Newtown’s ‘Wagon Master’ Keeps On Rolling

By Jan Howard

Willard Heimstra goes by the nickname “The Wagon Master” because of the Amish-style model wagons he creates, but his interests and hobbies currently and throughout his lifetime have been wide ranging.

A resident of Nunnawauk Meadows, the former Monroe resident likes to ballroom dance, enjoys bus trips to interesting places, and is a member of the Newtown Senior Center’s New Horizons Club.

Born in Holland, Mr Heimstra lived in Long Island before moving to Connecticut, but he is no stranger to Newtown. In 1941 he entered military service from Newtown, and his name is inscribed on the walls of the Edmond Town Hall lobby with those of others who served during wartime.

He was then an employee of the Newtown Hunt Club, where he was whip to the hounds for fox hunting at the club, which was located on Huntingtown Road. The whip helps the huntsman control the hounds and keeps them from scattering during a hunt.

“We had 30 foxhounds,” he said. “We would get rid of the foxes for farmers.

“Mrs Gimbel from the store would ride with us,” Mr Heimstra said. “It’s a millionaire’s sport.”

Previous to working for the Newtown Hunt Club, he had been a groom for horses for a hunt club in New York. “I got the job when I said I could ride a horse,” he said.

In August 2001, the C.H. Booth Library featured a collection of Mr Heimstra’s model wagons, including a stagecoach, funeral wagon, milk wagon, surrey with four riders, and a “John Wayne wagon,” similar to one the Duke’s character rode in with Maureen O’Hara in the film The Quiet Man. His most current creations, which he worked on at his daughter’s house in Monroe, are a wheelbarrow made from poplar wood and a milking cow whirligig that would make a wonderful decoration for a wood fence post or in a garden setting.

“The wheelbarrow takes about a week to make,” Mr Heimstra said. “I work at it a couple hours a day.”

A carpenter by trade, Mr Heimstra built homes in the Woodbridge and Monroe area for years, and then worked at his trade at Southbury Training School for ten years. He retired from the training school and moved to Chambersburg, Penn., in Pennsylvania Dutch Country where he bought a house and about 12 years ago began creating his model wagons as commissions.

While in Pennsylvania, he also helped a friend on his farm. He helps people here, by giving haircuts to male shut-ins.

Mr Heimstra enjoys the monthly get together of the Newtown Senior Center’s New Horizons Club and the trips the center sponsors. He recently went on a bus trip to a polkafest.

He sings in the choir of the Methodist Church, plays pinochle in Monroe, and dances on Wednesday nights at the Fireside.

“It keeps you busy,” he said of his schedule. “I’m not waiting for the wagon here. My doctor says I’m good for another thousand miles.”