An antique farm-to-market style buggy has been restored and is ready to be featured at the West End Fair this week.

The Pennsylvania German style buggy, which was used for transporting produce, was donated to the fair’s museum by Jeanne Marie & Michael C Gibson Jr. last summer. The benefactors had found the old wagon on a piece of property they had purchased.With over 100 years of wear and tear, the buggy was in dire need of repairs and replacements to get it ready for display at the fairgrounds. Finding a location for the job took a fair amount of legwork.“It took a bunch of checking. We had never done this kind of thing before,” said Norman A. Burger, Long Range Planning Committee Chair of the West End Fair.Checking references for previous work and comparing price estimates played an important role in the decision.Burger and the committee eventually decided to go with Shady Lanes Wagons. In October, the buggy was taken to the New Holland=based business, which sells and restores carriages, wagons, sleighs, and other vehicles.“One of the people from the livestock committee, Mindy Seese, volunteered to take it down in a cattle hauling trailer,” Burger said.In keeping with the culture, negotiations and haggling for the job were conducted in the local tongue.“It was done in Pennsylvania Dutch. It’s a dialect of German,” Burger said.Weaver Martin, owner and operator of Shady Lanes, estimated the job took about 150 hours to complete.“First, the wheels had to be completely rebuilt,” he said. “The body was sanded down to the base wood. It was sanded and primed, sanded and primed, and so-forth, painted and labelled.”“A lot of the labor we did was removing the paint,” Martin said. “Sometimes we burned it off. There’s probably six or seven coats of paint on the wheel. The body, about the same amount.”The heavily damaged top material was also replaced, and a new seat board was installed as well.“I’m very happy with the way it turned out. It does look pretty good,” Martin said.Burger, who is also a local historian, was able to compile a detailed history of the vehicle and its owner from old county records.“It turned out beautiful, couldn’t have asked for a better result. It met every one of our expecations,” Burger said.Both sides of the buggy feature writing that reads “William H. Kleintop – Kunkletown.” Kleintop, according to census data, was a farmer in Eldred Township during the late 18th and early 19th century.A rear-hinged drop gate on the buggy is labeled “H. R. Kreidler – Weissport.” Burger investigated the name and found Reuben H. Kreidler, a resident of Lehighton, and the proprietor of a carriage factory in Weissport. Earlier census information showed a listing for H. R. Kreidler, who was listed as a “painter of carriages.” Burger said that it was a common practice at the time to reverse first and middle names, and that both records likely reference the same man.“A lot of people are excited about the prospect to restore and keep a piece of our past,” Burger said.The buggy will be on display under a tent, adjacent to the West End Fair Museum, for the duration of the week.