by Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
Deep snow seems to be a rarity these days. The rare blizzard does still hit Seneca County every once in a great while, but its no longer an annual event.
Decades ago, however, one task involved in our forebearers’ “winterizing” routine was getting the winter sleigh out of storage and primed. The sleigh was their only method of travel, even for car-owning families, because it was equipped to drive through inches and feet of snow.
One of the first pioneer sleds to trek through the snow of our country was the sled owned by carpenter Charles Albright in 1834. He and his wife, infant son and brother-in-law migrated over the winter and settled here to be a furniture and coffin maker. They were a party of four with personal items and probably had a decent sized sled.
A family travels by toboggan-style sled through the Southern Ohio wintery countryside. This photo is part of the Ewing Collection of the Ohio Memory Project, owned by the Ohio Historical Connection.
Sleds came in all sizes. For the children, there were many prime spots around town and beyond to while away the day on their toy sleds. One very popular spot for the Junior Home kids was a hill behind the Union Street School. Lula Davison McGrath, one of the former kids at the Home, admits that if a child didn’t have his or her own sled, he or she simply improvised (people using inter-tubes these days aren’t as original after all). “It would glide smoothly down the hill, bounce over the drop at the bottom, cross the road and onto the frozen river.” Not surprisingly, she also admits that there were many close calls on this rambunctious course, she herself suffering a concussion after one session. Other kids were no less brave; local children in the mid-19th century would “run after farmers’ sleds to catch rides on the broad runners or attach their sleds to the rear.”
Perhaps it was these kind of incidents that caused the child-sized sled to become mass produced starting in the 1860s when a Pennsylvania Quaker perfected his prototype over an almost 30-year trial period (using his own children as crash dummies). The “Flexible Flyer” remained popular for decades – in fact, sleds were one of the cheapest toys during the Great Depression.
Lovebirds and courting couples were most likely seen in two-seaters (cutters) and large families used cargo-style sleds (bobsleds). These sleds were perfect for large groups of people (carpooling—or sledpooling, rather-- was all the rage then).
There were also different types of sleds for transporting goods and chores in addition to those used by people simply for traveling. It’s similar to modern day “work trucks” or Cadillacs, family vans or convertibles. What’s the purpose of the vehicle?
A Stemtown resident said it well in the March 1993 issue of Stemtown News: “What would the young people think of today to come in the woods as we did not a soul within 4 miles. We’d make one trip a day from the river with a load on an ox sled rite through the woods.” (Note: we aren’t sure what the load consisted of).
A large group of Bascom-area residents take a ride in a large sled one wintery afternoon. When Seneca County experienced a decent snowfall, it was the prime moment for parties and dances which lasted into the wee morning hours, often held at private homes or local hotels.
Mystery aside, all sorts of merchandise was shipped with large sleds (just like modern-day semi trucks). Chopped logs were taken to the local saw mills by sled in the winter, and as time went by, people switched out the “old work sleds” for Smart Cutters with “spanking teams,” as the Bascom Area Sesquicentennial explains.
One would think, why not just wait for spring? Early pioneers, however, actually anticipated a good snowfall like kids who hate school do today. While these days, snow forces a large majority of us to stay home due to dangerous driving conditions, it did the opposite before cars. Sleds could more easily glide over a fresh coat of snow that filled in any muddy ruts left from thawing.
“We look back upon riding in a horse-drawn sleigh as romantic, but in their day, they were considered strictly utilitarian, necessary to get around on business, errands, to church and social events,” states an article on cortlandhistory.com.
All work aside, there was still plenty of time for the kind of play that triggers the often-sung tune around Christmas about dashing through the snow. Kids in Lodi, Ohio held “spelling schools” in the wintertime. Large groups of students would pile into big sleighs and travel, like modern students on school buses, to visit other schools for a friendly competition.
Tiffinites resembled a closer picture to the lyrics of “Jingle Bells.” In “Reminiscences of Early Days of Tiffin,” the author shares that they loaded up in a sled designed like a wagon used for hayrides with seats along each edge and proceed to glide through the snow in “merry laughter and songs, keeping time with the music of the bells.” She goes on to explain that their main destination was a hotel in McCutchenville. Hotels were often the gathering places for youngsters out and about in their sleighs; they often hosted parties, dinners and dances when the weather cooperated (that is, our idea of NOT cooperating).
“Softened hoof beats, merry shouts and the cheerful sound of bells, ever the bells,” were the sounds of winter, according to the author of “What, How and Who of It: An Ohio Community in 1856-1880.” But while people may have turned the sleigh bells into an accompanying instrument, their original purpose was the same as car horns. Because snow has a tendency to soften all sounds, the sleigh bells alerted a person before the sled could be seen, signaling for them to step aside.
A sled pulled by a Model T car pulled by a team of two horses. One wonders if the car had gotten stuck in muddy ruts and needed the horses to pull it out. (Taken from “Lands in Lodi”, which has been digitized on the Seneca County Digital Library.)
Currier & Ives paintings visualize the sights and sounds of these moments and it wasn’t just the artist who added embellishments to the sleighs in these pictures for dramatization. For example, if one goes on even a quick drive, it’s nearly impossible to encounter a motor vehicle with a bumper sticker.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, little designs strategically placed on the sides of the sleighs added character. In Tiffin, the Wenner H.S. & Co. (carriage, buggies, wagon and sleigh manufacturers) on the corner of Jefferson and Coe Streets would routinely advertise “painting, trimming and repairing done neatly on short notice” in the Tiffin Business Directories.
The fabric and its stuffing and the quality of the metal and wood mattered as well. Sleighs could come in wool, velour, corduroy and even silk (would anyone today really trade electronic seat-warmers for silk, though?).
Nonetheless, these ‘extras’ added to the value (and price) of the sleighs. In some cases, the paint jobs were even customized. “The man fortunate enough to own a sleigh and a matched team of horses was much like the owners of a sports card today,” argues Mary Ellen Johnson of the Altamont Enterprise. (A luxurious sleigh cost upwards of $47 where an average sled cost $17-22). The first-class styles are the sleighs often seen today in museums.
Works cited:
Bascom Area Sesquicentennial 1837-1987. Bascom Sesquicentennial Committee. 1987. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/41849
Bennett, Laura Dean. “A Sleigh Ride Through History.” Pochahontas Times. https://pocahontastimes.com/a-sleigh-ride-through-history/
Gibson, Martha M. “Reminiscences of Early Days of Tiffin”. 1967. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/12997
History Nebraska. “Sleigh Parties of the 19th Century.” May 17, 2019. Midwest Messenger. https://agupdate.com/midwestmessenger/lifestyles/rural_news/sleigh-parties-of-the-19th-century/article_196d9ed8-2fb0-11e9-837e-5f45c9602026.html
Johnson, Mary Ellen. “Sleighs Were Used for Both Chores and Revelry Before Autos Made Them Obsolete.” Altamont Enterprise. https://altamontenterprise.com/opinion/columns/glimpse-guilderland-history/12112019/sleighs-were-used-both-chores-and-revelry-autos
Jopp, Jerusha [diary]. Published in “Stemtown News,” March 1993. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/33995
Junior Homekid June 1992 and February 1996. Seneca County Digital Library.
Lands in Lodi. 2007. West Lodi Historical Society. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/44538
Leonard, Daniel. “The History of Sledding.” Dec. 10, 2020. Grunge. https://www.grunge.com/293350/the-history-of-sledding/
MacClain, Alexia. “Dashing Through the Snow in Vintage Sleighs.” Dec. 16, 2022. Smithsonian Voices. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-libraries-and-archives/2022/12/16/dashing-through-the-snow-in-vintage-sleighs/
Scoville, Tabitha. “Streets of Cortland – Sleighs, Sleds and Work.” Aug. 10, 2021. Cortland County Historical Society. https://cortlandhistory.org/streets-of-cortland-sleighs-sleds-and-work/
Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. 1998. Seneca County Genealogical Society. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28803
Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/search
“Sleighs, Cutters and Carioles.” Dec. 5, 2017. Heroes, Heroines and History. https://www.hhhistory.com/2017/12/sleighs-cutters-carioles.html
Smith, Howard. The What, How and Who of It: An Ohio Community in 1856-1880. Seneca County Digital Library. 1997. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/16074
Tiffin Business Directory 1873-1877. Seneca County Digital Library. 1873. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/22773