Lumber camps -- Maine

Abstract Alex Rouleau, interviewed by Mary Beth O’Conner for FO 107, November 30, 1973, Old Town, Maine. Rouleau talks about the Argyle log-sorting boom on the Penobscot River; living conditions; leisure activities (gathering spruce gum, fishing, swimming, games); meals; stray logs; wages; Nebraska and Pea Cove booms; log jams; tools; rigging; beats; jobber’s marks; Rex Buzzell; Walter Buzzell; Gene Mann; Billy Mann. The interview is part of a project that led to an issue of Northeast Folklore, XVII:...

Abstract Alfonse Martin and David Seymour, interviewed by Mary Beth O’Conner for FO 107, October 1 and 8 and November 7, 1973, Old Town, Maine. Martin and Seymour talk about log-sorting booms on the Penobscot River, especially Argyle Boom; river drives; Penobscot Lumber Association (PLA); logging company marks used for sorting logs at the boom; construction and operation of boom; various jobs related to sorting and rafting the logs; tool and equipment used; living conditions for workers; other booms...

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2873 Alonzo Keaton, Sr. and Edith (Jandreau) Keaton, interviewed by Helen K. Atchison, circa 1971-1972. The Keatons, of Caribou, Maine, discuss life in a lumber camp; the ferry across the St. John River; the establishment of a customs office; lumbering; Christmas in the woods; log drives; an alcohol plant in Caribou; hunting; and the Realty mill. Text: 1 pp. brief index. Recording: mfc_na2873_c0084_01, mfc_na2873_c0084_02 53 minutes

Abstract 0575 Asa Flagg, inteviewed by Rhoda Mitchell for FO 107, October and November 1970, Carthage, Maine. Accession includes a cassette tape with the three interviews, a paper describing the fieldwork, and transcripts of the interviews. Flagg, a retired woodsman (b. 1898), talks about lumber camps; Sunday pastimes; cooks and cookees; getting hired; oxen and horses; singing and music; log jams; sorting; yarding; skidding; sluicing; meals; ax handles; Christmas; card playing and other...

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...

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...

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...

Abstract NA1073 Earl Gould and Harold Williams, interviewed by Stephen Ballew, October 27 and November 3, 1976, Princeton, Maine. Gould and Williams discuss their jobs in the Little Musquash Lake logging camp; how good the food was; a map drawn by Jim McKinnon of the camp’s layout; the poem, “Suthin’” and the men referenced in it; and getting logs to the sawmill. Gould talks about the location of the Little Musquash Lake logging camp; building a Pickerel Sled; the difference in pay scales between his...

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...

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Ernest Kennedy, interviewed by Ann Pierter & Bessie Dam for AY 198, May 4, 1976, Argyle, Maine. Kennedy talks about on the log-sorting booms on the Penobscot River. Topics covered include checking, prize logs, the stray raft, boom stick, scaling and marking logs, wintering logs, shingling logs, jail booms, the “high mark,” Pea Cove Boom, rafting logs, Mexico Boom. Interview was part of a project that led to the 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 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 0989 Everett Smith, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, November 2, 1974, at Smith’s home in Yarmouth, Maine. Smith, age 84, talks about the Grand Trunk Wreck of Jan. 18, 1901 and experiences as a woodsman: first man in the accident scene; farmers picked up meals for his animals; how some people jumped out the train; westbound train crew died on the wreck; mineral spring used as medicine; hunting animals in the woods; length of good trees; different tasks as woodman; driving the tow team;...

Abstract Felix Cote, interviewed by Mark LaFond for FO 107, October 6, 1973. Cote talks about log-sorting booms on the Penobscot Rive; the Pea Cove and Argyle booms; marks logging companies put on their logs; prize or unmarked logs; the sorting operation; rafting logs; working conditions; Penobscot Lumber Association (PLA); living conditions and recreation; origins of boom names. Also included: two diagrams. The interview is part of a project that led to an issue of Northeast Folklore, XVII: “Argyle...

Scope and Contents

Items donated by Frances Robinson Mitchell, including an essay for her children about her grandfather, her time in the Marine Corps in WWII, and woods work.

Abstract 1910 Francis Healy, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, March 11 and October 3, 1986, Machias, Maine. Healy discusses his work in the woods and drives along the Machias River for St. Regis Pulp and Paper; camping out during river drives; blowing up a dam beavers had added to; the ‘Driving Rock’ which was used to tell when the water level was good for driving logs; using 300 pick-poles a season; 100 men working the drive; uselessness of young inexperienced men; road maintenance; building a...

Abstract 1077 George Bagley, interviewed by Ronald Bean, July 15, 21, and 22, 1976, at the home of Earl Grass. Text: 15 pp. detailed catalog. Recordings: T 1098 - T 1100 / CD 1038 - CD 1042. July 15, 1976 Bagley talks about jobs he held when he was young; his first job working in the woods; learning how to drive horses; the horses he owned throughout his life; where horses could be sold when they became too old; where horses were purchased; horse medicine; and hauling logs as a teamster. Text: 6 pp....

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NA1081 George “Junior” Monk, Jr., interviewed by Stephen Ballew, November 3, 1976, Princeton, Maine. Monk talks about how much money he made working for Albert Merrill cutting wood on the Little Musquash Lake operation; Joe Clancy’s alcoholism; the food at camp; how lunch was served in the woods; being a cookee himself before WWII; raw eggs in coffee; and scaling.” See NF XVIII: “Suthin’.” Text: 7 pp. catalog and journal. Recording: mfc_na1081_t1104_01. Time: 61 minutes.

Abstract 1039 George Knox, interviewed by Joan Brooks, May 7, 1976, Holden, Maine. Knox talks about moving to Eddington, Maine, in 1902; raising their own meat; Frank Davis, a local market hunter; the route the old Airline r oad took; peddling in Bangor; trapping; poaching; Cal Graves; moose meat; going to dances; card games; what weddings were like; Halloween pranks; dowsing; weather lore; working in the woods; camp songs; men who made up songs in the area; working as a river driver; working for...

Abstract NA1075 Goldie Averill, interviewed by Dona Brotz, November 2, 1976, Brewer, Maine. Averille talks about being the only woman in the Little Musquash Lake operation; working as a cook with her husband, Blaine; the kitchen set up at the camp; the type of food she and her husband would make for the loggers; and after-dinner activities. The transcript includes an ingredient list for Blaine’s Molasses Filled Cookies, a sketch of the double loading stoves they had in the kitchen, and a sketch of...

Abstract NA4363 Grattan McHugh, interviewed by Edward D. "Sandy" Ives at the McHugh home in Tignish, P.E.I., August 25, 1965. With them is Stephen Ives. Background includes talk and rustling from the kitchen. Mr. McHugh, age 60, sings some Joe Scott songs. "Howard Carey," McHugh learned from Burt Provost. "Benjamin Deane," learned from Burt Provost. Ives' notes on the visit are recorded in his "Field Diary, Aug. 20, 1965, to Sept. 10, 1965." (NA2539, p. 6) Recording: mf167_1.1_ives065.03 &...

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0679 Harold Stuart, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives on July 27, 1971, in Machias, Maine. Interview with Harold Stuart about life in the lumber woods along the Union and Machias Rivers; work in lumber mills; stories about George Magoon, and Wilbur Day, poachers, and Calvin Graves. Text: 72 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na0679_na0680_t0388_01, mfc_na0679_na0680_t0388_02, mfc_na0679_t0387_01, mfc_na0679_t0387_02 [T 0386 - T 0387 / CD 2052 - CD 2054]. 2 hours

Abstract NA0568 Harry Harold Dyer, interviewed by Jeanne Milton, April 1, 1970, Caribou, Maine. Dyer, retired lumberman, his life as recorded and written by his granddaughter, discusses woods work in the early twentieth century; working for the Fraser Lumber Company; description of a lumber camp; walking to work; progression of the cutting; ice carts to ice roads; his responsibilities at age 14; hauling yards; labor-saving techniques; making a gum book; salt pork for lunch; sings “Johnny Doyle” and...

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 NA1079 Ivan Daigle, interviewed by Dona Brotz, November 13, 1976, Lee, Maine. Daigle talks about starting to work in lumber camps in 1934, when he was 29 years old; working for Grover Morrison before the Little Musquash Lake operation; the layout of the Little Musquash camp; Jim McKinnon; the scalers on the job; logging teams; log cutting competitions; how the camps have changed over the years; the Hovel; and dinner etiquette at camp. The transcript includes a rough sketch of the Hovel and a...

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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 NA1072 Jim McKinnon, interviewed by Dona Brotz, Joan Brooks, and Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, Old Town, Maine for AY 125 (1976) in a series of interviews, McKinnon talks about Grover Morrison’s woods operation at Little Musquash. McKinnon talks about being a walking boss for Diamond Match; entertaining the crew with clownish behavior; cruising for lumber; how the camp was built; slang terms used in the camp; the naming of the camps’ roads; and cattle in the camp. The second side of the tape is...

Abstract NA4373 Joseph “Joe” Walsh interviewed by Edward D. "Sandy" Ives, September 1, 1965, at Morell Rear, P.E.I. Also, present Bobby and Stephen Ives. The sound of rambunctious child or children running around can be heard in the background. Walsh performs his version of Joe Scott's ballad, "Howard Carey" that he learned from Tom Keith in P.E.I., a schoolteacher who worked on the railroad and was killed in a train wreck. Walsh explains where in the song he "got it wrong" and advised Ives to use...

Abstract NA4370 John Morrison, interviewed by Edward D. "Sandy" Ives, August 30, 1965, at Morrison's home in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Also present, Mrs. John Morrison, the couple's son and two of his young children who can be heard playing. Pet parakeets also singing. Morrison, age 53, sings a couple verses of his version of “Howard Carey” and explains how he makes an active effort to remember the song. Morrison is originally from Conway but worked "around the shore" [fishing] and in the lobster cannery...

Abstract NA4361 John R. Dignan, interviewed by Edward D. "Sandy" Ives, August 24, 1965, at Howland, P.E.I., Canada. Dignan, age 83, talks about meeting Joe Scott around 1902 when Dignan was 19 years old during his "first and only experience" working in the woods. Dignan was working with Tom Tracey's crew at the Wentwork [?] location on the Androscoggin River near the New Hampshire border. Joe Scott showed up at the camp selling his songs for 10-cents apiece. Dignan bought three or four of the songs....