Description:
Yoke used to train young oxen. It is stamped twice on the top: "H Hoyt" likely for Horatio Hoyt (1790-1877), who was a farmer who lived and worked on Lot no. 17 in Deerfield.

Label Text:
Branches: Oxen were the most common draft animal on early New England farms. This size neck yoke was used to train oxen of about four or five months of age. The fractures in the wood fibers on the curved bows indicate that “green wood” with a high moisture content, possibly hickory, was bent to custom fit the necks of an ox team, then attached to the yoke with wood bow pins (only one survives on this example). The name stamped on the top of the yoke, "H Hoyt," likely refers to Horatio Hoyt (1790-1877), a farmer who lived on Deerfield’s Old Main Street. Among the many farm implements made by Samuel Gaylord, Jr. were yokes for oxen that drove sleighs used for hauling logs. On December 28, 1774, he recorded “to making a yoke for your Slay £ 0:0:11.”

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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+69.0459

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