ONE-HORSE BUGGY AND CUTTER DONATED TO MUSEUM

By Roger Austin. From the December 2004 newsletter.

A one-horse buggy, cutter (sleigh), wooden wagon running gear as well as sets of harness were donated to the Museum by Judy (Johnston) Finen and Joseph C. Johnston of Ogdensburg and Eleanor (Johnston) Sears of North Carolina. Finen is a niece and the latter two are children of Joseph Gilmour Johnston, the former owner of these items.

In 1930, Joseph G. Johnston became a rural letter carrier, having purchased the required horse, buggy and sleigh. With his faithful horse, Nancy Hanks, he delivered mail in Ogdensburg and as far away as the Black Lake Road. When they were no longer needed, the rigs were stored away in the loft of the horse barn behind his house on Proctor Avenue.

The buggy and cutter are mostly wood painted with black lacquer. The wheels and some fixtures had been painted yellow.

In 2002, the equipment was loaned to the St. Lawrence Gas & Steam Engine Association and has since beeen displayed in Association and, more recently, Museum Exihibitions. They provide an excellent benchmark for the region’s transition from horse-drawn to motorized vehicles.

The Museum membership extends its thanks to the donors for their thoughfulness and generosity.