On Going to Church in a Carriage

by Dr. James V. Ballantyne, Jr., Wilkinsburg doctor and carriage enthusiast, a selection from his paper presented at a Wilkinsburg Historical Society meeting

Over the past fifteen-twenty years not a few relics of the past found their way into my way of life. To the initiated casual visitor our home might well have appeared to be a collection of hand made artifacts held by antiquated dreamer of the past, rather than a grouping of distinctive episodes and thoughts of life representing the pioneer spirit and graciousness of earnest people who had the foresight to build for the future.

Accordingly, we turn to the most enduring day of all, “The Sabbath Day.” It used to be the rule that the Church was the center of the village. The first church was called a meeting house and it resembled exactly that. It was used for all sorts of town meetings during the week and became a church only at sundown on Saturday when the Sabbath started and lasted until sundown on Sunday. Sunday evening was not the quiet one that it is to-day, for as soon as sundown occurred, fasting ended and partying began. The Church was unheated, primarily because of the dread of accidental fire. There were no chimneys and no attempt was made to heat the early church. Bearskins, carpets and blankets were brought into the pews and foot stoves were fed with coals from “Sabbath Day Houses” nearby. Sabbath Day Houses or Sabbath Houses as they were often called were special buildings set up at a reasonable distance from the church and equipped with stools and blankets. Fire places were built in the center. A servant was left in charge to keep the fires going and coals were continually carried into the church pews to replenish the foot stoves there. When the churchgoers became unbearably cold, they went out at intervals in the service and warmed themselves in the Sabbath Day Houses, and returned to hear more.

When bells started to be cast on this side of the Atlantic—around 1705–1710 the bell was added to the church top in a small belfry. It thus became a sort of town crier; it spoke of births and deaths, of fire and war. After a death the bell muted the morning with three times for a man, three times two for a woman and after a short silence the bell pealed out the number of years the dead person lived. All church bells rang three times a day, at 7 o’clock in the morning, noon and at nine in the evening for curfew. At evening the last ringing was followed by strokes indicating the day of the month—often a signal for many a farmer to turn his farm diary and complete the day’s entry.

In the early Sabbath Day the bell in the belfry bid all to come to the meeting house for worship. Even before the first bell had pealed, the population had begun to gather. The local folks arriving on foot, parents resting on stools on the ground or fallen logs. Some children walking to church barefoot, now buttoning their shoes or cleaning their buckles free from dust. From farther away they came by horse, still others by farm wagons with springs—some without springs, in carriages, even some with ox-cart. The mode of the transportation keynoted the social standing of the individual. The original wheeled vehicle of the early days was the imported European Carriage seldom seen in the country, mainly in the cities and by the so-called gentry. Around the 18th century the first American design—the Road Wagon or buggy was developed. The buggy was extremely light and very springy. The original buckboard had a seat mounted on a single board bolted to the front and rear axles with no springs. Later several slats replaced the single boards and still later springs were added to the fore and aft slats, directly over the axles to make the riding a little bit more comfortable.