A36-Umcaster Farming, Saturday, October 7, 2000
Barn Side Illustrates Area’s Historical Side
MICHELLE RANCK
Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
“I have all kinds of people
stopping. People stop in all the
time,” said Arthur L. Reist,
owner of Oak Lawn farm. Reist’s
farm hosts a new, traffic-stop
ping historical mural on the side
of his bam.
Reist is a former history teach
er at the nearby Conestoga Val
ley School District, where he
taught for more than 30 years.
Today he is partly retired but
helps out on the farm. “I’m busy
in historical activities,” said
Reist, who serves as a resource
for area museums.
Reist also wrote the book,
“Conestoga Wagon Master
piece of the Blacksmith,” and
owns a large collection of Cones
toga wagons and associated
equipment.
Besides his knowledge and in
terest in the famous wagons,
Reist hoped to provide a memo
rial for Jacob Reist, a first
generation Reist born in Ameri
ca. Jacob Reist was killed in the
war as he transported goods via
Conestoga wagon to the troops.
“He was a Swiss Mennonite.
He was not a soldier. If he didn’t
sign up he would have been con
scripted to take supplies,” said
Reist.
The mural is the work of
Wayne Fettro of Elizabethtown.
After seeing examples of Fettro’s
sign and building paintings in
Elizabethtown, where his daugh
ter resides, Reist decided that he
could use the side of his barn as
an avenue for public education
and contacted the Elizabethtown
painter.
The Painting Process
Reist showed the artist pic
tures and models of Conestoga
wagons to ensure accuracy for
Fettro’s sketch of the wagon.
The high-headed Belgians in
the painting were easy to find, as
Reist’s son, Arthur E. Reist, sim
ply selected a few of the farm’s
horses from the pasture. Fettro
took five rolls of pictures to get
the attention-getting stances of
the horses pulling the wagon.
“Pearl” provided the model
for the wagon’s lead horse with
The painting provides a memorial for Jacob Reist, a first generation Reist bom in
America. Jacob Reist was killed in the war as he transported goods via Conestoga
wagon to the troops.
her high action and alert look, Fettro enjoys meeting people,
characteristic of a Conestoga which is an important aspect of
wagon’s leader. his job, especially at this particu
“The lead horse should look lar site, where the public fre-
i This is for the community, not just for us.
It’s for people to enjoy. Anybody can come
and look at this, that’s what it’s for. 9
more alert and seem to see quently stopped by to converse
what’s going on,” said Reist. with Fettro and examine the
Other Belgians from the farm growing work,
filled the remaining roles. “He could hardly get his paint-
Besides the six horses and ing done, so many people
striking blue-and-red wagon, the stopped and talked to him,” said
mural includes a mile marker Reist.
which people often mistake for a
tombstone, said Reist.
Fettro took five rolls of pictures to provide a model for
the painting. Reist’s son, Arthur E. Reist, selected a few
of the farm’s Belgians to pose for the photo shoot.
Tobacco fields provide a back- and check it out,” said Fettro.
drop for the scene, a hallmark of “People would read the lettering
the area. This year Oak Lawn on the inscription, which had a
farm is producing its 60th and way of connecting with them. It
last tobacco crop. The farm is re- helped them understand the pro
tiring as, according to Reist, the cess,” he said,
oldest tobacco farm in Pennsyl- Fettro also spoke with many of
vania. Reist’s former students as they
A Public Painting
“I enjoy meeting people and 1 watch the proceedings, another
leam so much. Every mural Ido opportunity for Reist to educate
is another history lesson. Most of the public about the painting,
the work is dated, for people to made more personal because the
reflect on,” said Fettro. story is family history.
Arthur Reist
“You would not believe the
amount of people that stop by
stopped with their families to
The work was completed over
a period of 12-13 days in early
September, said Fettro. His next
project is in York County with
an 1886 scene.
“I got into it (large-scale paint
ings) because I used to be a bill
board painter, but everything is
going totally automated, so I had
to think of another avenue,” said
Fettro.
This project was one of Fet
tro’s favorites, as he enjoyed the
people he met and worked with,
the educational aspect of Reist
Above, Fettro used pictures of Oak Lawn’s “Pearl” to
paint the wagon’s lead horse. Pearl’s intelligent de
meanor is characteristic of a Conestoga wagon’s leader.
“The lead horse should look more alert and seem to
see what’s going on,” said Reist.
Reist has used his barn to create an outdoor educa
tional exhibit for passersby. “Every mural I do is another
history lesson,” says painter Wayne Fettro, Eliza
bethtown. According to Fettro the work was completed
over a period of 12-13 days in early September.
teaching the public, and the large
overhang of the barn which pro
vided him with constant shade.
One of the biggest challenges,
according to Fettro, was making
sure that “everything was accu
rate to that timeframe, the way
they made the harness, or how
they made the wagon. I learned
quite a bit.”
Conestoga Wagon
History
“Two of the most important
contributions to early America
were the Conestoga wagon and
the Pennsylvania rifle, and they
were both developed and made
in this area,” said Reist.
The wagons, said Reist, were
freight vehicles, the “tractor
trailers” of the day. The larger
wagons carried 4-5 tons of com
modities such as produce, spices,
rum, building materials or iron.
Not a passenger vehicle, the wag
ons carried goods from Lancaster
to Philadelphia. “They traveled
12 to 15 miles a day on very bad
roads,” said Reist.
“Pennsylvania was the bread
basket of the colonies,” said
Reist. Wagon teamsters hauled
freight to Philadelphia, a five
day trip one way.
Part of making the mural his
torically accurate was attention
to detail. For example, according
to Reist, the “jockey stick” in the
picture which runs from the lead
horse to the offside horse helped
to direct the offside horse and
consequently the entire team.
The driver sat on the wheel horse
on the left side to guide the team,
a forerunner to today’s cars,
which are also set up with the
steering wheel on the left.
“They always had the smartest
horse as the lead horse,” said
Reist. “A teamster sat on the
wheel horse and could drive six
horses with one line.”
The wagons also hauled
freight to West Virginia. En
route, the teamsters smoked to
bacco grown in Lancaster Coun
ty, which led to the nickname
“Stogie,” short for “Conestoga.”
Reist also explained the brass
bells dangling from the harness
above the horses. “If something
happened during the trip to the
wagon, they didn’t pull out their
credit cards, they had to use
these bells, which they hated to
lose,” said Reist. This method of
emergency payment gave rise to
the well-known saying, “Come
home with your bells on.”
A century farm, Oak Lawn has
been in the family’s name since
1843. Reist and his wife, Marian,
are the fifth generation and now
his son, Art, Art’s wife Rachael,
and their children reside on the
60-acre farm. Along with tobac
co, they raise several crops and
prizewinning Belgian horses.
The farm is located in Man
heim Township across from Lan
caster Bible College.