Occupation of "huckster"
Frank O'Donnell
grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
the 1870 census as a "huckster."
Now, it would appear from the dictionary that although huckster
is more or less a synonym for hawker or peddler, there seems
to be some connotation of sales by showmanship. While
researching another family line in Delaware in 1860 I noticed one
of their neighbors described as a "peddler with horse."
I'm wondering if there is a nuance of difference in meaning
between "peddler" and "huckster," or if the two were used
interchangeably. Somehow peddler sounds more like someone
with a wagon going door to door, while a huckster sounds like
someone with a Max's Mighty Natural Remedy type show. And,
of course, "huckster" nowadays has a decidedly pejorative
connotation.
Does anyone know enough about 19th-century occupations to
comment on the above?
Frank
Los Angeles, CA
f...@netcom.com
Cheryl Singhal
FO> * Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.misc,alt.genealogy
FO>I was amused to find while researching one of my great-great-
FO>grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
FO>federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
FO>the 1870 census as a "huckster."
FO>I'm wondering if there is a nuance of difference in meaning
FO>between "peddler" and "huckster," or if the two were used
FO>interchangeably. Somehow peddler sounds more like someone
FO>with a wagon going door to door, while a huckster sounds like
FO>someone with a Max's Mighty Natural Remedy type show. And,
FO>of course, "huckster" nowadays has a decidedly pejorative
FO>connotation.
FO>Does anyone know enough about 19th-century occupations to
FO>comment on the above?
There is another very faint difference: a peddler travels door-to-door;
a huckster would most likely set up shop in town for a few days before
moving on and would hardly EVER go door-to-door. Thus, the roadside
stalls that sell seasonal veggies or fruit and have somesort of
eye-catching display might be considered hucksters.
And for those working later censii, "travels in ..." means the same as
"drummer" both of which mean someone who travels from town to town
trying to interest shopkeepers in the wares of the company he
represents. "Travels in ..." is slightly better paid, I think.
* OLX 2.1 TD * Cheryl_...@cpafug.blkcat.com
Paul Purdom
>I was amused to find while researching one of my great-great-
>grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
>federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
>the 1870 census as a "huckster."
I was reading some genealogical material for Northwestern North Carolina
where a family member was a hustster. In this particular case the person
bought a wagon, a team, and a wagon load of goods in North Carolina,
travelled to Georgia, sold it all, and walked back to North Carolina.
dick
picked up farm products from their neighbors and took them by wagon and
later by truck down to Philadelphia to sell. My grandmother seems to
use the term interchangably with "butter and egg man".
-- =
Dick Schoeller, BGS Systems, 128 Technology Center, Waltham, MA 02254-9111
617.891.0000 mailto:di...@bgs.com http://www.geopages.com/SiliconValley/2241=
/
"Er ist ein Narr, der meint, es sei nicht schad, das Kind auszusch=FCtten m=
it
dem Bad" - Thomas Murner 1512
Dave Houser
>I was amused to find while researching one of my great-great-
>grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
>federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
>the 1870 census as a "huckster."
>
>is more or less a synonym for hawker or peddler, there seems
>to be some connotation of sales by showmanship. While
>researching another family line in Delaware in 1860 I noticed one
>of their neighbors described as a "peddler with horse."
>
>
>Does anyone know enough about 19th-century occupations to
No need to go back to the 19th century! I well remember in the 1930s when
a large percentage of people did not have a car or refrigerator. The
butcher from town had an insulated box affair on the back of a Model A
Ford pick-up truck. This he loaded with meat, butter, eggs, etc. and
toured a regular route through the countryside, stopping at regular points
to sell to housewives (with us youngsters standing around hoping he was in
a generous mood for a THIN slice of "baloney" or maybe a large chip of ice
to suck on). Many a busy housecleaning day we kids were told to "keep an
eye out for the huckster wagon". There was absolutely no "Medicine Show"
connotation to it. The gentleman was performing a bonafide service to the
rural community without which most families would have been without fresh
meat & eggs btween their infrequent trips to town. (This was in the Puget
Sound country.)
I agree that the meaning of terms changes with time, though. In those
days you could be "laid off" from your job with no loss of dignity or
pride because the company went broke, or had to change methods, etc. But
to be "fired" in those days definitely carried the stigma of poor
performance of your duties. Our language and terminology are constantly
evolving, I guess, just like the rest of the fabric of our society.
William Mills
>I'm wondering if there is a nuance of difference in meaning
>between "peddler" and "huckster," or if the two were used
>interchangeably. Somehow peddler sounds more like someone
>with a wagon going door to door, while a huckster sounds like
>someone with a Max's Mighty Natural Remedy type show. And,
>of course, "huckster" nowadays has a decidedly pejorative
>connotation.
The basic meaning is peddler, though the negative connotations of "huckster"
have been used since at least the 16th century. See the following quote
from the Oxford English Dictionary, which is an excellent source for
the history of the meanings of words.
Bill
huckster , sb. Forms: 3 Orm. huccster, 4-5 hukstar, 4- huckster; also 4-5
hok(e)ster(e, hoxter, 5 howkster, hukstere, hukkester, huk-,
hwkstare, (hoggester), 5-6 hook-, hukster, 5-7 hucster, 5-9 huxter, 6
hocster, houkester, huckester, huckstar, 9 dial. huikster. [See huck
v. Although the series huck, hucker, huckster, corresponds formally
with bake, baker, baxter, brew, brewer, brewster, etc., in which the verb is
the starting-point, the late date of huck as compared with huckster, and the
continental parallels of the latter, make difficulties. MDutch had hokester,
hoekster, early mod.Dutch heukster, `huckster' fem.; also MDutch
hoeker, early mod.Dutch heuker masc. = MLG. hoker, mod.Ger. hoker,
`higgler, hawker, retailer, market-man, costermonger'; none of these, however,
appear to be known as early as our huckster. The origin of the Dutch and Ger.
words themselves is unsettled; Ger., besides hoker, has hoke, hocke, MHG.
hucke, MLG. hoke, to be referred, according to Kluge, prob. to hocken
to squat, sit on the `hunkers'; but Verwijs and Verdam state grounds for
connecting MDutch hoeker, hoekster rather with Dutch hoek a corner. The
history is thus altogether obscure.]
1. A retailer of small goods, in a petty shop or booth, or at a stall; a
pedlar, a hawker.
a. Applied to a woman.
A. 1300 Sat. People Kildare xviii. in E.E.P. (1862) 155 Hail be &ygh.e
hokesters dun bi &th.e lake..He is sori of his lif &Th.at is fast to such a
wif. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wulcker 692/42 Hec auxiatrix, a huxter. C. 1475 Pict.
Voc. Ibid. 793/29 Hec aucionatrix, a hoxter. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt.
ix. 70 The women, light-hearted hucksters.
b. Without distinction of sex. (The ordinary use.) locally in specific
senses: see quots. 1858-77.
C. 1200 Ormin 15817 Forr &th.att te&ygh.&ygh. turrndenn Godess hus Inntill
huccsteress bo&th.e. 1387 Trevisa Higden i. lx. (Rolls) II. 171 &Th.ey
bee&th...in gaderyne of catel hoksters [v.r. hucksters] and tauerners. C. 1440
Promp. Parv. 252/2 Hwkstare,..auxionator, auxionatrix. 1483 Gild Bakers
Exeter in Eng. Gilds 337 To make serche..att all hoggesters houses with-yn
the Juris-diccion of the said Cite. 1534 More Treat. on Passion Wks. 1304/1 A
substanciall merchaunt and not an hukster. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict.,
Regatonear, to sell pedlerie ware, to play the hucster. 1641 Best
Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 29 Wee buy our molten tallowe..of the hucksters and
tripe-wives. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. vi. 62 The throwing down of a
Hucksters Apples by a Fisher-Boy. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Huckster, an
inferior dealer or minor trader; a hawker or itinerant vendor of goods with a
pack, box, or tray. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Hucksthers, dealers in farm
produce, who attend the markets to purchase from the producers for the purpose
of retailing it out again to small customers. 1889 Spectator 28 Dec., From the
great shops in Regent Street and Bond Street to the smallest huxters' in the
slums, there are Christmas presents in the windows.
c. As term of reproach: A regrater, an engrosser of corn, etc.; a broker, a middleman.
A. 1400 Burgh Laws lxvi. in Sc. Stat. I. 346/1 Hukstaris &th.at byis and
sellis agane to wynning sal nocht by ony thing before &th.at undern be rungyn
in wynter and mydmorne in somer.
1573-80 Baret Alv. H 707 An Huckster: a regrater: a seller by retaile: a
wifler, propola. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Dardanier, an huckester, he
that kepeth corne till it be deare. 1595 Duncan App. Etymol. (E.D.S.), Mango,
interpolator, a hukster, a regrator. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 11 Such as
by fraud and base arts play the hucksters to enhanse the price. 1630 Lennard
tr. Charron's Wisd. (1658) 49 It is the great Intermedler and Huckster, by
which we traffick. 1700 T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. Ser. & Com. 78 Marriage
Hucksters, or Wife-Brokers.
2. a. trans. and fig. A person ready to make his profit of anything in a mean
or petty way; one who basely barters his services, etc., for gain; a mercenary;
an overreacher of others.
1553 Grimalde Cicero's Offices i. (1558) 18 No hucsters of warre warremen as
we bee. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 350 Wee have it..as good cheap, as any
hucster at law, newly set up, can possibly afford. 1673 Vain Insolency Rome 5
With what craft, and artifice, the Romish Hucksters endeavour to seduce the
people of our Church of England..to the Communion of Rome. 1842 Rogers Introd.
Burke's Wks. (1842) I. 9 Mr. Hamilton, who managed the whole matter in the true
spirit of a political huckster, had the meanness to accept this offer. 1868
Miss Braddon Charlotte's Inher. i. i. 7, I am no huckster, to sell my daughter
to the best bidder.
b. An advertising agent chiefly concerned with the preparation of advertising
programmes for radio broadcasting.
1946 F. Wakeman (title) The hucksters. 1947 Britannica Bk. of Year 840/2
Huckster, a radio advertising man. 1965 English Studies XLVI. 464
Huckster, broker... Also used colloquially of an advertisement copy writer.
3. Phrase. in huckster's hands (handling): in a position in which it is
likely to be roughly used or lost; beyond the likelihood of recovery. Obs.
1581 Rich Farewell D iv b, We will returne to his wife, who was lefte in
hucsters handelyng (as you haue heard). A. 1592 Greene Alphonsus i. Wks.
(Rtldg.) 226/2 The crown is lost, and now in hucksters' hands. 1687 R.
L'Estrange Answ. Diss. 21 They are gotten into Hucksters Hands, and there's No
coming off without a Scratch'd Face. A. 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v., In
Huckster's Hands, at a desperate Pass, or Condition, or in a fair way to be
lost. 1738 Swift Pol. Conversat. 68 Madam, he shall ne'er have it [a
Handkerchief] again; 'tis in Huckster's Hands.
4. Comb., as huckster-booth; huckster-like adj., adv.
1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 925 The Ape wanting his huckster man, That wont
provide his necessaries. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. Pref. (R.), Nor will I
huckster-like discredit any man's ware, to recommend mine own. 1866 Blackie
Homer & Iliad I. 101 The huckster-booths of the Lawnmarket. 1870 Standard
13 Dec., He only mulcted nations, and did not hucksterlike fine every little
open town he came across.
Hence hucksterdom, nonce-wd. see -dom; hu'cksterism, the theory or practice of
being a huckster (usu. disparaging).
1886 Pall Mall Budget 8 July 28/2 From the hucksterdom of his environment.1951
Newsweek 27 Aug. 80 Robert Saudek, a three-time Peabody Award winner
for documentaries. Saudek, a soft-spoken man without a hint of hucksterism.
1957 N.Y. Times 6 Jan. E 11/4 An attack on Southern schools of
journalism for `kicking the humanities around' while emphasizing `hucksterism'
and `quick turnover' in education. 1960 Encounter XV. 27 One can find
`hucksterism'..among academic people in search of reputations. 1972 Village
Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 26/2 What particularly appeals to me about the `Jack
La Lanne Show' is its serious, heart&dubh.felt hucksterism. 1973 Observer 2
Dec. 7/3 This high-pressure hucksterism, backed by the multi-billion
investment.., has failed to impress many scientists. hu'ckster, v. [f. huckster sb.]
1. intr. To bargain, haggle. lit. and fig.
1592 [see huckstering ppl. a.]. A. 1665 J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867)
319 Be ingenuous and noble towards God, and not stand picking and huckstering
with your hearts to know how you must do to escape hell fire. 1775 Burke Sp.
Conc. Amer. Wks. III. 57 Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster.
1855 Motley Dutch Rep. iv. i. II. 522 The estates..irritated the
Prince of Orange by huckstering about subsidies. 1861 Sala Dutch Pict. xxi. 336
A dunghill of vanity for chapmen to huckster over.
2. trans. To traffic in, in a petty way; to retail or expose for sale (esp.
in small quantities); to bargain over. Also, to adulterate. lit. and fig.
1642 T. Hill Trade of Truth 37 This graduall Huckstering up the purity of
truth. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. iii. Wks. (1847) 502/2 Some who had been called
from shops and ware&dubh.houses..to sit in supreme councils and
committees..fell to huckster the commonwealth. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. 19
Such as hucstered and made merchandise of Christ. 1770 Burke Pres. Discont.
Wks. 1842 I. 129 The sealed fountain of royal bounty, which had been infamously
monopolized and huckstered. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 541 The deceitful
workers who had huckstered and adulterated the word of God. 1898 Humanitarian
XI. 357 A man..huckstering cheap lollypops to the small fry of the Board Schools.
Marce Schulz
>
> I was amused to find while researching one of my great-great-
> grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
> federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
> the 1870 census as a "huckster."
Frank:
When I was growing up in a suburb of Philadelphia, we had a huckster. He was a man with a
horse-drawn wagon, and he sold fruits and vegetables. He led the horse up and down the streets
and called out "Potatoes! Carrots! Tomatoes! Fresh Green Beans!" etc. in a sing-song voice. I
don't remember how often he came, but all the women in the neighborhood came out and bought from
him. There was a scale hanging from one side of the cart. My mother always refered to him as "the
huckster", so I grew up thinking that's what a huckster is. There was definitely no negative
connotation to the word. And it was fairly common in other neighborhoods.
By the way, this was in the 1950s, believe it or not. We also had a horse-drawn milkman, and a
knife shapener who hawked his services up and down the street, but he walked.
Marce
C. W. Stanley
>
>I was amused to find while researching one of my great-great-
>grandfathers that, after having a go as a farmer in the 1860
>federal census in Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania, he was down in
>the 1870 census as a "huckster."
>
>is more or less a synonym for hawker or peddler, there seems
>to be some connotation of sales by showmanship. While
>researching another family line in Delaware in 1860 I noticed one
>of their neighbors described as a "peddler with horse."
>
>between "peddler" and "huckster," or if the two were used
>interchangeably. Somehow peddler sounds more like someone
>with a wagon going door to door, while a huckster sounds like
>someone with a Max's Mighty Natural Remedy type show. And,
>of course, "huckster" nowadays has a decidedly pejorative
>connotation.
>
>comment on the above?
>
>Frank
>Los Angeles, CA
>f...@netcom.com
Howdy,
While I don't go back to the 19th century I can say that in the mid
1930's we looked forward to seeing the "huckster wagon". Once a week a
local gorcery store owner would make the rounds out in the country with
an old converted school bus that was loaded down with all sorts of
groceries. Actually, he made the rounds several days of the week, but
one of the days his route brought him to our farm. In that time and
place the term "huckster wagon" was _not_ a derogatory term.
Cheers ;o) cws
Shirley Sotona
>From: Marce Schulz <ma...@bigbang.pgh.net>
>Subject: Re: Occupation of "huckster"
>Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 09:15:23 -0500
>When I was growing up in a suburb of Philadelphia, we had a huckster. He was
a man with a >horse-drawn wagon, and he sold fruits and vegetables. He led the
horse up and down the streets >and called out "Potatoes! Carrots! Tomatoes!
Fresh Green Beans!" etc. in a sing-song voice. I >don't remember how often he
<snip>
>By the way, this was in the 1950s, believe it or not. We also had a horse-drawn milkman, and a
>knife shapener who hawked his services up and down the street, but he walked.
>Marce
In 1986 and 1987 I lived in the small town of Tilton, NH. There was an
elderly resident--- The Eggman-- who still sold his eggs from a horse drawn
cart he would lead (bells ringing) up and down the streets, as he visited
regular customers and hawked his eggs to passersby. I was told he had been
selling eggs that way for decades (started back when there were still
others making deliveries via horse and cart). He delivered eggs to town twice
a week. The first time I saw the little yellow horse drawn wagon and the old
man shouting "Fresh Eggs!", I couldn't believe my eyes (I kept looking
for the rest of the parade!).
Shirley
PHILIP BARRON
"huckster", I'll add another. I have an ancestor of around 1900, in
England, who was a "schill", also referred to as a "huckster". He was a
carnival barker, luring people onto the rides. And just to cheer up anyone
else who has a skeleton, he was also a pimp for his wife, a high class
prostitute!!!
Phil