Story Under a Stone - William Hutchings, Teamster
Today, drivers behind the wheel of those big trucks hauling freight can belong to the union named International Brotherhood of Teamsters. That word “teamsters” comes from a time when freight was hauled by wagons pulled by teams of animals, whether they be oxen, mules, or horses. Of course, their driver became known as a teamster.
A man buried in the Sheldon cemetery, William Hutchings, was a teamster. He was a member of a class of teamster nicknamed “bullwhackers” who could pop their long whips over the heads of the oxen to encourage them to pull. He freighted long distances with a hitch of three yoke of oxen. We don’t know if he could crack a long whip, but most likely he could.
Hutchings and his wife and family lived in the Coburn area, and later moved to Owego.
His father George had enlisted in the Union army at the age of 38 and rode in a cavalry regiment for the duration. He was the first veteran to enter the Old Soldiers Home in Lisbon in 1893.
When the town of Sheldon started establishing itself, it needed lumber to build homes and businesses. The railroad hadn’t reached it yet, so teams and wagons hauled the lumber from a distance for construction. The newspaper ran this short piece from a man named Frank Connelly: “In 1881 Lumberyard was started at Buffalo. From this yard I hauled the first load of lumber that started the building at Sheldon.”
Many interesting stories come from that period. In these stories Under a Stone we’ve already featured one man, J. T. Hickey, owner of the livery barn, buried alongside his wife in the Sheldon cemetery, who made his mark as a teamster with the ill-fated Custer expedition.
A solitary stone setting apart from the others in the Owego cemetery interested me. The name James Kinney had been inscribed into it and informed he’d been a wagoner (teamster). A little research uncovered the fact he drove teams with General Sibley through North Dakota in 1863. The newspaper editor thought it remarkable that he walked 16 miles in less than six hours to Sheldon so he could catch the train to Lisbon and spend the winter at the soldier’s home.
Teamsters lived in the open and slept under their wagons when they worked. This story illustrates their hardship. In 1880 a small party of land seekers headed for Fort Ransom in November with their wagons. They slept on the ground under their wagons. In the morning one of the men with very long hair could not get up because his hair had frozen fast to the ground. His companions cut him loose with their knives.
Of course, the term teamster can be loosely interpreted to mean quite a broad spectrum. There was a time when everyone, men, women, or young people could take the reins of a team and drive to their destination. I’ve even held the reins of a team of workhorses, and maybe you have, too. Today, a different kind of horsepower powers our wheels.
We’ll conclude with one teamster story that we find humorous today, but probably not so much for the actors. Two boys, Lou and Hans Sorenson, from the family of local flour millers, took a load of flour to Valley City. While there they bought some fireworks and thought they could speed up the slow walking oxen by shooting a rocket into their hind ends. These critters proved they could move, even gallop, and took off, wrecking the wagon and beating the boys home by several hours.
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The pictures show a variety of types of wagons I used to build.
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