Poaching -- Anecdotes -- Maine

Scope and Contents From the Record Group: Material collected by Maine Folklife Center (MFC) and Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (NAFOH) founder Edward D. “Sandy” Ives or about him (for the latter, also see NA1636, NA2290, NA2301, NA2312, NA2390, NA2539). This record group includes Ives’s other interviews, folklore collections, and miscellaneous accessions include several that focus on moose poacher George Magoon (George Magood and the Down East Game War: History, Folklore, and the Law. Urbana: University...

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...

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0418 Faunce Bryant and Clarence Berry, interviewed by Muriel Watts for CP 180, fall 1963, Crawford, Eastport, and Perry, Maine; Oak Bay, New Brunswick. Paper deals with George Magoon stories; Wilbur Day, poacher; bear stories; forerunner; haunted house; devil stories; ghost stories: headless ghost; jokes: latest Quoddy story; songs. Text: 49 pp. paper.

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1285 Frank S. Dowling, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, August 1979, Jacksonville, Maine. 18 pp. Tape: 2 hrs. w/ cat. Dowling, 90, talks about George Magoon and Wilbur Day; labor conditions along the Machias River; getting old; his own life and childhood. Text: catalog. Recording: mfc_na1285_t1356_01, mfc_na1285_t1356_02 [T 1356]. 2 hours

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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1060 Gladis Mace interviewed by Nora Groce, July 30, 1976, Aurora, Maine. Notes on an unrecorded interview. Mace talks about growing up in Ellsworth, Maine; dropping out of high school; getting married in 1917; moving to Aurora, Maine; Mace’s Family Store; dances at Grange Hall; dancing lessons; Kitchen Breakdowns; George Magoon (known for poaching); and Calvin Graves (wanted for murder). Text: 3 pp. interview summary.

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0678 Harold Day, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, July 24, 1971, Wesley, Maine. Day discusses old times around Wesley; stories of George Magoon and Wilbur Day, poachers. Text: 66 pp. transcript with brief catalog. Recording: T 0385 - T 0386 1 hour

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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: T 0386 - T 0388 / CD 2052 - CD 2054 2 hours

Abstract 1059 Herbert Hanscom, Sr., interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, May 3, 1976, at Hanscom’s home in Machias, Maine. Hanscom talks about life on the river drives and in the woods; hunting; poaching; George Magoon; Wilbur Day; poachers; the scene of logging from the mills up into Machias along East Machias, Big Machias, and Middle River; hunting with dogs to catch deer and bear; working on a shipyard. Also present: Barbara Hunter, a UMaine student. Text: 6 pp. catalog Recording:...

Abstract 1905 Irving Bangs, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, March 8, 1986, Machias, Maine. Bangs discusses his experiences working in the woods along the Machias River beginning in the late 1930s; driving logs using a splash-dam; driving boom logs; how he began scaling; surveying work as mediating a fight; building roads to transport pulpwood; French-Canadians as good workers; no need to replant because seedlings were left standing; skidders as wasteful; introduction of chain saws and problems...

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1491 John and Alice Bacon, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, spring 1981, Wesley, Maine. 21 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ cat. The Bacons talk about Wilbur Day and his wife, Susie. Text: catalog. Recording: mfc_na1490_na1491_t1595_01, mfc_na1490_na1491_t1595_02 [T 1595]. 1 hour Photographs: P 00727

Abstract 2971 Lawrie Holmes, interviewed by C. Richard K. Lunt, October 19, 1963, Northeast Harbor, Maine. Holmes tells a variety of stories about Jones Tracy, including squash seeds big as snowshoes; Jones shoots deer around curve of mountain by bending rifle barrel; mosquitoes and the kettle. Also talks about muzzle loaders and hunting deer on Mount Desert Island; book on folk medicine; Ben Bordeaux’s origin; and poaching. One of a series of interviews conducted by Richard Lunt in 1963 and 1964...

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1279 Lewis Lund, Jr., interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, July 1979, Bar Harbor, Maine. Lund talks about George Magoon and Wilbur Day, poachers. Text: 10 pp. catalog. Recording: mfc_na1279_t1346_01, mfc_na1279_t1346_02 [T 1346] 45 minutes

Abstract 1926 Maxwell E. Gray, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, May 19, 1986, Machias, Maine. Gray discusses working in the woods and river-driving along the Machias; moving logs on a frozen lake; cutting logs as best or only work during the Great Depression; earning extra money through poaching; walking to the start of the drive; camping in bush wickets; capstan rafts; temporary rafts; moving logs down Machias Lakes; water as a power source; and dangerous spots of water. Plus 4 pp. story about...

Abstract 0236 Milledge Lewis, Margaret Hallett and Paul Morrison, interviewed by Pauline Lewis for CP180, fall 1963, Lubec, Maine. Student project titled “Lubec Folklore.” Lewis sings songs, telling stories, and reciting poems, recorded November 17, 1963 (01). Songs and poems by Lewis include a number of satirical pieces written about local people as well as ballads and old minstrel and vaudeville songs, including "Young Charlotte," "Lather and Shave," "Tim Finnegan's Wake," "The Funniest Thing's a...

Abstract 2209 Norman Nash, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen for AY 125, December 9, 1991, Montville, Maine. Nash tells of the Frye Mountain community in the early-to-mid 1900s; problems getting supplies during a particularly harsh winter prior to WWI; problems plowing; selling the land to the federal government during the Great Depression; mail delivery; state attempts to scatter deer population; burning of the farm buildings; theft of belongings stored in the family home after the sale;...

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1283 Orris McKeown, interviewed by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, July 1979, Alexander, Pleasant Lake, Maine. 13 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ cat. McKeown talks about his grandfather, George Magoon, and about Wilbur Day. Text: catalog. Recording: mfc_na1283_t1328_01 [T 1328]. 1 hour

Abstract 3743 Chris Ludden for ANT 431, spring 2011. Paper, titled “Traditional Hunting,” deals with why people hunt; as a sport; for food; intergenerational pastime shared between parent and child; method of family bonding; way to impart life lessons; rites of passage; respect for the quarry; ritual; respect for natural environment; Maine state laws and regulations; role in state economy; hunting license; timeline from 1830 to 1998 of events related to hunting laws for white-tailed deer; endangered...

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0224 Various, interviewed by Alta Kilton for CP 180, fall 1963, Rogue Bluffs, Maine. Paper deals with beliefs; stories about the Watt Boys; hero tales; poacher Wilbur Day; hermit Willie ‘Racker" Foss; hermits Nick and Mell Bryant; place names; Indian race for princess; forerunner; jokes by Faunce Bryant; many songs and ballads. Text: 77 pp. paper. RESTRICTED.

Abstract 0304 Various, interviewed by Barbara Nutting for CP 180, spring 1960. Paper deals with tale from Finland; remedies; Indian legends; pioneer story; poaching stories; haunted house story; story of a Boston police strike. Informants include Cora Tracy, of Naples, Maine; Myron Sanders, Jr., Casco, Maine; Lillian Peterson, Webbs Mills, Maine; T. E. Nutting, Otisfield, Maine; Barbara Nutting, East Otisfield, Maine; Mrs. Fred McKenney, Kezar Falls, Maine; Elwyn McConnell, South Portland, Maine;...

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0357 By D. E. Smith for CP 180, spring 1962, Houlton, Maine; New Brunswick. Informants include Judy Maines, Dim Cormier, Linda Waterhouse, Barbara Prescott, Belmont Adams, Danielle Spear, Prof. Donald Quinsey, Alice Rideout, and Nancy Erikson. Paper deals with poaching stories; tall tales; anecdotes; devil stories; jokes. Text: 37 pp. paper

Abstract NA0004 Various, interviewed by Elsie Appleby for CP 180, spring 1962, Island Falls, Mt. Chase, Houlton, Warren, Patten, Ashland, Maine. Informants include Cyril Drew, Harry Kennedy, Linwood Willette, Ray Emerson, Tom Donham, Clara Hathaway, Gladys Estes, Nadine Robinson, Mrs. George Torne, Mildred Schurman, Robert Pendleton, Josephine Williams, and Harry Sands. Paper records stories about folk heroes: Levi May, Emi Lee; skip-rope verses; tall tales; jokes; ghost stories; woods stories;...

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0054 Various, interviewed by Ethelyn Christie for CP 180, spring 1962, East Corinth and Mt. Desert, Maine; Traftons Island and Blackville, New Brunswick. Paper deals with devil stories; ghost stories; witch stories; Alec Tario stories; Pres Chadbourne stories; "Doc" Henry Tufts stories; beliefs; poachers; tales; skip rope rhymes; superstitions. Text: 70 pp. manuscript

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0061 Various, interviewed by Etta Clark for CP 180, fall 1963, East Machias, Maine. Paper deals legends; devil; phantom ship; babes on doorstep; place names; treasure; deaths; poems; jokes and anecdotes; legends; George Magoon and Wilbur Day, poachers; tall tales; folksongs; Miramichi fire; haunted house; the Lubec gold swindle. Text: 112 pp. manuscript

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0151 Various, interviewed by Jennie Gray for CP 180, fall 1963, Columbia Falls, Deblois, and Harrington, Maine. Informants include Clyde Merritt, Clyde Gray, Adelia Merritt, Newell Torrey, Harry Stevens, Frances Wakefield, Mrs. Robert Gray, and Robert Gray. Paper deals with place names; anecdotes of Fred Davies; headless ghost; devil; folk songs; Rayme Dyer, strong man; wart cure; healer; blood-stopper; forerunner; Jake the Jew story; jokes; Wilbur Day, poacher. Text: 92 pp. paper

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0656 Various, interviewed by Joan Becich for FO 107, summer 1971, Machias Valley, Maine. Journal deals with interviewing about George Magoon and Wilbur Day, legendary poachers. Text: 16 pp. journal

Abstract 0021 Various, interviewed by JoAnn Bowden for CP 180, fall 1962, West Enfield, Enfield and environs, and Penobscot Bay, Maine. Informants include Violet L. Graham, Sally Ballard, Annie Anderson, Edmund Nadeau, Mrs. Roscoe (Marion) Kimball, Evelynne (Shaw) Drusendahl, Raymond Bowden, Ray Bowden, Odille Pelletier, John O'Donnell, Josephine Jestings, Christine Miller, Ella Gatcombe, John Gatcombe, Vicki Weatherbee, and F.C. Gatcombe. Paper deals with haunted house stories; ghost stories; devil...

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0675 Various, interviewed by Karen Grieneeks, Joan Becich, and Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, for FO 107, summer 1971, Wesley, Crawford, Machias, and Hermon, Maine. A journal of collecting work done by Karen Grieneeks, Joan Becich, and Edward D. “Sandy” Ives on the subject of George Magoon and Wilbur Day, poachers. Text: 22 pp. journal

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0364 Various, interviewed by Mabel Small for CP 180, fall 1963, Machias, East Machias, Starboard Creek, and Buck’s Harbor, Maine. Informants include Vassar Quimby, Carroll Armstrong, John Hayward, Florence Libby, Theresa Dunbar, and Capt. Nelson Proctor. Paper deals with ghost; forerunner; table tipping; devil; jokes; anecdotes: Pat & Mike; Wilbur Day and George Magoon, poachers; tall tale; stories of Capt. Nelson Proctor; songs; poem. Text: 70 pp. paper

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NA0339 Various, interviewed by Madeline Reed for CP 180, spring 1962. Paper deals with legends; tall tales; anecdotes; jokes; poaching stories; forerunners; ghost and devil stories; folk songs and poems; Indian stories; George Knox stories. Text: 96 pp. paper. RESTRICTED