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1993-7, Wagon
Minnick-Zirkle Freight Wagon
1993-7, Wagon

Minnick-Zirkle Freight Wagon

Date1800-1815
OriginAmerica, Virginia, Newtown or Stephens City
MediumWhite oak, yellow pine, elm, and iron
DimensionsFreight box: 11' 10" long, 42" wide, 24" high (at toolbox), Front wheels: 48" across, Rear wheels: 62" across
Credit LineGift of Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Inc.
Object number1993-7
DescriptionFreight wagon to be drawn by up to six horses with a toolbox, staples for eight bows to support a cloth cover, a feed box, and wheel-locking chains. The toolbox, which opens by a hidden latch, is bound in decorative ironwork which includes tulips and hearts.
Label TextOperating as the "big-rig truck" of its day, this wagon was built in the Shenandoah Valley to transport locally produced goods to market cities like Winchester, Alexandria, Fredericksburg, and Baltimore. According to tradition it was made sometime before 1812 for the Minnick family of New Market, Virginia, who used it regularly until about 1856. Pulled by as many as six horses, it hauled countless tons of freight, did duty as a hearse, and provided special transportation for the occasional wedding party.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, what is now known as Newtown-Stephens City had become a central hub of vehicle manufacture along Virginia's span of the Great Wagon Road. With the necessary raw materials like timber and iron produced nearby, it made perfect sense for such an industry to be located beside early America's greatest inland highway. This wagon may be the only surviving example believed to have been made in Newtown-Stephens City.

With its sweeping box, large rear wheels, and sturdy construction, these wagons have a distinctive utilitarian beauty. Its now-missing wooden bows once supported a removable cloth top, which gave the vehicle the romantic "covered wagon" look so closely associated with early American transportation and migration. Though its features are functional, the toolbox affixed to one side is bound in decorative ironwork which incorporates hearts and tulips into the design. Its secure lid can only be opened by moving one of the iron hearts, which disengages an ingenious hidden latch.

By the early 1880s the wagon had been retired from service, helping to ensure its survival. Still prized by the Minnick family, it was sold in the mid-1920s to Lewis H. Zirkle. After going on exhibit at his "Zirkledale Museum" in New Market, the wagon became a noted attraction and even appeared on an illustrated postcard. Hitting the road once again, it was purportedly at the dedication of the first James River Bridge in 1928 and on exhibit at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.

After the wagon was sold by Zirkle, it changed hands a number of times before it was donated to Sleepy Hollow Restorations in Tarrytown, NY. An extremely rare product of a now-forgotten Virginia industry, the Minnick-Zirkle wagon came to Colonial Williamsburg in 1959.
ProvenanceBuilt before 1812 for the Minnick family of New Market, VA, and owned by them for four generations. Sold to Lewis H. Zirkle in the mid-1920s. From Zirkle to an unknown owner ca.1939, and then to an antique dealer named Ullman who sold it to Dr. Phillip Gillette Cole in the early 1940s. Dr. Cole then sold the wagon to Mr. Samuel Broufman of Tarrytown, New York, who donated it to Sleepy Hollow Restorations of Tarrytown, New York. Colonial Williamsburg was given the Minnick-Zirkle wagon from the latter in 1959.