He wasn’t the only one who noticed it that day.

“I could have made a profit on it before I walked away from the sale,” he noted. But Knepp had decided to restore it.

He asked a friend, Dale Keyes of rural Rosedale, Ind., to tackle the job. A skilled, seasoned woodworker, Keyes knew it would be a challenge.

“I’d never worked on a wagon before,” he admitted. This would be different than anything he’d ever done.

Working in his spare time – and painstakingly particular – it took Keyes well over 18 months to complete the task. Even with the help of several good friends.

Anything that turned out less than Keyes expected became a “do-over.”

He started on the hardest part, the wheels, using a large band saw to cut them out.

“Dave brought me the hubs, we rebuilt them first,” Keyes said. “They were all original….a lot of them were rotten, one had the spokes broke out of it.”

The spokes were made, then the felloes.

White oak, furnished by Knepp, was used for the wheels and most of the body. The original axles – only one of which was salvageable – were hickory, as are the new ones. Knepp had new steel rims rolled for the 32-inch wheels.

It was a big job. The wagon is 29 feet, 3 inches long from tip of the tongue to the back.

Although the Lindsey Wagon plant closed in 1964, Sam Lindsey III of Saint Marys, Ga., great-great nephew of founder John Lindsey, says there are still a few of his family’s wagons around today, in addition to Knepp’s. Some are owned by collectors, some in museums. The Lindsey family furnished one, on a 99-year-lease, to the Mississippi Agricultural Museum in Jackson, Miss.

There’s one in the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover, Ark., and the City of Laurel, Miss., has one that’s now being restored by Bobby Hancock of Sandersville, Miss. The Laurel Machine and Foundary – which did the foundry work for the Lindsey Wagon Company, also made one for that city’s centennial in 1982. And Jessie Sandford of Seminary, Miss., who collects and pulls antique tractors, has two Lindseys that were restored several years ago.

No doubt, there are others residing in fields and barns, mostly in the South. Consider yourself lucky if you find one.

Sam Lindsey, when considering the value of such wagons, said it’s difficult to put a price on them.