeats itself" is well illustrated by the fact that the first macadamized road in America was built in Pennsylvania, for here also originated the pack-horse trade and the Conestoga horse and wagon ”

“ Compared with the evolution of methods of travel by land, the evolution on our rivers was rapid and spectacular. The “freighter” or “Conestoga” of 1790 was practically the same as that of 1840: a half century had witnessed little change in wagons and stages, save minor improvements. But compare the craft of 1790 on the Ohio with that of 1840. The canoe, pirogue, keel-boat, “bark,” barge, brig, schooner, galley-boat, batteau, and dug-out were forgotten—a consequence of the early application of steam-power to boats rather than to vehicles. ”

“ The Rubicon, as yet unnamed, arrived at NCR in 1909 on a flat car, just as its successor was welcomed more than half a century later.
Most things yield to progress—and that, of course, is how museums are made. The Corliss engine now on display at Carillon Park labored mightily during the formative years of American industry, yet more economical electric power systems eventually sent that steam giant into retirement at the Park. The Conestoga wagon and the Concord coach, the Grasshopper locomotive and the high-wheeled Cadillac—all served their purpose. ”

“ For those whom the long river journey did not please, or who lived inland in Ohio or Indiana, the national road was a help. In 1825 the continuation of the Cumberland Road through Ohio had been begun. By 1836 enough of it was done to direct the overland course of migration through Indianapolis towards central Illinois. The Conestoga wagon, which had already done its share in crossing the Alleghanies, now carried a second generation to the Mississippi. At Dubuque and Buffalo and Burlington ferries were established before 1836 to take the immigrants across the Mississippi into the new West. ”

“ Rising in the Cumberland and Alleghany Mountains, their course leads through the heart of Tennessee, to which their waters give easy access through the greater part of the year. Two gunboats accompanied this movement, in which, however, there was no fighting.
On the 10th of September, the Lexington, Commander Stembel, and Conestoga, Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, went down the Mississippi, covering an advance of troops on the Missouri side. A brisk cannonade followed between the boats and the Confederate artillery, and shots were exchanged with the gunboat Yankee. ”

“ I need not have allowed myself to be worked up to [32] such an extent, however, for the first part of our journey was nothing more nor less than pleasure. Half a dozen young girls, on horseback, set off with us, expecting to ride as far as the Long Plain, which is six miles out from Mattapoisett, and the entire population, as it appeared to me, had turned out to see us get under way with that long Conestoga wagon covered with canvas, on the sides of which had been painted, "To the Ohio Country." ”

“ Perhaps this would be easier than they had thought, but as they traveled onward, Tall Hawk began to realize that they were quite a long way from the village.
He signaled for the party to stop and called two of the leader warriors to him. “We have traveled far from our village. Do you think it wise that we go on? Surely along the way we have seen many single deer, but nowhere have we seen signs of a herd or a large number. This territory which we now enter is the home and hunting grounds of the Conestogas. We must leave here, for we are on land that does not belong to us.” ”

“ As the party turned to go back down the trail, one of the scouts who had been sent ahead came running into the circle to report that a large band of Conestogas were heading for just that place and they would be better off to start immediately for the home village. Tall Hawk gave the signal, and the hunting party turned quickly and trotted south toward the village.
It was fully a day’s journey and they had no rest. The long grind began to tell upon their numbers. When they would falter and were about to collapse, Tall Hawk could be heard to shout, “Keep running, fools! ”

“ In 1754 there was once a month a coach from Edinburgh to London; it took twelve to sixteen days to accomplish this journey, and was so perilous that travellers made their wills before setting out. There were few carts and no such splendid wagons as our Conestogas. Cadgers carried creels of goods on horseback; and sledges, or creels borne on the backs of women, were the means of transportation in northern Scotland until the end of the eighteenth century. ”