THE WILLIAM TAYLOR STORY MAKING BLACK HISTORY

By Frederick A. Hurst

On a Friday in 1950 William Taylor unloaded his commercial truckload of lumber in New Haven and was told his return load of machinery destined for Florida could not be loaded until Monday.  Young, Black, adventurous and curious, he hopped a train for a weekend of fun in Springfield, Massachusetts and got a $7.00 a night room at the Hotel Charles, where he happened upon a 3-cent Springfield Daily News full of help wanted ads.

Impressed by the many job openings in Springfield, William returned to New Haven that Monday, loaded his machinery and drove to Florida, where he unloaded his truck and immediately hopped a Greyhound bus back to Springfield and started work the day he arrived at a gas station.  Within two weeks he had a job at the Springfield Armory on Hickory Street, starting as laborer and quickly moving up to trainee machinist under the tutelage of “Red” Pettijohn and Frank Chambers, whose machines he was maintaining. 

In early 1951, still working full-time at the armory, William decided to get a part-time job.  Responding to an ad in the newspaper, he went to a Peter Pan Bus Company on the corner of Bridge and Broadway and was interviewed by Peter Picknelly, Sr., who immediately placed a call to his nephew at the bus garage and instructed him to put William to work evenings part-time as a mechanic’s trainee. 

 Born October 5, 1930 on his father’s farm in Durham, North Carolina, hard work was no mystery to William, who said,  “When I came from Durham, I came to do something for myself, and the work was here.”  Before long he was working full time at Peter Pan.  He didn’t see Picknelly, Sr. again for four or five months, but when he saw him, the first thing he did was ask him for a raise.  Picknelly reviewed William’s file and he got the raise and the senior Picknelly got the seed of an idea.

In reviewing William’s personnel file, the boss had observed William’s truck-driving experience and, within weeks of giving him the raise, offered him a bus driver’s job.  William quickly passed the Massachusetts’ interstate drivers’ license test and immediately started his new career as a Peter Pan bus driver.  He knew at the time that he was the first Black driver for Picknelly’s company.  He did not know, however, that, according to Picknelly, Jr., he was soon to make history as the first Black interstate bus driver in the entire United States of America. 

Williams started out doing line runs, which allowed him to carry passengers on set routes within the region and throughout the state.  He recalls trips to Boston and Fort Devins, transporting soldiers to and from the army base.  He has sharp memories of the flood of ’54 when water-filled local streets and highways left people stranded and destitute along his normal bus routes.  Picknelly, Sr. ordered him to pick up every passenger who wanted a ride, whether they could pay or not.  Some may also recall him as the Black bus driver who regularly delivered summer campers to the Boys’ Club Camp in Brimfield every other Saturday. 

He started making charter runs to Canada for Virginia Miller (later Virginia Frye), a Black woman friend of Picknelly, Sr.’s wife who arranged local trips within the black community.  The Canada bus runs were William’s first interstate trips but many others followed all over the country.  “I had no dreams I’d see so many of the things that I came to see as a result of driving a bus…” William said.

He is a member of Summer Lodge #5 and attended Alden Baptist Church with Reverend Hutchings and Deacons Fudge, Butler and others.    When he first came to Springfield in 1951, he roomed with the Malone family on Orleans Street.  They treated him like family.  In 1953 he bought a home on Edgewood Street, where he lived until the mid-sixties with his wife, Dora Catherine Taylor.  He recalls returning south in March of ’52 to get married and bring Dora to Springfield, where they have remained happily married for 51 years. 

Their Edgewood Street neighbors included his good friend Freddie Hill, Bert and Mary Bryant and the Humphries and Williams and Smith families.  In the sixties he moved to his current address on North Chatham Street just two houses down from Ernie the Barber. 

One thing he never forgot during the early days of interstate driving was not to drive past Washington, D.C.   He was not foolish.  He knew from his private travels home that reserved seats purchased by Black riders became open seats for White passengers after the bus passed through D.C. and that he was probably at greater risk as the Black bus driver in the hostile southern terrain. Even when he drove back to visit family he felt safe stopping at only two spots, a Sunoco station in New Jersey and another gas station in Virginia. 

He didn’t ask for permission to stop at D. C.  He simply refused to drive further.  Sometimes Peter Pan’s drivers and buses were leased out to Trailway and Greyhound lines for charter trips and the drivers came under the control of the leasing company’s supervisors, who often ordered William to drive south past D.C.  He always disobeyed such orders. 

Color was never a big issue during his time at Peter Pan.  He was always treated the same as everyone else and never felt that his color interfered with his progress.  He ran into problems only when he was working with employees from Trailway on charter trips.  Some of them were prejudiced and showed it but he generally ignored them.  Even problems with travel past D.C. ended in the sixties and William began driving southern routes, including a memorable trip to the Grand Old Opry in Memphis Tennessee.

He remembers Peter Picknelly, Sr. fondly.  “He was more than just a boss.  He was like a father to us…only ones that got in trouble was the ones that asked for it,” William recalls.  He had no problems with Peter Picknelly, Sr.'s leadership.  He was a lot like William’s farmer father who was “strict but kind.”  “He could lay ya out now, and he’d give you another chance saying, ‘If I fire you, I don’t teach you nuthin.’”

            When William started looking for a house to buy, he brought his initial choice to the attention of Picknelly, Sr., who took it upon himself to go look at the house on College Street in Mason Square.  Picknelly told him he didn’t like that house and to go look for something better and assured him that he would assist him in covering the difference, which he did when William located and purchased a better home in the same neighborhood on Edgewood Street.

He came to know and feel close to the entire Picknelly family, Peter, Paul, Mary, the kids, “They all worked in the business.”  One day a fellow in military uniform showed up at the bus garage and said he was taking the Cadillac.  William didn’t know the “fella” but quickly determined that he was current Peter Pan patriarch Peter Picknelly, Jr., who turned out to be “…nice like his father.” 

William Taylor retired from Peter Pan in 1998 after 47 years and three months in the business.  Starting out as a laborer and mechanic’s helper, he ended as “number one driver”, the most senior, highest paid of them all, first to choose his vacation time and first in line to bid for choice assignments.  He was always well paid, received good benefits, even in retirement, and was always treated as well as any other employee.

Asked how he felt about the experience, he said, “I had no dreams that I would make retirement age… I was blessed to see the country and to watch the Picknelly Dynasty grow…and become #1 of 200 plus drivers.”

William Taylor’s life is the American dream all over again.  But history has reserved a special spot for him in that dream--as the first Black interstate bus driver in America.

(Post Script: After three months of retirement, William has returned to work two evenings a week in the Peter Pan garage where he started and where so many friends remain.)