I
have a weakness for early St. Louis-built vehicles and have written about that
on several occasions. Some may recall
that Farm Collector magazine has published several of my articles about one of the
St. Louis firms… the Gestring Wagon Company.
Over time, I’ve been surprised at how this brand in particular
seems to keep cropping up. From calls
and emails from individuals who own a Gestring to archaeologists with the
Missouri Department of Transportation to museums looking for more information
on a particular vehicle, founder Caspar Gestring’s legacy is alive and well in
the 21st century. It’s been especially
interesting to me since I enjoy studying these 19th century makers from the
“Gateway to the West.”
With
that in mind, over a year ago, the good folks at the Santa Ynez Historical
Museum had asked me to be a speaker at their ‘Spirit of the West’ symposium
this past April. I was pleased to oblige
and equally enthused that they held an original Gestring wagon in their
collection. I’ve learned over the years
that every vehicle has a story to tell and I was anxious to see what more I
might learn from this wagon.
Arriving
a half day early, I took some time to go over the Gestring and see what I could
find out. A few quick measurements
showed the wagon to have the same general box size as every other Gestring I’ve
seen… 43” wide and 9’ 10” long (outside dimensions). Retaining a fair amount of original paint
with hand-lettering and striping on the box, the wagon was sold by Belleville
Implement & Motor Company of Belleville, Illinois. In our research, we discovered that this
company was apparently a dealer for Studebaker automobiles as well as
International Harvester agricultural products at some point. More importantly, dealer details like this
can be helpful in narrowing down a vehicle’s age.
Beginning with periodicals from the
early 20th century, we found Belleville Implement & Motor
Company listed on page 881 of the December 16, 1908 issue of The Horseless Age as one of almost four
dozen “New Agencies.” Other available
information leads us to believe the company was officially licensed for
business as early as March of 1907.
Based on this information as well as a first-hand examination of the
wagon along with previous research within our files, we believe this set of
wheels to have a circa 1910-12 date of manufacture.
Like most century-old vehicles, the gear
has lost the majority of its original paint.
However, careful inspection shows that some of the initial orange
coloring still exists on the axles and other parts of the gear. While the tire widths measure 1 ½ inches, the broad wheel track stretches 62
inches and wheel heights are 44/54 inches.
One of the most interesting things about this vehicle, though, is the
third sideboard on the box. Not only is
it diagonally cut to perfectly match a set of original Gestring-made St. Louis
seat risers but, the uppermost sideboards are also trimmed to slope downward
from 6 5⁄8 inches in height at the front to only 2 ¾ inches at the back of the
wagon. It’s a unique and seldom seen
design that was clearly built this way at the Gestring factory. Other notable elements include additional
contouring to the outer ends of the seat bottom, a fingerlink clip to the
center spreader chain, and a box brake system with a Geisler-style brake
ratchet.
We’re pleased to be able to continually
share rare imagery and information on relevant early vehicle makers. Individually and collectively the details
help us all to continually learn and appreciate more of America’s earliest
vehicle industry. In keeping with those
opportunities, we’re working on another article for Farm Collector that should appear later this year and, if you’re
partial to St. Louis vehicles like Joseph Murphy, Weber & Damme, Linstroth,
Espenschied, and Luedinghaus, you won’t want to miss it.
