[8] This is the modern spelling. Among those used in 1755 were Yoxhio Geni and Ohiogany.
[9] Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, vol. 2, Shippen to Allen, June 30, 1755. Also, Orme's Journal, in Sargent, op. cit. (footnote 2) p. 329.
[10] Originally spelled Conestogoe. The first known reference to a Conestoga wagon appears under date of 1717 in James Logan's "Account Book, 1712-1719," the manuscript original of which is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. It is likely that the reference was only to a wagon from Conestogoe, and not to a definite type of vehicle.
[11] The term seems to have been in common use by 1750 since a tavern in Philadelphia, called "The Sign of the Conestogoe Waggon," was mentioned in an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, February 5, 1750, but another advertisement, (ibid., February 12, 1750), in referring to what was apparently the same establishment, uses the term "Dutch Waggon."
[12] It is not certain at this time whether English or German styles influenced the Conestoga wagon most. Judging from some early English wagons still in existence, it would appear that some of these lines were followed. Even today some farmers, and those who have been close to the wagon and its use, frequently refer to the Conestoga type as "English wagons."
[13] Strakes are sections of wagon tire, equal in number to the felloes of a wheel. On early vehicles the tires were put on in sections and spiked in place. Later, one endless tire was "sweated" on, by being heated, fitted on the wheel, and cooled in place.
[14] Found in 1953 by the Field Corps for Historical Research, these strakes are obviously from rear wheels. Though dimensions were by no means standardized, front wheels were always smaller, so that in turning the wagon the tires would be less likely to rub the sides of the wagon box.
[15] Strakes were spiked onto the wheel with large square headed nails, as indicated in figure 3, and a brake shoe would have been rapidly torn to pieces by rubbing against them.
[16] Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 1, vol. 2, pp. 295-96.
[17] Ibid., ser. 1, vol. 2, Shippen to Morris, February 17, 1756; and ser. 4, vol. 2, Denny to Amherst, March 3, 1759.