Cookery -- Maine

Scope and Contents

Students from Bowdoin college investigated topics and wrote papers related to the folklore and folklife of Maine communities, including beliefs of fishermen, cookery, farm life, Prohibition and rum-running, mill work, Bath Iron Works, lobstering, quilting, folk medicine, ghosts,lighthouse keeping, boat building, lumbering, ship building, carpentry, hunting, and storytelling.

Abstract Leon Bussell, Emile Leavitt, Ernest Kennedy, Stephen “Rex” Buzzell, interviewed by class of FO 107, November 8, 1973, November 15, 1973, November 20, 1973, and November 27, 1973 (respectively) Room B South Stevens Hall, UMaine, Orono, Maine. During the interviews, there was a model of Argyle Boom on the table, tools of the trade, maps, aerial photographs, and a number of Archives photographs available for the respondents to comment on. Bussell, Leavitt, Kennedy, and Buzzell talk about the...

Abstract Emile Leavitt, interviewed by Mark LaFond for FO 107, October 25, 1973, Old Town, Maine. Leavitt talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; construction of boom piers; checking, rafting, dropping off and other aspects of boom operation; use of wedges in assembling rafts; use of pickeroon; swings; the back way drive; meals and living conditions; Pea Cove and Nebraska booms; his work building dams for Great Northern Paper Co. The interviews are part of a project that led...

Abstract Leon Bussell, Emile Leavitt, Ernest Kennedy, Stephen “Rex” Buzzell, interviewed by class of FO 107, November 8, 1973, November 15, 1973, November 20, 1973, and November 27, 1973 (respectively) Room B South Stevens Hall, UMaine, Orono, Maine. During the interviews, there was a model of Argyle Boom on the table, tools of the trade, maps, aerial photographs, and a number of Archives photographs available for the respondents to comment on. Bussell, Leavitt, Kennedy, and Buzzell talk about the...

Abstract Ernest Kennedy, interviewed by Ken Whitney for FO 107, October and November, 1973; by Susan Tibbetts for AY 125, November, 1975; by Elizabeth Warner and Cindy Lamb for AY 125, October, 1975. Kennedy talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; jobs such as checkers, runners; tools such as hookaroons, jiggers; method of tying joints to buoy; marks and prize (unmarked)logs; spring floods and jams; bosses Isaac Mann, Alonzo Mann, Wallace Drake, Walter Buzzell, Stephen...

Abstract Harry Twitchell, interviewed by Leslie “Dusty” Carr for FO 107, October 26, 29, November 27, 1973; by Lucinda Lamb and Elizabeth Warner for AY 125, November 14, 1975, Greenbush, Maine. Twitchell talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; tools and techniques for rafting, checking, and sorting logs; dropping off; swings; Sunkhaze Rips; Pea Cove; Nebraska boom; Cow Island; White Squaw Island; Birch Island; building piers; hanging the boom; the boom house, meals and living...

Abstract

J. Kenneth LaFlamme, interviewed by Ralph Cook for FO 107, October 10, 1973, Hancock, Maine. LaFlamme talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; his work at age 12 and 13 on the boom rafting logs; PLA; bosses; pay; lice and wet clothes; cook house and bunk house; music. Accession also includes correspondence and handwritten notes from LaFlamme. The interview is part of a project that led to an issue of Northeast Folklore, XVII: “Argyle Boom.”

Abstract Leon Bussell, Emile Leavitt, Ernest Kennedy, Stephen “Rex” Buzzell, interviewed by class of FO 107, November 8, 1973, November 15, 1973, November 20, 1973, and November 27, 1973 (respectively) Room B South Stevens Hall, UMaine, Orono, Maine. During the interviews, there was a model of Argyle Boom on the table, tools of the trade, maps, aerial photographs, and a number of Archives photographs available for the respondents to comment on. Bussell, Leavitt, Kennedy, and Buzzell talk about the...

Abstract Nick Ranco, interviewed by Lucinda Lamb, November 21, 1975, for a class project, at Ranco’s house on Indian Island, Maine. Ranco talks about his work on the river which he worked “all his life”: the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; construction and operation of the booms; French, Bangor and Indian crews worked different sections; living conditions; meals; jams; rafts; salvaging rafting poles and rope to sell; leisure activities. Recording is in English. The interview part of a...

Abstract

Papers of a newspaper columnist and gastronomic guru in the Bangor area and of an agricultural economist. Includes columns, cookbooks, recipes, notebooks, menus and correspondence. Many of the cookbooks and much of the material relates to Maine.

Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Argyle Boom Collection consists of approximately seventy-five hours of tape recorded interviews (now digitized). The interviews deal with Argyle Boom, which was one of several locations at which logs that had been cut upriver and floated or “driven” down the Penobscot River were sorted before being sent on to the lumber mills in Old Town, Orono, Veazie, Bangor, and Brewer, Maine, from approximately 1900 to 1930. The material includes interviews with people who had worked on the boom and...

Abstract Stephen "Rex" Buzzell, interviewed by Jack Beard and Elizabeth “Betsy” Warner for AY 198, May 5, 1976, at Buzzell’s home in Old Town, Maine. Buzzell talks about on the log-sorting booms on the Penobscot River: people he worked with at the boom; recounts humorous stories; free time; food; how different company’s logd were rafted at the boom; wintering; scaling; stray raft; running; wangan; living conditions; his father business and crews; cook John Duplessis. Also present: Buzzell’s wife....

Abstract

1449 By Amy Homans for AY 13 (Bowdoin College), fall 1980, Augusta, Brunswick, and Bangor, Maine. 40 pp. ms. Paper titled "Cookery as a Folk Tradition in a Maine Family." Text: 40 pp. paper.

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1433 By Judith Ocker for AY 13 (Bowdoin College), fall 1980, Brunswick and Topsham, Maine. 30 pp. ms. Paper titled "Folk Cookery in the Brunswick-Topsham Area." Text: 30 pp. paper.

Abstract William McLaughlin, interviewed by Elizabeth “Betsy” Warner for AY 125, November 22, 1975, Old Town, Maine. McLaughlin talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; dropping off and running crews; marks; sorting logs; rafting logs; Nebraska and Pea Cove booms; White Squaw Island; friends Darky Willet, Harvey Cutliff, Dave Seymore, Cody Martin, Harry Cutliff; living conditions and meals; construction of piers; use of steam boats; mills. Interview was part of a project that...