July 24, 2011
Over the past two Sundays, we’ve been looking at pieces of the vehicle that will be featured on the cover of the August issue of The Carriage Journal.
Here’s your third clue:
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If you hadn’t already guessed what it was, this section should certainly give it away!
Next Sunday, we’ll have the “reveal” of the full vehicle.
July 17, 2011
Remember last Sunday’s inaugural “name that vehicle” puzzle piece?
We started in the lower left corner, and we’re continuing clockwise.
Here’s your second clue:
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July 10, 2011
We’re going to play a little game here on the blog on Sundays for the next few weeks.
On the cover of the August issue of The Carriage Journal, we’ll have a very colorful vehicle … which I will present to you here in four pieces, before doing the “reveal” of the actual cover in early August, while that issue is in the mail to CAA members.
Ready?
We’ll start with the lower left corner of the image, and then we’ll continue around, going clockwise. Here’s your first clue:
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June 14, 2011
In February 2002, Bill Neel (a CAA member in Oregon) obtained a hearse built in 1854. It was made by Samuel Conners of Lowell, Massachusetts, and, much more recently, restored by Morgan Carriage Works in Ojai, California.
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(photo courtesy of Bill Neel)
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This vehicle is considered a “country” hearse; it is not cut under and has no elaborate urns or other decoration. It saw service during the Civil War, was sent to eastern Canada, and then returned to the U.S. in 1998. The Neels have taken the vehicle to shows (winning a number of awards with it), driven it in parades (as in the photo above), and used it for funerals.
Over the years, the Neels added a variety of ingredients to their basic lineup of hearse and four mules with funeral nets and black plumes. Eventually, their show “entry” included a preacher, a riderless horse, a bugler, and a “widow” and “mother,” all lead by a piper. Bill decided that, to complete the ensemble, he would need a family coach and a pallbearers’ coach. And so the search began.
Bill first found this Studebaker Rockaway to serve as the “family coach.”
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(photo courtesy of Bill Neel)
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Then, just this year, Bill finally found a suitable “pallbearers’ coach” in New Jersey. He’s recently purchased the vehicle and had it shipped to Oregon, where it resides in the carriage house at his Copper Windmill Ranch.
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photo courtesy of Bill Neel
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photo courtesy of Bill Neel
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This particular vehicle was made by the Geneva Wagon Company in Geneva, New York. You can see a picture of it here, from the company’s 1906 catalog.
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May 27, 2011
For your Friday: an interesting series of videos on carriage building, which were originally shown on Irish TV. Judging by the outfits these men are wearing, I would guess that these were filmed in the 1970s.
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The Slower Road 