Published: July 17, 2009 09:32 am      

Roots of Clinton area hobos traced

Clinton is central in America and has a great confluence of transportation lines, especially the railroad. So, naturally, many hobos have passed through Clinton over the decades since the Civil War. What better place to meet than in Clinton as they came along the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, the Milwaukee Lines, the Mississippi River, the Lincoln Highway to this central location of America.

There is a distinction between “bums” or “tramps,” and “hobos.” Indeed, there’s a difference between the “homeless,” “rag pickers,” “bag ladies,” and whatever Riley was. Clinton also had “Dirty Bob” — who ran the riverfront dump near his tar-paper shack for no pay, and “Silent Henry” — a trash-picker. Some unemployed, didn’t work, but hobos did and had their own “code” of behavior. Some of the rules were: (politeness was always a strong trait of theirs)

n Don’t become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for treatment of other hobos.

n Decide your own life, don’t let another person rule you.

n Always respect nature; do not leave garbage where you are jungling.

n Help all runaway children, and try to persuade them to return home.

n Don’t cause problems in train yards; another hobo will need passage through that yard.

Many people mentioned allowing the transient vagabonds “to preserve their dignity” by doing a bit of physical labor in exchange for their meal. Some mothers felt obliged to feed the men because they feared a time when their own might need a helping hand.

A lot of famous Americans took a tour of the road — Jack London, Jack Dempsey, Woody Guthrie, Jack Kerouac, Burl Ives, Louis L’amour, Robert Mitchum, Eugene O’Neil — and they discovered the wanderlust obsession which took over so many.

Jim Tully, an author and friend of Charlie Chaplin, during the years of 1928 through 1945, was another. One of his published works, “Beggars of Life,” was adapted as a silent film of the same name. It contained two chapters about Clinton and the tough “railroad dicks” and the hobo jungles, one of which was under the railroad bridge.

Hobos were a major part of American culture and the great American clown, Emmett Kelly, used this mystique to create his “Weary Willy” character.

Vici Johnson, of Clinton, told this story:

“I remember my grandfather relating stories of how he rode the trains and followed the crops and was a hobo. He was born in Kentucky, met and married my grandmother in Peoria, moved to Kankakee, Ill., then to Lincoln, Ill. and finally to Clinton. He also was a harness maker and for a short, small guy had huge hands from working with the leather.

His name was Elmer Charles Fromang and died here in Clinton County at Charlotte facility in 1962.”

Tom VanDuzee, who worked for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, talked about seeing tramps on the railroad and how he threw them off or told them to get in a “safe” boxcar rather than see them riding in a precarious spot. He didn’t want to pick up a dead, mangled body sometime, although one man was drunk and got run down by a train and he wasn’t even injured.

“Good thing he was drunk,” Tom said.

Bill Clark said, “We would swim and fish for bullheads in Mill Creek by the old power house. There was a hobo jungle nearby. I think they called them the interurban tracks. Bud Roe and I found a cooking pot bed roll and things and we started to look them over when two guys, one bearded with a walking stick, came back. We ran and they laughed. Later we knew that when there was a rag hanging on the limb of a tree, someone was there.”

Many hobo terms have become part of common language, such as “Big House,” “glad rags” and “main drag.” Words like bone orchard, bindle (knapsack), catching the westbound for the coast (death) and mulligan stew were also in the language.

Everyone is aware that hobos were skilled in crafts and in communication. They made friends everywhere, and of course, had their “codes and signals.”

They had signs for “beware of hostile railroad police,” “dangerous dog,” and “food available here.” Other signs included:

n A triangle with hands signifies that the homeowner has a gun.

n Sharp teeth signifies a mean dog.

n A circle with two parallel arrows means to get out fast, as hobos are not welcome.

n A cat signifies that a kind lady lives here.

n A wavy line (signifying water) above an X means fresh water and a campsite.

Ray Cavanaugh called from Seattle to tell about his mom’s house on Seventh Avenue and the problem she had with so many hobos stopping by (all the people in certain neighborhoods near the tracks were fair game). As with so many others, there was an “X” marked on the picket fence, which brought them all, and once removed, alleviated the problem.

Hobos are so much a part of our culture. We have language related to them and comedy, too. Who can forget Red Skelton’s “Freddy the Freeloader?” Songs were prevalent, also as exemplified by Roger Miller’s “King of the Road.”

In 1911, it was reported that 700,000 men and boys hopped boxcars around the country. “Riding the rails” is now a sort of lost art. It took a lot of skill to master the ability to live on nothing and scrounge your way through life and to see the world.

By the 1970s things were winding down, but hobo kings like Steamtrain Maury (he campaigned for the title by promising to visit military veterans in hospitals and did visit 34,000. He stayed at the Citadel of the Salvation Army), and the Pennsylvannia Kid (stayed in the basement of the Iowanna Inn and ate steak at a house party of its owner, Ben Thomas) were still around. The Kid came through town a year after another king of the hobos, “The Hardrock Kid” died in 1975. The next year, they held the 76th Hobo Convention in Britt.

Note — Put Monday, Aug. 3, 10:30 a.m. on your calendar. A free showing of the new DVD, “The Historic Catholic Churches” will be shown at the Cinema 8 Theatre in Clinton. DVDs will be on sale soon.



Gary Herrity is the Clinton Herald’s historical columnist. His column appears on page 5A on Fridays.