What is in a name?
So you are writing historical fiction.
There will always be critics of your base history, but the major elements of your story ought to be accurate. You may not know what you think you know.
For instance…
The prairie schooners got their name from how their canvas tops looked like sails as fleets of them took crossed the western plains to discover the Starbucks in Seattle. (Well…not that last part.)
But prairie schooners are not Conestoga wagons and vice versa. Conestoga wagons originated in Pennsylvania in the early 19th Century for hauling freight on rough roads. Built of heavy woods, they featured a high freeboard and sloped interior so their cargos wouldn’t slide around. Carrying up to six tons, they lugged crops to the growing eastern cities. They were often caulked to cross rivers and had linseed oil on the covers to ward off rain. Their low ceilings were not meant for people to live under. The prairie schooners looked similar but were smaller and lighter with lower gunwales. They were more designed for distance than capacity and to provide a dry place to sleep.
Still yet Conestoga drivers were the truckers of their day and as such contributed to our vocabulary. Both they and their heavy shoes were once nicknamed Stogies. But the word that stays with us today is from the thinner, easier to stay lit cigars they favored. Officially marketed then and today by the Marsh Wheeling company in what is now West Virginia, you can still find stogies along the side of the road that are “short but not too big around.”
That little bit of fact has character and story ideas all over it.
The drivers and their shoes.
The driver who takes his wagon to St. Louis and is denied a place in the wagon train because his wagon can’t make it.
The Marsh Wheeling tobacco company marketing to drivers.
Floating a Conestoga wagon full of corn to NYC.
I wrote the above article for a local newsletter but all the pieces are on the web. Use detail to round out your work.
