• This image taken in Lucas is scanned from a 7” x 10” metal plate called a tintype. A close examination of the scene shows the travelers wrapped in a buffalo robe; and a strap of ‘jingle bells,’ or ‘sleigh bells’ around the horse.

  • These folks were riding their ‘coasters’ in downtown Lucas in 1907. There are a couple sleighs visible in the photo: parked along the street on the right, behind the toboggan.

  • Not all sleighs were polished and pretty: some were very utilitarian and built for hard work like this sledge south of Butler used for heavy hauling.

  • This two horse open sleigh was photographed in 1910 during an excursion from Bellville. Notice that every horse in the parade is wearing sleigh bells. The distinctive and cheerful sound of sleighs passing through the countryside in a muffled winter afternoon is one of those once-common sensory experiences lost to the modern world.

  • Photographed on Mill Run Road this guy has his own private vehicle…is it a sled? Is it a sleigh? It looks fun.

  • In the deep snow of November of 1913 only sleighs and streetcars were out at the corner of Main and Park Avenue.

  • These kids were taken on a sleigh ride in the 1930s from the stables of Frank Black—today the Raemelton Therapeutic Equestrian Center.

  • This sleigh ride illustration is adapted from the Kate Lord painting that decorated the endpages of Louis Bromfield’s novel The Farm, 1933. It depicts his memory of arriving at the family homestead on West Fourth Street.

  • This 1911 postcard from Shelby identifies “the doctor’s horse and his hired man.”

  • This woman photographed on Smiley Road in 1908 has taken on the role of sleigh horse for her little ones.

  • No one told this little guy from Shiloh that his sleigh couldn’t be pulled by his two dogs; or that his sleigh needed runners instead of wheels.

  • Folks in Plymouth didn’t have far to go to find a new sleigh: they were manufactured on the north end of Sandusky Street as early as 1855 in the Waite Blacksmithing shop. By 1879 the carriage and sleigh operation had grown enough to move into its own factory.

  • A winter edition of the Richland Album