Collections
MF 003 Argyle Boom Collection
Number of
Interviews: 29
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1973, 1975
Time period covered: ca. 1900-1930
Principal interviewers: Susan Tibbetts, Ralph Cook, Mary Beth
O’Connor, Dusty Carr, Mark LaFond, Kenneth Whitney, Susan Tibbetts,
Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, Dusty Carr, Lucinda Lamb, Elizabeth Warner,
Jack Beard, Ann Pierter, Bessie Dam
Finding Aides: brief indexes and full transcripts
Access Restrictions: none
Description: The Argyle Boom Collection consists of
approximately seventy-five hours of tape-recorded interviews in
twenty-nine accessions, most of which reflect interviews conducted
by students in classes taught by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives at the
University of Maine in 1973 and 1975. Argyle Boom 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. These interviews, along with
associated photographs, maps, and diagrams, were the basis for
Argyle Boom (Northeast Folklore, XVII:1976). Under Ives’
direction, the students consulted existing manuscript sources,
sought out potential informants who had worked on the boom,
conducted interviews, and wrote essays on various aspects of boom
construction and operation and the daily lives of the workers. Ives
then edited and rewrote these essays for publication. For more
information see Argyle Boom.
780 Tibbetts, Susan & Ralph Cook. (FO 107 & AY 125) Fall 1973
& 1975. Maine: Orono (UMO Lambda Chi Alpha house). 171 pp. Tape: 4
hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interviews with Leon Bussell
conducted by Ralph Cook in October and November, 1973, and by Susan
Tibbetts in October and November, 1975, for class projects. Topics
covered include hanging and taking in the booms; his own work along
the shore; making rafts of the logs; kinds of rafts; dropping off;
equipment and clothing; Captain Kidd’s buried treasure; steamboats
and their use in river drives; rescues and drownings; work of boom
scalers; Pea Cove and other booms; and boom-related buildings on
White Squaw Island. Photos, P416—P419, P425, P461, P490, P495,
P508—P510, P524, P566. T655-T661
781 O’Connor, Mary Beth. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Old Town.
198 pp. Tape: 3 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans., diagram of boom, notes
on boat trip to location of Argyle Boom. Interviews by O’Connor in
October and November, 1973, with Alfonse Martin and David
Seymour, conducted for a class project. Topics covered include
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 such
as Mexico, Pea Cove, and Nebraska. Photo, P425. T662-T665
782 Carr, Dusty. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Bradley. 25 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview with Victor Shorette
by Carr conducted in October, 1973, for a class project. Topics
covered include logging companies; sorting long logs from pulp and
spruce from hemlock and poplar, etc.; hanging and taking in booms.
Photo, P425. T666
783 LaFond, Mark. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Old Town. 29 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. & trans. & 2 diagrams. Interview with
Felix Cote by LaFond in October, 1973, for a class project. The
interview focuses on log-sorting booms on the Penobscot River and is
part of a project that led to an issue of Northeast Folklore,
XVII: Argyle Boom. Topics covered include 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. Photos, P425, P619 / T667
784 Whitney, Kenneth & Susan Tibbetts. (FO 107 & AY 125) Fall
1973 & 1975. Maine: Tenants Harbor. 69 pp. inc. 1 map and 1 sketch.
Tape: 3 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interviews with David S.
Brown by Kenneth Whitney in October, 1973, and by Susan Tibbetts
in November, 1975. Topics covered include Brown’s work on the boom
in the summers of 1902-04 when he was 12 to 14 years old; the jobs
of rafters, sorters, and runners; use of wedges to build rafts;
meals; bosses; his marriage and work at Mt. Kineo; breaking up jams;
daily pay; construction of boom and crib-work piers; buildings at
Pea Cove; guiding; moose hunting; WWI enlistment and service. Photo,
P425. T668-T670
786 Whitney, Kenneth, Susan Tibbetts, Elizabeth Warner &
Cindy Lamb. (FO 107 & AY 125) Fall 1973 & 1975. Maine: Argyle. 135
pp. Tape: 3 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interviews with Ernest
Kennedy by Ken Whitney, October and November, 1973; by Susan
Tibbetts, November, 1975; by Elizabeth Warner and Cindy Lamb,
October, 1975, for class projects. Topics covered include 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 Buzzell, and others; PLA; function of sorting gap,
beats, joints, check line, swings, shear boom, buoys, dropping off;
steamboats such as Toscah; cooks, cookees, and chambermaids; meals;
description of kitchen and cooking methods; White Squaw Island boom
house; pay; sleeping quarters; Indian and Irish workers; leisure
activities such as gambling, music, dances, log rolling contests.
Photos, P416, P425, P537. T673 -T677
787 Cook, Ralph. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Hancock. 66 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview by Cook with Kenneth
LaFlamme conducted on 10 October 1973 for a class project.
Topics covered include 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. T678
788 LaFond, Mark (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Old Town. 46 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview with Emile Leavitt
conducted by Mark LaFond 25 October 1973 for a class project. Topics
covered include 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. Photo, P425. T679
-T680
789 Ives, Edward D. (FO 107). Fall 1973. Maine: Old Town. 70
pp. Tape: 1 1/2 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview with
Stephen R. “Rex” Buzzell conducted by Ives on 23 October 1973.
Topics covered include the spring flood and resulting log jam of
1923; construction of jam piers; Sunkhaze, Nebraska and Pea Cove
booms; use of shear boom; buildings on White Squaw Island; living
conditions and recreation; structure and operation of boom, gap,
beats, jigger, marks, swings, stray raft, dropping off; tools.
Photos, P425, P489, P491, P492, P511, P515, P518, P522, P534.
T681-T682
790 Carr, Dusty, Lucinda Lamb & Elizabeth Warner. (FO 107 &
Ay 125) Fall 1973 & 1975. Maine: Greenbush. 101 pp. Tape: 4 hrs. w/
brief cat. & partial trans. Interviews with Harry Twitchell
conducted by Carr (October 26, 29, November 27, 1973), and Lamb and
Warner (November 14, 1975) for class projects. Topics covered
include 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 conditions;
bosses Gene Mann, Billy Mann, and Walter Drake; pickeroons,
hookeroons; rear crew’s duties; jams. Photo, P425. T683-T686
792 Class of FO 107. Fall 1973. Maine: Orono (UMO). 236 pp.
Tape: 3 1/2 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Class interviews with
Leon Bussell (November 8, 1973), Emile Leavitt (November
15, 1973), Ernest Kennedy (November 20, 1973), and Stephen
"Rex" Buzzell (November 27, 1973). The interviews took place in
Room B South Stevens Hall, UM. 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. Topics covered include the construction and operation of
piers, gaps, and headworks; tools and techniques for sorting,
rafting, and dropping off logs; wedges and mallets; stray pen; prize
logs; beats; joints; swings; jigger and trapeze line; endways rafts;
backway drive; jail boom; jobbers marks; living conditions and
meals; Pea Cove, Nebraska, and Cuba booms; Black Island; Freese
Island; Foster Island; Sunkhaze; Old Town; Gene Mann and Billy Mann.
Photo, P425. T693-T698
793 LaFond, Mark. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Pea Cove. 36 pp.
Tape: 2 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview with Harry Kennedy
(November 12, 1973) by LaFond for a class project. Topics covered
include rafting and dropping off logs; stray rafts; jillpoking;
checking; Pea Cove and Nebraska booms; Gene Mann and Billy Mann;
Walter Buzzell; Irish workers; Greenville; endway rafts; the trip.
Photo, P425. T699
796 O’Connor, Mary Beth. (FO 107) Fall 1973. Maine: Old Town.
59 pp. Tape: 2 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Interview with Alex
Rouleau (November 30, 1973) by O’Connor for a class project.
Topics covered include 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.
photo, P425. T709-T710
804 LaFond, Mark & Lucinda Lamb. (FO 198 & AY 125) Spring
1974 & Fall 1975. Maine: Costigan. 80 pp. Tape: 2 hrs. w/ brief cat.
& partial trans. Interviews with Wallace "Del" Soule
conducted by LaFond (March 8, 1974, April 17, 1974) and Lamb
(October 25, 1975 for class projects. Topics covered include the use
of steam boats and bateaus in moving the rafts and swings that had
been made up at the boom to the logging company’s designated stretch
of shore or mill. Photo, P580; map; diagrams. T728-T731
836 LaFond, Mark. (FO 198) Spring 1974. Maine: Costigan. 13
pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. & summary. Interview with John
Costigan conducted by Mark Lafond for a class project. Topics
covered include shoring and sacking; diagrams. T757
1001 Warner, Elizabeth. (AY 125) Fall 1975. Maine: Old Town.
11 pp. Tape: 3/4 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with William
McLaughlin by Warner recorded on 22 November 1975 for a class
project. Topics covered include dropping off and running crews;
marks; sorting logs; rafting logs; Nebraska and Pea Cove booms;
White Squaw Island; friends Darky Willet, Harvy Cutliff, Dave
Seymore, Cody Martin, Harry Cutliff; living conditions and meals;
construction of piers; use of steam boats; mills. Photo, P692.
T1013
1014 LaFond, Mark. (FO 198) Spring 1974. Maine: Old Town. 5
pp. Tape: 3/4 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with Emile Leavitt
conducted by Mark Lafond for a class project. Topics covered include
shoring, mill drives, scaling, and the boom in general. T1025
1022 Lamb, Lucinda. (AY 198) Spring 1976. Maine: Costigan. 17
pp. Tape: 1 1/2 hrs. w/ brief cat. Interview with Wallace "Del"
Soule conducted by Lucinda Lamb as part of a class project. The
interview focuses on the Nebraska and Argyle log-sorting booms on
the Penobscot River. Topics covered include running; rafting;
shoring; hanging and taking in booms; the work of bateaux crews and
steamboats. T1033
1024 Pierter, Ann. (AY 198) Spring 1976. Maine: Old Town. 11
pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with Alphonse Martin
conducted by Ann Pierter on 13 March 1976 for a class project.
Topics covered include the structure and operation of the sorting
gap; scaling; log marks; wintering over; bosses Gene Mann, Billy
Mann, Walter Drake, Harry Bowlee; diagrams of the gap. T1036
1025 Beard, Jack. (AY 198) Spring 1976. Maine: Costigan. 15
pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with John Costigan
conducted by Jack Beard on 14 April 1976 for a class project. .
Topics covered include rafting; sacking; tools, especially sacking
dogs; use of horses to sack or twitch logs; marks; the last drive on
Sunkhaze Stream; operations around Chamberlain and Telos Lakes;
diagrams of sacking dogs. T1037
1026 Beard, Jack. (AY 198) Spring 1976. Maine: Costigan. 8
pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with Leon Bussell
conducted by Jack Beard on 14 April 1976 for a class project. Topics
covered include building endways or hedgehog rafts; use of scull oar
to propel rafts. T1038
1031 Warner, Elizabeth & Jack Beard. (AY 198) Spring 1976.
Maine: Old Town. 8 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with
Alphonse Martin conducted by Elizabeth Warner and Jack Beard on
5 May 1976 for a class project. Topics covered include the backway
drive, which was for logs going to the International and Dan Cassidy
mills in Orono, and Grey Canoe Shop mill in Stillwater; contractor
Frank Davis; bosses Gene Mann, Billy Mann, and Walter Drake; sluices
at Gillman Falls; use of wedges for rafting; shoring; endways or
hedgehog rafting; cookhouse at Pea Cove; leisure activities.
T1044
1032 Warner, Elizabeth & Jack Beard. (AY 198) Spring 1976.
Maine: Argyle. 8 pp. Tape: 1/4 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with
Ernest Kennedy conducted by Elizabeth Warner and Jack Beard on 5
May 1976 for a class project. Topics covered include lumber company
marks; sorting and rafting; prize logs; sheer boom at Sunkhaze;
trips at Sunkhaze; crib work and building endways rafts; mentions
Barker and Jordan lumber companies, Pea Cove, Argyle, White Squaw
Island Hoyt Brook, Hemlock Stream. T1045
1033 Beard, Jack & Elizabeth Warner. (AY 198) Spring 1976.
Maine: Old Town. 14 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with
Stephen "Rex" Buzzell conducted by Jack Beard and Elizabeth
Warner on 5 May 1976 as part of a class project. Topics covered
include wangan and living conditions; his father business and crews;
cook John Duplessis. T1046
1049 Ives, Edward D. & Susan Tibbetts. Spring 1976. Maine:
Argyle. 9 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with Ernest
Kennedy conducted by Ives and Tibbetts on 10 May 1976. Topics
covered include layout of boom related buildings on White Squaw
Island; Costigan landing; the duties of the rear crew; points of
origin of the drives; horse piers; fin booms; dropping off; swings;
beats; and joints. T1055
1050 Ives, Edward D. & Susan Tibbetts. Spring 1976. Maine:
Old Town. 9 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with William
McLaughlin conducted by Ives and Tibbetts on 26 April 1976.
Topics covered include dropping off; rafting; sorting gap; Greenbush
trip; Pea Cove; fin booms. T1056
1051 Pierter, Ann & Susan Tibbetts. (AY 198) Spring 1976.
Maine: Old Town. 10 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview with
Stephen "Rex" Buzzell conduced by Pierter and Tibbetts on 11 May
1976. Topics covered include marking and scaling logs; Argyle, Pea
Cove, and Sheepshank (Greenbush) booms; wintering methods, diagrams.
T1057
1056 Pierter, Ann & Bessie Dam. (AY 198) Spring 1976. Maine:
Argyle. 15 pp. Tape: 1 1/4 hrs. w/ brief cat. Interview with
Ernest Kennedy about Argyle Boom and related matters. T1066
1114 Ives, Edward D. Summer, 1977. 331 pp. Tape: 34 hrs. w/
cats. Series of interviews with Ernest Kennedy, 88, about his
life working in the woods, on the river drives, and Argyle Boom.
Kennedy built a number of models of the Argyle Boom and various
other structures and tools used in woodswork and river driving that
he donated to the Maine Folklife Center and that he discussed in
these interviews. Diagrams. Photos, P1786 - P1808.
T1138-T1160
Tape 1138
River-driving, cutting timber, peeling hemlock,, family-siblings,
tannery, switching from chopping to sawing trees down, schooling,
Aunt Hat, family background, mother cooked for woods camp, rafting
logs, father ran hotel for weavers.
Tape
1139 Kennedy cooked, father ran
hotel for woodsmen and boarding houses, worked as a teamster in
woods, building camp, skidding and yarding, cribbing and rafting,
hewing boards from logs, rafting camp, woods-work techniques.
Tape 1140
Putting in telephone line, breaking in landings, dynamiting jams,
booms, jobbing, road conditions, farm animals, daily transport,
Argyle schools, social events, haunted places.
Tape 1141
Explains the Argyle Boom model, gardening, butchering meat, hunting
game, smoke-pot for mosquitoes, smoking meat, jacking deer, recalls
the families that lived in Argyle.
Tape
1142 Types of hunting guns,
hunting and camping, getting lost in the woods, exploring and
estimating land, Kennedy recalls more families that lived in Argyle,
how he met his wife-to be, his portable mill, his children.
Tape 1143
Recalls seeing the first car, Kittyhawk and the Zeppelin, story of a
plane, playing baseball, explains the batteau model, greenhorns.
Tape
1144 Discussion of Northeast Archives photos of batteau being
used, socializing and helping neighbors, barn-building, country
doctors and mid-wives, typhoid fever, herbal medicine, Kennedy
explains his camp model.
Tape 1145
A tour through Kennedy’s home in
Argyle, recalls getting modern conveniences, family reunion
preparations, discussion of material concerning Pentecostal faith.
Tape 1146
Spring log drive, Kennedy describes footwear that was used, the
types and ages of the woodsmen he knew, recalls other loggers.
Tape 1147
Kennedy demonstrates the scoot sled
model, discusses types of binds and hooks, types of tobacco used,
reviews how he began his logging career, demonstrates a parbuckle
model, shows a dam model.
Tape 1148
Recalls cutting logs for I. M. Pierce, explains using a rule and
scale, recalls celebrating Christmas as a child, learning French,
dancing, another discussion of Pentecostal material, remembers
owning several mills, trapping and raising muskrats, Hoyt Brook Dam,
gap and crib, fishing for pickerel.
Tape 1149
Kennedy recalls childhood activities in the Winter, skating and
sledding, swimming in the Summer, bike riding, children in the
family, types of log jams, running on logs, more family history,
working with horses and oxen.
Tape 1150
Born in 1889 in Kingman, Maine, Kennedy recounts the places he has
lived and more about his life as a lumberman, sired 13 children,
joined Pentecostal Church in 1926, had a stroke ca.1939, he retired
from active lumbering when he was 78.
Tape 1151
More about lumbering, Kennedy is still cutting his own wood and
tending his large garden, Kennedy recalls canning, selling Christmas
trees, naming his children, 4th of July celebrations,
price of salmon, bears, dealing with insects.
Tape 1152
Recalls game wardens he knew, dogging deer, poaching deer, gives
more information about families in Argyle, Dingbat Prouty, Aunt Hat,
prostitution, Veazie ‘Lemons’ .
Tape1153
Kennedy continues recounting the different families in Argyle,
batteau oars, more deer stories, people getting shot and shot at,
Kennedy had a Maine Guide license, camp entertainment, swampers,
father’s boarding house.
Tape 1154
Kennedy looks at some photos and describes the people and places in
them, recalls relatives, dance hall fights, brawling in general and
boxing.
Tape1155
Kennedy recounts how death was dealt with in his day, shenikers,
funerals, ‘whiskey bears’, his friend Dudley Smith who drowned,
vandalism at cemeteries, and illegal activities in general.
Tape 1156
Family information, Kennedy explains "Fox and Geese" board game,
lengthy recollection of his Pentecostal life and interpretations of
his beliefs.
Tape 1157
Halloween, bird-hunting, more about log drives, star-gazing, quotes
and his interpretations from the Bible.
Tape 1158
Continuation of Kennedy’s interpretations of the Bible.
Tape 1159
Kennedy recalls town meetings in Argyle, political affiliation,
effects of the Depression in 1939, woods work and different ways of
cutting timber.
Tape 1160
Recalls what Winter was like, Spring
thaw and floods, transportation during those seasons, Kennedy
demonstrates the parbuckle model he has made, recalls dealing with
house and buildings fires in town of Argyle, more information on
running logs in the river, Kennedy ends the interview with more
scripture and interpretation.
Back to Collections
