Old farms are filled with reminders of the horse-and-buggy days. Those days may be remembered or imagined with a touch of nostalgia, but they actually entailed a lot of hard work.

Most car owners of today leave the details of maintenance to the local garage or auto dealer. Of course, there are many hobbyists who like to get their hands greasy with restoration projects.

As I look around the barn and stable of this old farm in Auburn, I see scraps of leather harness, now covered with cobwebs and dust. I have no idea what their purpose may have been. There are harness pieces of all lengths with rusty buckles and stiffened straps. Some of the farm’s old machinery is still fitted with hitches for the work horses.

Today, owners of saddle horses are well-acquainted with halters, bridles and saddles and they enjoy caring for their animals and tack, which is the proper term for harness and accessories.

Just as owners who work on their own vehicles need a source for parts (just look around at the many auto parts stores in every city and town), horse and buggy owners, as well as farmers, needed a leather supplier.

One of these important vendors in Lewiston was Longley’s Leather Store. It operated here in the mid-1880s.

As is so often the case, I learned about Longley’s store through a Lewiston Journal Magazine Section column written by my aunt, Edith Dolan. Ray Goulet, proprietor of Turgeon’s Variety Store, which was at 1 Sabattus St., Lewiston, gave her a large collection of correspondence, and that sort of research opportunity always excited her.

“The more I read, the more interested I became,” she wrote. “By the time I had finished I could smell the leathery aroma that permeated the old store. I could visualize the scarlet sleigh robes ordered from New Jersey. I knew about the whipstocks, the silver rosettes for the bridles, and the brass harness rings that were part of the stock in trade.”

She said the three-story building at 179 Main St. (the address of the Plaza Barber Shop in the 1960s, and possibly the location of the Mohican Market) was “filled to the rafters with the stock and equipment needed to turn out their goods.”

The owner, Josiah P. Longley, was a native of Greene. He opened the business in 1847. In 1860, it was known as Longley & Garcelon, and later as Longley & Jordan. Another Longley was a harness-maker at the same address in the 1890s.

Longley’s Leather Store sold harnesses, trunks, traveling bags, horse blankets, robes, ladies’ reticules (a small purse with a drawstring), shopping bags, hats, caps, and for the colder months it had “special inducements offered in seal skins and other fur garments.”

In those days, harness and wagon shops occupied positions as important as garages and filling stations do today.

The letters and records obtained by my aunt held a wealth of detail from that time. In one letter, in which Longley asked for credit on an order for supplies, he gave as a reference “the White Mountain Stage Driver.”

The letters also revealed the customs and prices of 150 years ago. Longley paid $25 to have his house painted, plus $21 for painting the shutters. The painter also “went over his wife’s stove with sandpaper and lampblack for 35 cents.”

Another invoice showed that Longley paid $1.40 for four pounds of curled horse-hair to be used for buggy cushion stuffing.

The newspaper column read, “All those papers were written with pen and ink. Some of the clerks indulged in fancy flourishes and flowing phrases. Others were brief and to the point. The papers, probably made of cotton rags, were still strong and pliable. The single sheet would be folded to envelope size and a dab of melted sealing wax insured privacy.”

The articles of harness I have come across in our barn were long-ago thrown aside. Probably my father and grandfather found some pleasure and relief in transitioning from horsepower to trucks and tractors. Nevertheless, at one time that equipment made from tough leather was valuable to the farm’s operation. I’m sure it was regularly treated with oil and carefully hung on the stable walls.

Many nonfarm families also owned one or two horses to pull the buggy for daily transportation. Although harness-making survives on some small farms, it’s easy to see that the goods of stores such as Longley’s were essential to every farm and family.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He can be reached by sending email to [email protected].