By MELISSA HART
Michigan Correspondent

FRONTIER, Mich. — Road crew worker by day and farmer by night – now a retiree – Jim Gier of Frontier, Mich., has the appetite for an old-time craft: Building horse-drawn equipment.

“I had it in my head to do it, so I just did it,” said the just-turned 82-year-old, about his handiwork with wagons and horse-drawn farm equipment.

As if working a full-time job away from his 80-acre farm, where he also milked cows and raised six kids and two grandchildren, wasn’t enough, Gier always wanted to build a wagon and just decided to do it.

“I would draw them out, then get a frame and take the hubs down to Indiana and they would make the wooden wheels, and I’d bring them back and put it together,” explained Gier. “Sometimes I’d buy a pile of junk and see what I could put together from that. I bought a frame in a pile of junk down by Ransom and made a wagon out of that; it’s just whatever I could find.”

No fancy heated shop or a crew of men to help is needed. His shop was the yard in front of his milkhouse, and the only help he had was “his own two hands.” Losing exact count, he has built a dozen or so wagons and has restored plows and cultivators – and is now working on a buckboard.

Enjoying this craft so much, he said, “I could make a wagon every day, if I felt like it.”

When he gets done with a piece, it doesn’t have time to collect dust. “I’ve sold a lot of my wagons in the draft horse sale in Topeka, Indiana,” Gier said.

And with eight horses in the pasture, he has plenty of horsepower to take to the fields when he wants to plow or cultivate.

Parades are another venue in which Gier’s wagons are featured: “We’ve been to a few parades this year, it’s usually a last-minute decision and we just go. My son likes to drive the team.”

While most of these are in the summer, Christmas parades bring a special element to Gier’s wagons. “We put lights up on the wagon and decorate it all up, it’s really something to see,” he explained.
The Christmas Parade in Montpelier was the last parade slated for Gier, his team of horses and handmade wagon. Residing on the same farm since 1971 with his wife, Ruth, he is slowing down a bit, saying he just doesn’t have the appetite he used to, have but, he still enjoys working on the wagons.

It’s a craft he’s been honing since before he retired, and he will continue with it for as long as he can.