All Topics  
Teamster

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Teamster
 
 
  Topics Teamster Topic Home

The term "teamster" originally referred to a person who drove a team of draft animals, usually a wagon
Wagon

A wagon or dray is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle. Wagons were formerly pulled by animals such as horse, mule or ox. Today farm wagons are pulled by tractors and trucks....
 drawn by ox
Ox

Oxen are bovinae trained as draught animals. Often they are adult, castration males. Oxen are used for ploughing, transport, hauling cargo, threshing grain by trampling, powering machines for grinding grain, irrigation or other purposes, and drawing carts and wagons....
en, horse
Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s, or mule
Mule

In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.Mules are classified as an F1 hybrid.The term "mule" was formerly applied to the infertile offspring of any two creatures of different species....
s. This term was commonly used during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars
Indian Wars

Indian Wars is the name generally used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between the colonial or federal government and the indigenous peoples of North America....
 throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries on the American frontier.

A teamster might also drive pack animal
Pack animal

A pack animal is a beast of burden used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back; the term may be applied to either an individual animal or a species so employed....
s such as a muletrain, in which case he was also known as a muleteer or muleskinner.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Teamster'
Start a new discussion about 'Teamster'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The term "teamster" originally referred to a person who drove a team of draft animals, usually a wagon
Wagon

A wagon or dray is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle. Wagons were formerly pulled by animals such as horse, mule or ox. Today farm wagons are pulled by tractors and trucks....
 drawn by ox
Ox

Oxen are bovinae trained as draught animals. Often they are adult, castration males. Oxen are used for ploughing, transport, hauling cargo, threshing grain by trampling, powering machines for grinding grain, irrigation or other purposes, and drawing carts and wagons....
en, horse
Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s, or mule
Mule

In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.Mules are classified as an F1 hybrid.The term "mule" was formerly applied to the infertile offspring of any two creatures of different species....
s. This term was commonly used during the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars
Indian Wars

Indian Wars is the name generally used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between the colonial or federal government and the indigenous peoples of North America....
 throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries on the American frontier.

A teamster might also drive pack animal
Pack animal

A pack animal is a beast of burden used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back; the term may be applied to either an individual animal or a species so employed....
s such as a muletrain, in which case he was also known as a muleteer or muleskinner. Another name is a bullwhacker. In Australian English
Australian English

Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia....
 a teamster was also known as a bullocker or bullocky
Bullocky

A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a Bullock cart Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers.Carriers were an integral part of the rural economy during the 19th century; they transported wool and supplies by drays drawn by teams of draft animals .  They travelled constantly across the landscape,...
. Today this person may be an outfitter
Outfitter

An outfitter is a shop or person that sells men's clothes . More specifically, it is a company or individual who provides or deals in equipment and supplies for the pursuit of certain activities....
 or packer
Packer

Packer may refer to:...
.

In present-day American English
American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
, teamster means a truck driver
Truck driver

A truck driver is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck, usually a semi truck, box truck, or dump truck.Truck drivers provide an essential service to industrialized societies by transporting finished Goods and raw materials over land, typically from manufacturing plants to retail or distribution centers....
. The trade union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
 named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a trade union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar worker and white-collar worker workers in both the public sector and private sectors....
 (IBT or Teamsters), one of the largest unions in the United States.

Further review

  • Telleen, Maurice (1977) The Draft Horse Primer: A Guide to the Care and Use of Work Horses and Mules Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvannia, ISBN 0-87857-161-2
  • Elser, Smoke (1980) Packin' in on Mules and Horses Mountain Press Publishing Co., Missoula, Montana, ISBN 0-87842-127-0
  • Gebhards, Stacy V. (2000) When Mules Wear Diamonds: Mountain Packing with Mules and Horses Wilderness Skills, McCall, Idaho,
  • Damerow, Gail; Ainsworth, Brandt and Edmunds, Bill (2001) Driving Draft Horses DVD, Rural Heritage Video, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ISBN 978-1-893707-31-3
  • Damerow, Gail and Rice, Alina (2008) Draft Horses and Mules: Harnessing Equine Power for Farm & Show Storey Publishing, North Adams, Massachusetts, ISBN 978-1-60342-081-5