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Conestoga wagon
The Conestoga wagon was developed in the 1700s by Germans near Conestoga, Pennsylvania, and they were introduced to Virginia by German immigrants coming down the Great Wagon Road into the Shenandoah Valley. Most Conestoga wagons were used for hauling freight and cigars are called stogies because the tobacco for them was hauled in Conestoga wagons. When the wagons were used by families moving west, the wagon carried household goods while the people rode or walked alongside. At night the wagon provided some shelter for people sleeping beneath it.
The wagon is one of twelve surviving Conestoga-style wagons that were probably made in Virginia. This is the best-documented example. Look for the maker's name and address stenciled on the wagon's rear door.
The name Conestoga reflects the origins of this type of wagon in the Conestoga Valley of Pennsylvania in the 1700s. This wagon was made by John Kiger, a wheelwright and wagon maker who was born in Pennsylvania in 1775 and was in Winchester by 1803. He was still alive at the time of the 1850 census, which lists him and a son John B. Kiger living in Sperryville.
Most Conestoga wagons were used to haul freight locally. When they were used by families moving west, the wagon carried the household goods while the people rode or walked alongside. At night, the wagon provided some shelter for people sleeping beneath it.
The curved wagon bed was designed to travel up and down steep slopes. Contents would settle at the middle of the wagon rather than shifting abruptly n one end or the other. The prairie schooner, used for travel across the flat plains, did not have this curved bottom.
Americans in the 1800s, sometimes became as attached to their wagons as modern travelers are to their cars. One Virginian on the Oregon Trail named his wagon "Old Dominion."
Why are cigars called "stogies"?
Tobacco used to make cigars was often hauled in Conestoga wagons. |