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Click To On the Photo to View Pictures and Video, THANK YOU to the citizens of Springfield, IL for their kindness and hospitality and especially to the Staab Family without whom this project would never have existed. Custom Wagons was one of the build teams of Combat Veterans for the reconstruction of the Abraham Lincoln Hearse and the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of his burial in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery.

The problem was that the original Abraham Lincoln Hearse had been retired after it was used for the Abraham Lincoln funeral. The hearse itself was stored on the second floor of Lynch & Arnot livery company, where it was destroyed in a massive Feb. 9, 1887 fire that killed three people and about 200 horses.

There was only one picture that existed of the original Abraham Lincoln Hearse, all the information about the original hearse needed for the reconstruction of the new hearse had to be extrapolated from that one existing picture.

CLICK To View Commercial. When Dunkin Donuts wanted their new Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Muffins TV Commercial, with a play on Pumpkin Chunk-in and a catapult would be a good idea, which meant Custom Wagons got a call to make the Wheels for the catapult.

The two companies that were building the monster catapult, Steel-head Studios in Holyoke, MA and The Specialists LTD, a weapons Prop Company in NY, could design and make the catapult; their problem was those pesky heavy Wood Cannon Wheels. As you can see, the catapult's wood chassis stood eleven feet high and held a twenty two foot long steel boom.