MF 046 Eastport History Collection
Number of Interviews: 28 interviews, 60 hours
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1979-1980
Time period covered: 1890-1920
Principal interviewers: Hugh French
Access Restrictions: None
In 1979-80 Hugh French received a National Endowment for the
Humanities "Youth Grant" to curate an exhibit on the history of the
Eastport, Maine, waterfront, 1890-1920. Edward D. "Sandy" Ives of
the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (now Maine
Folklife Center) at the University of Maine acted as academic
sponsor for this project. French subsequently worked with SALT, a
documentary program in Portland, Maine, and founded the Tides
Institute in Eastport, Maine. This collection includes twenty-eight
interviews with thirteen Eastport residents, plus manuscript
material collected as part of French’s research. In addition to the
general history of Eastport, major topics discussed include the
sardine industry and community holiday celebrations.
1311 Hugh French. Bibliography of the history of Eastport,
Maine. 20 pp. ms.
1312 Ernest and Corinne Quigley interviewed by Hugh French,
1/18/80, in Eastport, Maine, about the history of Eastport
and especially its waterfront. Topics include Eastport at the turn
of the twentieth century; folk tales and weather lore; Fourth of
July celebrations; Eastport waterfront; changes in business district
throughout the twentieth century; Dougal Anderson and LeBaron
"Barry" Cooke; tourists and visitors to Eastport; International
Steamship Wharf; North and South Ends of Eastport; Spanish American
War; social and seasonal activities; Memorial Day and June Day;
sleigh rides; double runners
Transcript/index: 49 pp.
Tape: 3 hrs. T1424 — T1426
CD: 758-760
1313 Leo Lee interviewed by Hugh French, in 1979-1980, in
Eastport. This series of interviews focuses on the history of
Eastport, Maine, especially the waterfront, from 1900 to 1916.
1/3/79 Eastport at the turn of the twentieth century;
Leo’s family history and basic biographical sketch; North and South
Ends; watering cart; June Day and Fourth of July; local elections;
steamships and other modes of transportation; folk medicine, common
illnesses and immunizations; common Eastport songs and anecdotes;
sardine factories and sardine factory work; factory camps; Memorial
Hall; Old Home Day; schools; plays and dances; library; place names.
Transcript/index: 25 pp
Tape:1.5 hrs. T1427 - T128
CD: 761-762
1/15/79 Topics discussed include Eastport songs and stories;
sardine factories and factor work; steamships; Honey Johnson;
Memorial Hall; schools; recreation; Chautauqua; Dougal Anderson;
Benjamin Ela; waterfront activities; Old Home Week and Eastporters
who come back for it; dialect; place names; social conditions;
songs.
Transcript/index: 29 pp.
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T1428-T1429
CD 763-764
2/5/80 Topics discussed include Eastport and surrounding area
1900 to 1915; popular songs; underground school newspaper; nicknames
for the sardine factory; work available within the sardine
factories; LeBaron Cooke; Seacoast Canning Company; fishing and
payment arrangements; American Sardine Company; fire of 1866; North
and South Ends; rum shops and smuggling.
Transcript/index: 25
Tapes: 1.5 hr. T1451-52
CD 765-766
7/11/80 Topics discussed include Eastport and surrounding
areas; factory work; common town songs and ditties; smuggling; place
names; local sayings; brief family history and biography; forms of
entertainment; sardine factory nicknames.
Transcript/index: 15 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. T1513
CD 767
1314 Waldo Berry (b. ca. 1890) interviewed by Hugh French,
in Eastport, Maine.
1/20/80 Topics covered include the history of Eastport
waterfront from 1910 to 1920; stories and sayings; his life and
work; clam and sardine factory work; bars and liquor sales;
prostitution; Fourth of July and other celebrations; LeBaron Cooke;
Dougal Anderson; local politics; fire of 1889; herring smoke houses;
weather and seasonal sayings; farming; maritime and waterfront
activities.
Transcript/index: 35 pp.
Tape:2.25 hrs. T1430 — T1432
CD 693-695
5/31/80 Topics discussed include Eastport and surrounding
areas; brief biography and description of work on the waterfront
from 1910-1920; boats; SeaCoast Company; local hotel; sardine
factory nicknames; seasonal aspects of work; North Lubec sardine
factory nicknames; smoked herring.
Transcript/index: 19 pp.
Tapes: 1 hr. T1512
CD 768
1329 Jeanne Balkam interviewed by Hugh French, 01/26/80,
Eastport, Maine. The interview focused on Eastport 1900-1915 and
topics discussed include the fire of 1886; brief family and personal
history; Old Sow whirlpool; fog; seasons and holidays; sardine and
clam factories; Treat’s Island; Eastport waterfront; trucks and
horse-drawn carts.
Transcript/index: 35 pp
Tape: 1 hr. T1453
CD 769
1333 William Lawrence (b. 1889) interviewed by Hugh French,
in Eastport, Maine, about Eastport history, 1900-1915.
01/09/79 Topics discussed include family history and
biographical information; South and North End neighborhoods; June
Day and Memorial Day; children’s games; Memorial Hall; Acme theater;
shows, songs and singers; weather lore; Eastport topography; sardine
factories; fishing and smoking fish; cooper shop; sailing vessels;
fighting; Eastport waterfront
Transcript/index: 28
Tape: T1458-14159
CD: 770-771
1/223/80 Sledding; Old Sow whirlpool; trotting park; buried
treasure; place names and stories; farming; LeBaron Cooke; Fourth of
July; store hours.
Transcript/index: 36
Tape: 1.5 hrs T1460-1461
CD: 772-773
2/12/80 LeBaron Cooke; SeaCoast canning company; sardine
factory work and pay; songs; can making; schools.
Transcript/index: 21 pp
Tape: 1.5 hr. T 1462-T1463
CD 774-775
1371 Helen Ferris interviewed by Hugh French, 04/29/80, in
Eastport, Maine. Topics discussed include Eastport 1900-1920; South
End and North End rivalry; family and personal history; sardine
factories and their nicknames; shipbuilding; Sodom Hotel; factory
songs; Burpee Wilson; smoked herring factory work.
Transcript/index: 31 pp
Tapes: 2 hrs. T1488-89
CD 776-777
1373 Oscar Whalen interviewed by Hugh French, in Eastport,
Maine.
05/31/80. Topics discussed include place names of Eastport;
Le Baron Cooke; Caleb Huston; USS Treat; Dougal Anderson; the fire
of 1886; Passamaquoddy Hotel; Peavey Library; Eastport waterfront;
Eastport and surrounding areas 1900-1920; the Canadian influence on
Eastport; history of the sardine industry in Eastport, 1898-1930’s;
SeaCoast Canning Company; Maine Sardine Cooperative.
Transcript/index: 24 pp
Tape: 1 hrs. T1492
CD 778
06/25/80 Sardine factory nicknames; sardine industry history;
Eastport Art School; SeaCoast canning; Maine Sardine Cooperative;
Eastport waterfront; freezing herring; predictions for the future of
Eastport and Moose Island.
Transcript/index: 20 pp
Tape: 1 hr. T1493
1374 Helen Huntley interviewed by Hugh
French,, in Eastport, Maine, in 1979 and 1980 about the
history of Eastport, 1900-1930.
1/6/79 Teaching school; neighborhood rivalry
and brawls; songs, stories, poems, and singing; thoughts about
Eastport as place; clubs; Callithumpina parade; circus; Chautaugua;
stories and superstitions, including devil, flying saucers, and
haunted house; June Day and other holidays; fish fair; Will Beale;
music, dances and other forms of entertainment; prohibition; early
life and schooling; Memorial Hall
Transcript/index: 59 pp.
Tape: 2.25 hrs. T1514-1516
CD 780-781
5/1/80 North and South End rivalry; Moose
Island; boats; coopering; factory nicknames; life in Eastport.
Transcript/index: 26 pp.
Tape: 1 hr. T 1516-1517
CD: 782
05/28/80 Place names; local songs and
stories; myths and predictions about Eastport; seasonal and weather
lore; jokes about sardine factory; Easter and Candlemas Day;
biography and family history; Fourth of July; seasonal activities.
Transcript/index:30 pp
Tapes: 1.75 hrs. T1494-1495
CD 783-784
6/11/80 Eastport songs and stories; family;
father was cooper; getting out of school to pack cans in cartons;
sardine factory work; clam factories; smoked herring shops; her
boarders; 9life in Massachusetts; weather lore; thoughts on the past
and future of Eastport.
Transcript/index: 35 pp.
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T1496-1497
CD 785-7846
1375 Alice Baine (b. 1884) interviewed by
Hugh French, Eastport, Maine, in 1980-81.
05/2/80 Topics discussed include Eastport
proper; LeBaron Cooke; sardine factories and their nicknames; local
songs and tall tales; predictions for the future of Moose Island;
old sayings; brief biography and family history; work as a sardine
factory worker in and away from Eastport; Passamaquoddy Tidal Power
Project.
Transcript/index: 23 pp.
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T1498-1499
CD 787-788
5/28/80 Topics discussed include her life and
work in sardine factory in Eastport and Stonington; working in
California; Passamaquoddy tidal power project; working in smoked
herring shop; freezing herring in winter; factory workers homes;
holidays; circus; SeaCoast Cannery; LaBaron Cooke; Eastport at the
turn of the century and now.
Transcript/index: 34 pp.
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T1510 — T1511
CD 789-790
6/20/80 Eastport songs and sayings; place
names; sardine factory nicknames; Saxby Gale; fire of 1889; early
work and life in Eastport; family background.
Transcript/index: 26 pp
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T 1500-1501
CD 791-792
09/15/80 Eastport and surrounding area
1880-1910; sardine factories and nicknames for them; waterfront and
waterfront place names; liquor selling; map of Martin’s Dock; Martin
and Caraher sardine factories; Charlie Ross; biography and
description of work experience.
Transcript/index: 20 pp.
Tape: 1.5 hrs. T1749-1750
CD 793-794
10/6/80 Martin and Caraher sardine factory;
Charlie Ross; details of cannery work.
Transcript/index: 30 pp.
Tapes: 1.5 hrs T1751-T1752
CD 795-796
10/21/80 Charlie Ross; SeaCoast Canning;
Martin and Carher sardine factory and Baine’s work there cutting
fish, sealing cans, flaking, and other processes.
Transcript/index: 54 pp.
Tapes: 1.75 hrs. T1753-1754
CD 797-798
3/19/81 Getting a job cutting fish; details
of work day; workers’ parties; strikes.
Transcript/index: 15pp.
Tape: 1.25 hrs. T 1755-T1756
CD 799-800
1376 Alice Baine (b. 1884) and Kathleen
Andrews interviewed by Hugh French, 04/09/80 in Eastport, Maine.
Topics discussed include Eastport waterfront 1890-1910; LeBaron
Cooke; Eastport Art School; place names; sardine factory and work
within; skating; brief biographies and descriptions of past
employment; artists at Eastport; seasonal aspects of work and
school; SeaCoast Company; June Day; Alice’s work experience in
California sardine factory; holidays; method of payment at the
factories.
Transcript/index: 44 pp.
Tapes: 2 hrs. T1502-T1503
CD 801-802
1378 Edmund Schildknecht interviewed by Hugh
French, 04/28/80, in Eastport, Maine. Topics discussed include
biography and past employment; his paintings of Eastport; Eastport
Art School; Stow Wengenroth; George Ennis; Robert Craig; views and
opinions of art and painting; why he enjoys the Eastport landscape;
views of other artists; Dexter Cooper and the Passamaquoddy Tidal
Power Project; current tidal power plans; other artists in Eastport.
Transcript/index: 35 pp
Tape: 2 hrs. T1506-1507
CD 803-804
1379 Lucy Kilby interviewed by Hugh French,
in Eastport, Maine.
02/23/80 Topics discussed include
descriptions of Eastport; predictions for Eastport’s future;
predictions that Moose Island will sink; fire of 1886; Eastport
businessmen; brief biography; invention of the sardine can; SeaCoast
Company; LeBaron Cooke; Dougal Anderson; Eastport toll bridge;
Oakland; Eastport
Transcript/index: 12 pp.
Tape: .5 hrs.. T1508
CD 805
03/12/80 Drs. Eliza Grady and Ruth Tustin;
biography and Eastport history; Dougal Anderson; invention of
sardine can.
Transcript/index: 9 p
Tape: .5 hrs. T1509
CD:805
1419 Hugh French, material collected as part
of French’s research on Eastport, Maine, Fall 1980. Diagrams of
sardine can sealer’s gig, packing table, and seamer’s bench; map of
Eastport and Moose Island; index cards. P4844-50, P4852-4872
1638 William Follis (b.1882), interviewed by
Hugh French, 07/01/81, in Eastport, ME. Topics covered include
Eastport and waterfront 1890-1910; early sardine factories; horse
stables; place names; fire of 1886; South End and North End; brief
biography and family history; map of Eastport 1889; seamers and
canners.
Transcript/index: 61 pp.
Tapes: 2 hrs. T1748-T1757
CD 806-807
