Spruce Pine man restores century-old family wagon
Billy Herring shows off his restored wagon, which he reconstructed to match – as nearly as possible – how it looked when his grandfather purchased it new more than 100 years ago.
By Alison James
alison.james@fct.wpengine.com
When Billy Herring’s grandfather purchased a wagon from International Harvester in 1908, it was shiny and new.
When Herring purchased the family heirloom in 2000 from his uncle, who had inherited it, the wagon was little more than a pile of broken lumber.
But Herring was determined to restore it to like-new condition. “It had been in my family since 1908, so I wanted to fix it up,” Herring said.
He and his wife Charlotte were not yet married when he purchased the wagon, but she knows how she would have felt about it. “It did not resemble a wagon … I would have said, ‘Oh, this would make a good fire,’ probably,” Charlotte said with a laugh. “He’s very sentimental toward things that are handed down. He’s very sentimental. So when he was able to buy that from his uncle, he just knew that would be a project when he retired.”
This is how the wagon looked in 2000, when Herring purchased it.
He already had in his possession one interesting artifact connected to the wagon: the receipt of purchase, which shows his grandfather paid $42.50, in two payments, for the Columbus wagon.
“He was a farmer, so it was for farm use,” Herring said. “You would use it for hauling corn or cotton or anything – just like you use a truck now. In 1908 there weren’t any pick-up trucks. You would have used two horses or mules to pull it with.”
Herring was still working full time when he purchased the wagon, so he didn’t restore it until 2012, after he retired. It took a full winter, in his little workshop in downtown Spruce Pine. He carried out the whole restoration himself, except for the wheels, which he sent to the Amish in Tennessee.
It cost a decent chunk to hire the Amish to re-work the wheels, but the rest of the cost was time and labor, Herring said.
To have the wheels reworked, Herring hired the Amish in Tennessee.
Herring has the original bill of sale for the wagon, purchased by his grandfather in 1908.
International Harvester sent him a picture of a wagon from the time period for him to work off of. Tiny flecks of green paint remaining on the old lumber also set him in the right direction.
“It was amazing,” Charlotte said. “He is an excellent carpenter. If he can see a picture, he can build it.”
Herring said it was a “pretty good feeling” to see the wagon fully restored.
“I was proud of it,” Herring said. “People love it. It gets a lot of attention.”
He added with a chuckle, “And I don’t mind the attention.”
Today, the wagon is fully functional. Herring displays it at Spruce Pine Day each year.
“You could hook a pair of mules to it right now and take off,” Charlotte said.
Lacking, however, a pair of mules and any desire to own any, the Herrings carry the wagon on a trailer to downtown Spruce Pine, less than a mile from his home, for the annual festival. The rest of the year, the wagon stays in storage in an effort to keep it in the best possible condition.
Of course, the wagon was a pet project, but winters will always be dedicated to carpentry, for Herring.
“It’s just something to do – just a hobby,” Herring said. “I care nothing about fishing or hunting. I like building something – seeing something built.”
