Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Brand Builder Answers

Last week, I posted a few of the numerous wagon brands marketed by early vehicle builders and asked for thoughts on who made what.  While there were quite a few visitors to that blog, no one ventured any guesses.  I won’t give away all of the answers this week but, here are a few details on some of the relatively unknown brands...   

  • Overland – This was a lower-priced, sister brand to a Newton wagon.
  •  Chief – ‘Chief’ was a farm truck brand made by the Fort Smith Wagon Company.
  • Superior – Built by the Abingdon Wagon Company in Abingdon, Illinois. 
  • Gate City – Made by the Winona Wagon Company in Winona, Minnesota.
  • L. R. V. – One of several vehicle brands made by the Auburn Wagon Company in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
  • Red Hickory – This was a farm wagon brand built by the Florence Wagon Company in Florence, Alabama.
  • Fairfield – Built and marketed by J. Turney & Company in Fairfield, Iowa, this was a value-priced option to the firm’s flagship ‘Charter Oak’ brand.           

From trademark construction features to differences in brands over time, the information shown above is just a small sampling of the wealth of data found inside our Archives.  Spanning almost 200 years of America’s horse drawn history, this one-of-a-kind collection continues to grow and remains focused on preserving our wood-wheeled past.  Almost weekly, we're fortunate to uncover even more all-but-lost details.  Ultimately, the process is helping countless individuals and organizations understand more about specific vehicles and the true provenance of a set of wheels. 

Coming soon... We’ll cover a different, ‘lower form’ of wagon.  In the meantime, if you’ve run across a brand you don’t recognize, send us some good photos.  We’d be glad to take a look.



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