See quotations 1888, 1910.
1858. [In Lawrence, Kansas] may be seen large covered wagons, alias “prairie schooners.”… These wagons are usually drawn by oxen, otherwise by mules.—N.Y. Tribune, June 7. (N.E.D.)
1862. The great trains of prairie schooners come in, laden with their hundred or more tons of goods.—Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Dec. 4.
1888. The old prairie schooner is now mainly a thing of the past.—Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 14 (Farmer).
1888. Everything was transported in the great army wagons called prairie-schooners. These were well named, as the two ends of the wagon inclined upward, like the bow and stern of a fore-and-after.—Mrs. Custer, ‘Tenting on the Plains,’ pp. 351–2.
1890. Heavily loaded “schooners” also, drawn in some instances by twelve large mules, could often be seen in large numbers stringing along the road for miles, laden with household goods, hardware, groceries and provisions.—Haskins, ‘Argonauts of California,’ p. 205 (N.Y.).
1910. The next schooner I had any association with was that venerable and faithful prairie schooner that floated so bravely and silently over the trackless plains of the West in the dawn of her greatness. This schooner carried our flour, bacon, and coffee, the inviting aroma of which seems still to pervade my nostrils and the flavor to still linger on my palate. It carried our “shakedown” as well, upon which in the long nights we dreamed of the dear ones left behind and of what the future would bring, and from which when awakened by the bark of the coyote or the lowing of our faithful oxen we were wont to gaze out at the stars in cloudless skies, loving their twinkles and enjoying their mirth and wishing we could hear their songs. That good old schooner protected us from the broiling rays of the sun and the downpours of rain, and when in the hostile country afforded a barricade against the arrows of the red men. This old $100 schooner, Mr. Chairman, brought more profit to civilization and more glory and more enduring benefits to our country than all our modern battleships combined.—Mr. Rucker of Colorado in the House of Representatives: from the Congressional Record.
