Historical Museum

Harness Oil

With horses and buggies still on the road, harness oil was a much-needed product at the turn of the century into 1900. Harnesses, traces, reins, buggy seats, anything leather could use an oil to prevent cracking or breaking at the stitches.
The Standard Oil Co. made Eureka Harness Oil. In the 1898 Sears Catalogue it is advertised as "guaranteed equal to anything in the market for softening and preserving leather harnesses, etc." for "oiling, blacking and preserving the leather of harness, carriage tops, etc." It cost $1.25 for a dozen pints.