Clarence Grover, interviewed by Jack Beard and Joan Brooks
Scope and Contents
A series of interviews and supplemental manuscript material on dowsing or water witching, most conducted as part of a class project in Edward D. “Sandy” Ives’ Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork (AY 125) course at the University of Maine in 1984. Other accessions were added to the series because of their focus on dowsing. Dowsers discuss techniques and materials; uses of dowsing in archaeology learning to dowse; beliefs about dowsing; dowsing as a way of healing; locating ley lines; and tell dowsing stories.
Dates
- 1984
Conditions Governing Access
For digitized items free from access restrictions, we are working to upload this material (pdfs, mp3s, jpgs) for public access, but it is an ongoing project. If you don’t find what you are looking for here, contact Special Collections (um.library.spc@maine.edu).
Extent
From the Collection: 60 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Abstract
1037 Clarence Grover, interviewed by Jack Beard and Joan Brooks, April 10, 1976, Eddington, Maine. Grover talks about knowing the people who drove the stage along the Airline (now route 9); getting married in 1930; how the Airline used to go over Chick Hill; poaching; working in his father’s mill; the first automobile; working to build the road around Chick Hill; working in a lumber camp; songs sung in the camp and at home; the Grange Hall in Amherst; his father; people who owned stills during Prohibition; fishing; working horses and driving horses; water-dowsing or water-witching; Jim Cranie, a healer, specifically a blood stopper; the farmers’ almanac; working with oxen; barn raising; what Christmas was like; knitting with his mother; and river driving. Text: 32 page transcript. Recording: T 1050 1 hour.
- Alcohol trafficking -- Maine Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Christmas Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Dowsers -- Maine Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Folk medicine Subject Source: Afs Ethnographic Thesaurus
- Horse-drawn vehicles Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Hunting -- Maine Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Lumber camps -- Maine Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Repository Details
Part of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Repository
5729 Raymond H. Fogler Library
University of Maine
Orono ME 04469-5729 United States
207.581.1686
