The Dover Wagon

Essentially a ‘running gear’ assembled/manufactured from 1928-1935 Ford vehicle axles, wheels, and tires provided by the customer to Everett Allen, Dover, Michigan.

    A write-up by Leo J. Fitzpatrick in December 2007 on donating a Dover Wagon to the Clare County Historical Society tells the ‘story’:

   This wagon was built by Everett Allen at his blacksmith shop in Dover in 1943. The person ordering the way furnished the front axles that were used from Ford vehicles built 1928 to 1935.  Ford Motor Company used 15-inch wheels in their 1935 vehicles.  The person ordering also furnished wheels and tires.   Everett Allen used Ford axles because they had a bow in the axle.  The bow     allowed the axle to be used upside down for better ground clearance and strength for the design of the wagon.   He said he built 68 of these wagons between the late 1930 all through the middle of the 1940’s.   Everett could build a wagon in a day and a half using his own iron and wood for a cost of      $35.00 for material and labor.

   This wagon was the 34th wagon that he made.  Bernard Fitzpatrick ordered in 1943.  It was the first rubber-tired implement on the Fitzpatrick farm. [ A Centennial Farm].  There was never a mechanical bread down in all the years it      was used.  It was a very good wagon to sue with a team of horses and it was an     excellent tow trailer on the road.  It was used regularly on the Fitzpatrick farm     for a period of 40 years.

   In 2007 it was rebuilt and donated by the Fitzpatrick family to the Clare      County Historical Society.

   Leo J. Fitzpatrick provided this information from is personal knowledge.