ox yoke (artifact #1)
(shown upside down) When settling the country, oxen were used crossing the mountains. Although slower than horses, conventional wisdom has it that oxen can actually travel further in a day than horses where the terrain is rough. Also where grass is scarce for grazing, oxen can browse on shrubs and brush more than horses. My grandfather, C.A. Doyle, farmed for a time using this very ox yoke. It is for a pair of oxen and a wooden bow, not shown, goes under the neck of each ox. An ox bow is shown in the photo of the training yoke (Inventory item # 2) that follows. Looking carefully at this photo, you can see a bored hole, just in from the left end of the yoke. There are four holes total, where the two bows are inserted, but the other three are not visable. It seems to me that the yoke would be attached to a tongue-like affair for guiding and pulling. Note the iron ring at the center of the yoke, to take the strain of pulling.
I have not addressed the description of an ox shoe for you. There is a shoe for each half of an ox foot as they are cloven footed. The shape of each is much like a pork chop and made of steel with a cork on front and back. The shoes, when new, are perhaps 3/8 inch thick with nail holes on the outer radius. It is confusing, when looking at just one, as to how they fit on the hoof because they are made equal and opposite, or left and right, as a pair for each foot. That means there are eight shoes per animal. The small end is to the front. While trying to picture in your mind how they fit, just visualize a cows foot, remembering upside down and small end to the front.
Conrad Smith has a pair of ox shoes that were plowed up on our property. Dad
had given me one and it was my intention to have it mounted on a plaque and returned to
him. I did not finish in time to return it to him before his death. I thought it
was proper that Conrad should have it, since he is living on the original Doyle property.
Charles Doyle 4/23/03