When my husband Vannie and I visited Bob and Becky Shope’s farm in New Salisbury, Ind., we expected to see horses, including his Belgians. We never expected to see any wagons.

But nestled in the weeds behind one of Bob’s barns was an oddity. It was a big old wagon, heavily-built, complete with rotting wood, rusty metal and — whoa — eight wheels with spokes sturdy looking enough to haul elephants.

Eight wheels?

Turns out Bob had purchased the old wagon on E-bay. The seller, from Alabama, told him it was a Lindsey Eight-Wheel Log Wagon.

I had never heard of such a thing.

Back home on my computer, a search for “eight wheel log wagons” launched me straight into a page of American history I never knew existed. On the web site www.samlindsey.com, I discovered we had seen one of the wagons that revolutionized the logging industry in the early half of the 1900s.

Wow.

Built by Mississippi lumberman John Lindsey to haul logs to his sawmills, the wagons worked so well, he decided to market them. The Lindsey Log Wagon Company was born. Lindsey patented his invention on Jan. 3, 1899. After his sawmill and wagon works in Sandersville, Miss., burned down, he moved his business to nearby Laurel. He and his brother, S.W. Lindsey, ran the successful business together. By 1901, it was the biggest single employer in the state, with 120 people. They even exported wagons to Belize, in Central America. Logging there was big business, as it was in Mississippi at that time.

Even today, people in Laurel hold the Lindsey Eight-Wheel Log Wagon and the Lindsey family in high esteem.

Eight wheels hauled heavy loads over soft ground better than four, which tended to bog down. Though designed to be pulled by four to 12 teams of oxen, teams of six or eight mules or horses were also used. Later, some of the wagons were modified and hooked to bulldozers or tractors.

The U.S. military in France also used Lindsey log wagons during World War I, for hauling heavy armor and equipment. After the Armistice, the company received an Award of Merit from the U.S. War Department for “distinguished service; the loyalty, energy and efficiency in the performance of war work by which Lindsey Wagon Company aided materially in obtaining victory for the arms of the United States of America in war with the Imperial German Government, and the Imperial and Royal Austrian-Hungarian Government.”

Quite an honor.

In September 2005, Bob, who operates a not-for-profit rescue center for horses, decided he didn’t want to go to the expense of restoring the wagon. He consigned it to the Southern Indiana Draft Horse Sale at Dinky's sale barn. There it was purchased by David Knepp, an Amish man from rural Loogootee. He paid $800 for it.

Knepp has logged with horses since 1988 and run a logging crew since 1992, so was naturally interested in anything connected with the logging business. Knepp Logging is a family business, with sons Nathan, Joseph and Eldon helping out. There is also one employee, Kevin Marner. Dave’s wife Naomi watches out for the whole bunch.

“It was unusual,” Knepp said of the massive old log wagon.