I have a catalogue from another Amish company, Shrock Buggy Works, that makes and sells all kinds of buggy parts,” he explained as he displayed the catalogue. I put steel rim wheels on some of my buggies and rubber rims on some, I suppose the rubber is quieter on the pavement,” he said. “They make the wheels just like the early Americans did – with wood spokes, but they will put either steel rims or rubber rims on them. I learned that you can’t call them on the telephone because they don’t have phones.” “But it is easy to change out these parts here and equip them so a horse can be harnessed to the buggy – I can change it in 15 minutes.”Īsked about his business dealings with the Amish, he explained, “They are nice, I just write them a letter and tell them what I need, or sometimes I just take off and drive up there to Missouri. “I don’t have any horses, so I rig them to be pulled by my 4-wheeler (ATV),” he answered to a question about how a horse was attached to them. “My work has nothing to do with money, the value to me is just working on them and thinking about how folks used to live and travel by buggy.” “I don’t want to sell any that I’ve done, but I might consider building and selling one someday – I don’t have any idea of what one would sell for,” he responded when asked if he would sell a buggy. “I gave one to the Grant County Museum and I’ve got the rest of them here in my shop and barn.” “I’ve done three and I have two more in process that are nearly finished,” Harrington answered as to the number of buggies he has restored. A few small Amish communities have existed in Arkansas and Missouri. Rural Pennsylvania and Ohio are home to large Amish communities, where their horse-drawn black buggies are frequent sights on country roads. Most people are familiar with members of the Amish religious sect that dress simply and shun most technology. There are 3 Amish men there at Seymour named Schwartz one builds buggy wheels, one builds the whole buggy, and the other restores buggies.” The Amish still build buggies so they will sell me any parts that I need.
“I was able to reuse some of the springs and other metal parts. “I went to an Amish Community at Seymour, Missouri, near Springfield, and got the new wheels and axles for it and I built the wooden parts,” he explained. It was a ‘buckboard buggy’ that he said he and his family had used to run cows on their ranch when he was a child.” “The owner of the farm there is 90 years old and he gave me the parts – but we like to have never figured out what it was, and then about a year later when I finished restoring it, I sent him a picture and he said it brought back a lot of memories.
“I gathered up the parts and brought them back to Arkansas and decided to restore it,” Harrington said. His interest in buggies and their restoration started when he found a pile of junk on a Colorado farm and decided it was the remains of an old buggy. Harrington.īuilding and restoring buggies is just one of Harrington’s interests in history, but his buggy restoration and collection has allowed him a way to display his skill and expertise as well as exhibit his extensive study of early America. Harrington of Prattsville, Relives History Restoring BuggiesĪ winding lane, a covered bridge, a rustic home and workshop, and a man at work restoring an antique buggy – does this sound like New England or maybe an Amish farm in Pennsylvania? No, it is near Prattsville, Arkansas in Grant County, and the man is J.
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