ENGEL’S COACH SHOP
105 So.
406-962-3573
History
Even though I’ve been in the wheelwright
and horse drawn vehicle trade for 29 years now, I look back even before that
and wonder if it was in my destiny. My father
was raised Mennonite in Congerville, IL by his widowed mother, Winnie
(Stutzman) Engel, along with his brother Ray, with the aid of Winnie’s sister
(my great aunt), Blanche Stutzman, who lived with and near them. He often referred to memories of bringing
wagon loads of grain to the elevator with his uncle with a big team of black
percherons and that always left him with a fondness for percherons. My father married, and several years later
moved to
As we lived on a 10 acre place south of
town, we always had horses, Shetlands and burros to ride or drive. My father drove a team of quarter horses to a
Democrat and taught me first to drive a Shetland pony to a sulky cart at a
young age I can’t even put a number to.
Several times I was given a bucket of linseed oil and instructed to oil
the wheels on the Democrat. Little did I
know what was in store for me!
My wife, Diane, and I were married in June
of 1976 and we headed off to Fort Riley, Kansas so Diane could pay back Uncle
Sam with three years for putting her through Army nurses training at Walter
Reed Army Institute of Nursing in Washington. D.C. I fed cows at a research farm while I was
there, but come September of 1979 it was either stay in and go to
Rick Bischoff, my brother-in-law through
marrying sisters, was beginning to dabble in the carriage trade and offered to
put up with me if I’d help him out in the shop.
Since I had always enjoyed working with wood and still had a gelding we
had raised from a colt, it sounded like a perfect combination to me.
Our first contract was to restore an 8
passenger
Coming from a stubborn German Mennonite
background, and being young and headstrong as I was (am), Rick and I split up
in 1982. Rick, and his wife Pat, bought
a lamp business in
Diane and I
have three young wheelwright / restorers.
Maybe they’re not so young any more, but they have been accustomed to
the life in a wheelwright’s shop. Brett,
our oldest, (in the middleè) at soon to be 25, looks
a bit different now. Nate, on the right,
is a real helper and does much more now at 23. Janelle, now 20, still looks up
to her brothers, just like she’s doing here.
çBrett thought he would
try his hand at the wheelwright trade at an early age.
Brett and Nate have always been a great
help in the shop and are busy here taking apart a Yellowstone coach from the
Sometimes I’d
let ‘em break for lunch, but only if they didn’t take too long. We’ve got work to do you know!
Brett is now employed as a mechanical engineer
in Minneapolis, MN; Nate is a roofing contractor in Bozeman, MT. and Janelle is
working at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, MT after completing a year of
welding school in Kalispell, MT. Yep,
it’s the empty nest syndrome and back to ma and pa again.
I’ve always been one for figuring things
out, and willing to listen, and this has been a great help through the
years. We are witnessing the passing of
a generation who lived what we play with and it has been many an Old Timer who
has relayed stories of “I remember when…” that has brought me many a tip or
procedure. Thanks! I’ll try to pass it on through my work.
When I’m not in the shop, I have enjoyed
hunting, horse packing and putting up hay with my teams.
This is mid 80’s and a quarter-horse team I
began haying with. They couldn’t take
the work day after day so I eventually went to a percherons-quarter horse cross
and they worked real well!
This is that cross-bred team as I was
driving on the movie set of Far And Away, which some of you may have
seen, featuring
This was in the Ucross to
Given the chance, we’ll pack the
horses and head for the hills. This trip
is with friends Rick Bischoff (left) and Jay Richardson (right).
Aaaahh, the good memories! I hope you’re making some too!
Dave and Diane Engel
ENGELS COACH SHOP
105 So. Main
406-962-3573
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