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The Old Reliable: The History Of The Springfield Wagon Company, 1872-1952, Steven Lee Stepp

MSU Graduate Theses

Long before the day of automobiles, trucks, and improved highways, Americans were a people on wheels; wooden wheels. The great demand for wagons spurred the development of a tremendous wagon manufacturing industry and of gigantic wagon companies. Some of the larger wagon manufacturers eventually enjoyed annual sales approaching a million dollars. Wagon building became big business during the late 1800's, and, as such, it was subject to all the evils as well as the benefits resulting from that period of rapid industrial expansion. The men who built and operated the nation's largest wagon companies battled each other as furiously as …