Giddyup

Every once in a while, someone will mention “the teamsters,” and I’ll wonder…

How did they come to be called “teamsters”?

Tonight, as I read a bit of the early section of U.S. Grant’s memoirs, I get to a point where he says, “… it is not probable that any of the men who reported themselves as competent teamsters had ever driven a mule-team in their lives….”

Ta da! It all becomes clear. People who drove teams of horses or other animals (usually for hauling long distances, I assume) were teamsters.

There are still long hauls, and although the teams have gone, the teamsters remain.

[Incidentally, this book also has Grant’s letters. So you can read his memoirist’s description of something, then flip to his letters to see how he described it to his wife at the time it happened.]

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe without commenting

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes