D-ring Harness Origins

[LStone]

Couldn’t find any listings on it IRA. I haven’t seen it in my travels either.

[mitchmaine]

I found an article in the bangor industrial journal dated m,ay 5, 1893.
It seems that a teamster named plain david jones drove his truck team to cowan’s team wagon shop and ordered the proprietor to hang the body of his cart no more than 6-8 inches off the ground. Dave resolved to try his experiment , ridicule or no, and stakes were ordered to be put into the outside sills to receive the hind axle, while around them and over the axle a chain was wrapped. The front end of the body was simply hung by a single chain from the front axle. “jiggers” as they were soon called in ridicule, soon became the prevailing vehicle on the wharfs of bangor. In 1850, mr. joseph wharf, forged the first drop axle, making the wagon eminently more successful. He made the successful forging, the writer having the honor of being his only assistant (j.w. penney mechanic falls). “this I believe to be the the first drop axle made in maine….portland, rejoising in her monstrocity, the dray, the most unholy vehicle a horse was ever harnessed to—a long inclined plane balanced on twotrucks which the poor horse had to draw and guide over round pacing stones.

I have paraphrased of course but that’s the gist of it. So silas tabers improvement to the jigger wagon would have to wait for fifty years.

[Carl Russell]

So here are a few more pics I gleened off a site dedicated to Shorpy Higginbotham. Here is the site http://www.shorpy.com/node/12161 These pics are from the Library of Congress collection from the Detroit Publishing Company.

This is in front of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, PA circa 1900, showing a square D with attachment for back side strap.

This one is from the town square in Bellows Falls, VT circa 1907, showing the round D with rear side strap attachement similar to what we are used to….. with no back saddle(?)

Here is a granite quarry in Concord, NH circa 1908 showing square D’s in both sets of harnesses, the leads have the back saddles, the wheelers have a Boston Side-backer set-up and no back saddles….. go figure.

This pic is from Hoboken, NJ circa 1910 showing the Boston Side-backer style harness with no back saddle…… I just included it because I think it is a great shot of vehicle wrap advertisement from 100 years ago.

When I see all the variations, and see how so many didn’t really understand the combined important features of the D-ring harness, it
makes me even more curious about the actual origins. It appears that people were coming at it from several different directions.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Here is Mitch’s photo blown up. I wanted to see if I could see the D-ring. It makes me think it is a square D, similar to the ones in the above pic from Concord NH, as it is barely observable.

Carl

[simon lenihan]

The swedish harness has been around for almost 200 years and has not changed in design. I always thought that the d-ring harness was adopted from the swedish harness. We know there was alot of immigration from sweden to america during the late 1800s and as carl has said if one happened to be a harness maker.

[Andy Carson]

I found this photo of prison made brooms being hauled from the prison in thomaston, maine, to the train station in 1915. Not a D-ring… The driver is in a uniform of some sort, which makes me think he works at the prison. I would think that the prison would use it’s own equipment (and harnesses) to do this hauling and the drivers seems to confirm this. This makes me think the design had not made it to the prison in maine for mass production until after 1915.

http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/26662/enlarge

[Andy Carson]

I found this photo of a D-ring harness (and this one looks like looks “normal”) in pittsford mills vermont. The website lets you zoom in and get a really good look. It’s dated 1907-1915. So what? I think this means the D-ring (or at least early versions) travelled from Maine to Vt prior to mass production in the prison… How was it spread without mass production or advertizing???

http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/extensions/zoomify.php?ls=10896&sequence=000&set_seq=91&imageSet=1327092361-4f19d2892750c&AddRel=

[Mark Cowdrey]

Interesting note on Mitch’s picture that Carl blew up. In the original of the several teams, only one is using a D-ring. An early adopter or some other kind of outlier?
Fascinating thread.
Mark

[mitchmaine]

simon, can you find some photographs of what the swedish harness looked like in 1870. that is when the first settlers arrived here in maine.

i don’t think the state prison can tell us anything about origin, except that it was an outlet for mass producing lots of harness with a cheap workforce that could generate alot of product out there. they had a harness shop that burnt in the 20’s so it could have been made then, but as andy points out their own cart was set up with different harness. so it tells us nothing.

carls photos show photos from the turn of the century in both n.h. and vermont, and tho maines photos may be ten years earlier, means that the harness spread quickly, but from where? the new sweden idea is clean, and has a history or reason to it. the fact that some around were misusing it or at least not up to its potential, might mean the harness spread faster than its capabilities. but from where did it spring? all posabilities are or should still be open.

the square rings interest me carl. could be local blacksmiths trying to recreate the idea from what they had. or did the original look that way and the ring become a separate refinement later? i have a friend up in stockholm which is close to new sweden and part of the settlement and i am trying to get ahold of him and put him on the project

[Carl Russell]

Great site Andy….. I perused it a bit and found a few more good pics. I’m a little skeptical about the dates, but this is what they said anyway. I am not ready to claim that the D-ring harness spread from Maine, nor do I have any other clear facts, but if these dates are at all accurate, it seems to have been in pretty common use in VT at the turn of the century, slightly before and after, in the common rounded tear-drop shape.

Addison House Sleigh, Middlebury, VT 1860-1900 (this date range seems reasonable)

Somewhere in VT 1860-90 credit to Henry Sheldon Museum (I question this date….. looks more like 1910-1930ish)

Middlebury, VT 1915 (I’m good with this date)

Carl

[mitchmaine]

another one. penobscot county (bangor area) 1900 plus or minus

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, this one is for you. snubbing down pogy mountain in the teens, single bobsled.

[Carl Russell]

Nice Mitch.

Here is a link to the National Harness Review 1910. Lots of pages, some discussion about harnesses, advertisements, etc. Nothing of importance to our search, just another interesting period piece.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7XBaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54-IA43&lpg=PA54-IA43&dq=new+england+harness+makers+1910&source=bl&ots=03Zlxo0MoE&sig=MAz6zIwYLg56ab1px_QsJCirbxo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wxIYT8GyNKnI2AXqpMDkCw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=new%20england%20harness%20makers%201910&f=false

Carl

[Andy Carson]

I had thumbed through the national harness review a bit earlier. Fascinating in the detail that is in it. I saw a section where they even listed harness makers in different regions of the country and have updates as to where they moved or if the retired, etc. I also saw ads for horse related items, such as pneumatic knee braces, that seem weird and wonderful. In all this detail, the missing d-ring really seems to stick out…

Getting back to this supposed Swedish connection. I think this makes sense in general, and it could even explain how the harness “spread” from one area to another. Perhaps it didn’t actaully spread, but the appearances in maine and vt correspond to the times that swedes settled in these areas. I read that there was an effort made by then gov Dillingham to attract swedes to Vermont in the 1890’s. Maybe they brought a harmessmaker with them too? The only thing that bugs me about this theory is I don’t have a good reason why a similar harness would not have developed in places like Minnesota that where chuck full of Swedes… I thought that maybe these immigration events where later, perhaps after mass produced harnesses flooded the market, but some settlements in wisconsin and illinios predated new Sweden. Perhaps the terrain in these areas encouraged the formation of Mega farms and this piece of heritage was lost? That might be a good explanation for why we don’t see d-rings or d-ring type harnesses today, but why can’t I find any old photos of these swedish/d-ring types in Minnesota???

[mitchmaine]

It seems that some writers in rural heritage have already made the Scandinavian connection to d-ring harness leap. But I think there is still, for me, a missing link.
We can probably say that within a few years around at least 1890 all across northern new England, and even new york or Massachusetts for all we know, a similar harness appeared, apparently from one parent somewhere, wwith strong enough genes that in 125 years, the harness hasn’t seemed to change in the least bit. I’m good with that. But the current Swedish and norwaegan harness is quite different. Similar, but different enough for me to question it. it may have developed over there in to its current self from what we know as d-ring, but I need to see an 1890’s version of Scandinavian harness similar enough to d-ring to make the connection for myself. I can’t seem to find any website containing photographs of scand. Harness or working horses from the 1890. Or any history site with old harness clips. And I haven’t heard back from the new Sweden historical folks yet. Waiting…………..

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