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| The MITCHELL WAGON WORKS |
Story by Roger Edison
The Mitchell Wagon has often been referred to as one of the oldest wagon companies in America. While other companies in the east held earlier dates of establishment, the roots of the Mitchell wagon, begins in 1834. Like other firms, Mitchell suffered its own series of financial hardships and growing pains in the early years, but ultimately triumphed into a major western vehicle competitor. Mitchell built an array of vehicles including farm, freight, stage, and spring wagons as well as buckboards, delivery wagons, hitch wagons and buggies. They even marketed their own line of wagon grease. Some of the Mitchell farm and freight wagons were even converted by consumers used as Chuckwagons along the cattle drives that followed after the civil war.
Mitchell's history not only covers the majority of the development of the old west, but it also played a significant role in the transition from horse drawn vehicles to the early automobiles at the turn of the century. Mitchell Wagon Company was purchased by the John Deere Company in 1917 and marketed for several more decades before ceasing operations. Although, while Henry Mitchell sold off the long establish Racine, Wisconsin Wagon factory, it was not due to lack of demand for his wagon's, but more because the nation was industrializing and the automobile was the future.
