The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, formerly the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, was organized by eight train service employees at Oneonta, New York, September 23, 1883. From its inception the union has endeavored
To unite the Railroad Trainmen; to promote their general welfare and advance their interests, social, moral, and intellectual; to protect their families by the exercise of a systematic benevolence very needful in a calling so hazardous as ours.... (Walter McCaleb, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, New York, 1936, p. 51)
In February, 1917, an organizational meeting was called at Altoona, Wisconsin by A.F. Whitney, vice president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a lodge of the brotherhood with jurisdiction over members employed on the eastern division of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Railroad (except for yardmen at the Twin Cities). The lodge became Local #888, popularly known as the Chippewa Valley Lodge.
In 1968, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, along with the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, and Switchmen's Union of North America, merged to form the United Transportation Union (UTU). At this time, Local #888 became Local #1293, UTU.
