More about the Fair at New Boston

On September 4th Rena, Scott and I went to the Fair at New Boston near Springfield, Ohio (see previous post).  This Colonial era fair draws a lot of reenactors from quite a distance.  Among those who travel to Springfield from South Central Kentucky are Gerry and Maria Barker.  The Barkers take horses and oxen to reenactments throughout the year to demonstrate how they were the "trucks" of that time period.  Especially fascinating to me was the team of oxen.

The wagon is patterned after wagons available in the late Eighteenth Century.  The wooden bucket suspended from the rear axle contains (surprise!) axle grease.  Gerry has just finished hitching the four oxen to the wagon for the morning's trek through the fair.

Notice that the left rear ox is holding Gerry's hat for him.

In the afternoon, I watched Gerry hitch the oxen to the wagon.  He talked to them in a normal tone of voice, just as he would have to a person.  The front left ox is the lead ox and Gerry talked to him the most.  Gerry had no halters or ropes on the oxen to move them into place.

Gerry just talks to "his boys" as they move into position.  The oxen regularly do real work, including logging, not just giving demonstrations like this.

The wagon tongue got hooked to the yolk of the rear pair first.

All ready to haul something, Gerry takes a few minutes to tell fair goers about the use of oxen in general, and a bit about his boys as well.  Perhaps this is what an "eighteen wheeler" looked like in 1780.  There were many interesting things to see at the Fair at New Boston and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  But, for me, seeing Gerry work with his oxen was worth the price of admission by itself.  (Now, if I haven't used all the proper terminology, please keep in mind that I'm an aircraft mechanic from a different century and don't know better.  I like history, though.) - Dwight