Long Line Kansas Skinner - Moving the Spudder

Hogoboom keeps working
horses in a nearly forgotten trade

Photos by Foy's Frantic Photos
Freelance Photography, Irwin D. Foy, Wichita, Kansas

In October, 1998, the Butler County Historical Museum and the Outdoor Oilfield Museum received a Star Spudder, made by the Star Drilling Machine Company of Chanute, Kansas.

What could be more appropriate than to engage the services of John Hogoboom, nearly 90 years young, the last of the long-line skinners and his team of trained draft horses to move it to it's display site?

John Hogoboom and his team moving the newly donated Star Spudder into place at the Butler County Historical Museum and Outdoor Oilfield Museum in October, 1998.

John Hogoboom

Author of "The Long Line Kansas Skinner," a book that shows younger generations how things were done with horse power in the early part of this century, particularly during the oil boom in Butler County, Kansas. He documents from first hand experience how it used to be ... a way of life where the draft horse was the unit of power ... Monarch of the field and the King of the road.

Update: John Hogoboom died on August 16th, 2003 from the West Nile Virus, the first case of West Nile in the state of Kansas. His granddaughter, Maggie Strait, shared the following memory of a stage coach and horseback journey across Kansas from the Nebraska to Oklahoma border in 1999, a trip John Hogoboom had always wanted to make. " I was the only horse back rider who rode the entire trip from Nebraska to Oklahoma. My Grandad and a friend of his were the only three who went the entire distance. I have the most awesome memories of that trip and I hope to never forget that experience. He had traveled from Missouri to Colorado in 1976 for the Bicentennial delivering mail. He even had a stamp made for the mail that said the Butterfield Stage Line. That is what he put on his stage coaches, that he hand built by the way. He had always wanted to travel across the state both directions and with the help of my Dad and one of his daughters, he was able to accomplish that. He was a very amazing man!"

A fascinating first-hand documentary on the use of draft horses in Kansas oil fields in the early 1900's. He also writes about road and railroad building, water well digging, farming, timber clearing, breaking horses and mules, and about cowboys.

Hogoboom's account of growing up in deprivation and a harsh environment during the Great Depression is delivered in a matter-of-fact way that gives us a genuine appreciation of the lifestyle and hardships endured by oilfield workers and their families. It's hard to imagine such change happening over the span of a single lifetime. His writing style is fun reading and includes humorous stories about people and experiences he had over the years. Not just for oil field historians, this is a book for anyone who loves horses or ever wondered about life in "the old days."

5.5 by 8.5 inches. Softcover. 210 pages.
Photos and poems by the author.
$19.95 plus $2.00 shipping/handling.

Order directly from the Hogoboom family by mailing a check or money order to:

Maggie Hogoboom Strait
3515 SW 50th St.
El Dorado, KS 67042

Phone: (316) 322-7977

About John Hogoboom | Photos and Excerpts from the book | Order the Book