Charles E. Hanstrom - Hutto

Charles E. Hanstrom - Hutto

Written by Patrick Brendel Friday, 08 August 2008

The Community Icon feature recognizes the lives of individuals who have distinguished themselves as local leaders.

In the mid-1950s, a contractor’s mistake set off a series of ruptures to Hutto’s new sewer system. Broken pipes all over the city spewed their contents, turning the earth into a soup of mud and ooze. The only plumber in town, Charles E. Hanstrom, dove right in.

“I worked all night long digging and fixing pipes,” recalled Hanstrom, now 88 years old. “I had a bunch of sightseers watching me, until finally one guy climbed down and started helping me.”

For much of the last century, Hanstrom was the man to call for help with anything related to Hutto’s water system. From 1939 to 1978, he ran the city’s waterworks established by his father. He was the only resident to wield a wrench and plunger for profit until he retired in the late ’80s.

Hanstrom remembers walking around town, collecting payments for water service. The monthly charge: $2.25.

“Some farmers who also lived in town would just pay me once a year when they’d gather their crops,” he said.

With some fluctuation, Hutto’s population stayed around 600 people from when Hanstrom started working until his retirement. During the 50-odd years in between, he installed and took care of the plumbing for just about every building in town.

Hanstrom is the son of Swedish immigrant Charles Evale Hanstrom Sr., who moved to Hutto with his family in 1893 when he was 13 years old. In 1910, Hanstrom Sr. and a business partner drilled the town’s first well and installed the water system.

“The partner he had was a single man. After the well was drilled and the water was going, the partner sold out and left town with the money,” Hanstrom said. “He was never heard of again.”

In addition to the waterworks, Hanstrom Sr. also owned an ice factory, was half-owner of a cotton gin and had a stake in the electric utility, all in Hutto. He died when Hanstrom was 8 years old.

In 1939, a 19-year-old Hanstrom (fresh from Nixon-Clay Business College in Austin and with zero practical experience) took over Hutto Waterworks for his mother and another widow who was a partner in the company.

“I had no idea I was going to do that. I was just running around Austin at the time,” he said, smiling.

Except for a break during World War II while he served in Alaska as a mechanic with the Army Air Corps, Hanstrom ran Hutto Waterworks by himself from 1939 until 1956, when the city bought the business, installed the sewer system and hired Hanstrom to be the boss of the new public utility.

Hanstrom kept the city position until 1978, all the while running Hanstrom Plumbing and Electricity on the side. After leaving the waterworks, he focused on his business until retiring fully in the late ’80s. In 1990 the Hutto Chamber of Commerce named him Citizen of the Year.

Around the same time, wife Clarice retired from her position as senior vice president at a Round Rock bank after a 28-year career. She was also named Citizen of the Year in 1993.

The couple, married for 62 years, sold the old office building at 122 East St. to the Hutto Chamber. In 2005 the chamber formally named it the Hanstrom Building. Charles Hanstrom was one of the original chamber board members, is a charter member of the Hutto Lion’s Club and was on city council for six years “way back,” he said.