INT 410
Introduction to Linguistics
(online) Taught by Pauleena MacDougall
ANT 425 Oral History
and Folklore: Fieldwork (online) Taught by
Pamela Dean
Maine
Folklife Center
Collections
MF 118 Roger Mitchell/Don Mitchell Collection
Number of Interviews: 19
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1976
Time period covered: 1900-1960
Principal interviewers: Roger Mitchell
Finding Aides: full transcripts
Access Restrictions:
Description:
1202 Don MItchell interviewed by Roger Mitchell, his son,
in 1976. This series of interviews about Mitchell senior's life and
work as a woodsman and farmer formed the basis of Northeast Folklore
XIX: "I'm a Man That Works." See also: NA 2008. RESTRICTED.
C1 Side 1 Topics covered include a log jam breaking loose; winter
shoveling while working at the Hunt Company; working at Rockabema;
crossing the border and name changing; mishaps on river drives;
getting alcohol while in the woods; bootlegging; World War I
stories; naval service during World War I; potato work and
harvesting; farming stories; family history; stories of friends;
acquisition of property; and snow plowing with horses.
C1; Side 2. Topics covered include Jose Bates and alcohol; Jose
Bates' family; working for Denny Michaud; horses; the Rockabema
winter; the Hunt Company; hauling bark; working for Joe Michaud and
Frenchmen; the practice of undercutting; logging wages; being a
cookee; Don's first drive; and working on a pulp drive. {Note: Tape
missing. Transcript only.]
C1A Side 2 Topics covered include naval service during World War I;
potato work and harvesting; farming stories; family history; stories
of friends; acquisition of property; and snow plowing with horses.
C2 Side 1 Topics covered include naval service during World War I;
boat motors; clearing land; farming without machinery; the stock
market crash of 1929 in relation to farm loans; tax liens during the
1930s; collecting taxes; being a selectman; farming techniques for
potatoes; and dairy farming/milking techniques.
C2 Side 2 Topics covered include dairy farming/milking techniques;
Old Bake (Ansel Mitchell); Johnny Francis; sawing; John Botting and
tea; childhood pranks; Lowely Noyes (the town's first mailman);
Willard pond and a manure pile; Solomon Shaw; and deer hunting.
C3 Side 1 Topics covered include deer hunting; fishing in the Smyrna
region; Fritz Soule; potato sales; hauling pulp; a cookkee story
about Earnest Bates; cranberries; cows; a town lot; and pulp
transportation to Kingman.
C4 Side 1 Topics covered include a barn accident; Coral Ewings;
Stanley and Tunk Burpee; Stackpole; selling a cow to Tilly Palmer;
bears in the region; French and English relations in the region;
lumbering stories; working for the Hunt Company; types of sleds used
for logging; loosing teams of horses through the ice; and fishing in
the Millbrook region.
C4 Side 2 Topics covered include fishing in Bear Brook and Mill
Brook; Robert Palmer and his watch; Earl Bell and horse clippers;
Jim Buzzle and a horse; Will Shaw pressing hay; blueberrying;
stories about Frenchmen and Polacks working in the woods; George
Bryant buying snowshoes; family relations in region; apple picking
and storage (outdoor cellars); Christmas as a child for Don; home
remedies; injury incurred during World War I; river drives; haying
practices; Warren Clark's family; logging; working in snowstorms and
Mike Cassidy.
C5 Side 1 Topics covered include peeling; loading and hauling pulp;
Everett Bates; working for Frank Landry; cleaning brooks for drives;
working for Warren McGuire; using dynamite for breaking up log jams;
being a cookee on the Emerson drive; partridge hunting; Jerry Fanjoy
and his family; relationship between Bates and Mitchell families;
Uncle Oliver's stories; growing up; teachers at Stevens school; the
Botting family; spring poles; first model T ford truck; hauling
potatoes; working on the road with horses; earning town orders for
roadwork; working with Ira Tompkins; banking trucks; and Bake losing
his leg and hunting after the amputation.
C5 Side 2 Topics covered include deer hunting; Bake's care of his
amputated leg; duck hunting; encountering wardens; jacking (a type
of hunting method) deer; Steve's (one of Don's sons) hunting
experiences; changes in hunting over time including game wardens;
snow plowing before power plows; working as a teamster in the woods;
remedies for horses; Frasier cutting wood at the Botting place;
buying land during the war; the fire on the Botting place; getting
water before pump system installed for livestock; treating horses
suffering from blackwater; and John Mitchell.
C6 Side 1 Topics covered include building the church in Smyrna;
cutting the lumber for it; size of congregation; Don Bickford's
piano tuning; pine trees and Fritz; trapping a hedgehog; filing
saws; Friel's mill; pulping practices; and land purchasing/selling.
C6 Side 2 Topics covered include barns on Don's property and others;
snowshoeing; boils; buying the Botting place during World War II;
drilling wells; installing plumbing in 1951; barn raising; scale
rules and stories; tying pulp; cowhide; Fritz Soul's wood buying
practices; cutting ice; pranks played with bullets; the man with a
glass eye; hunting birch trees; battles with hornets; and drinking
Jamaica Ginger.
C7 Side 1 Topics covered include Vandy Drew's store; the drive on
Alder Brook; living conditions/free time in the woods; pranks;
working for Branscombe and Dewitt; cookees; food served; hospital
food; eating salmon in camps; farming; and balancing both farming
and working in the woods.
C7 Side 2 Topics covered include the Bottings' and other house
repairs; fires; mailing procedures; cutting seed for crops; feeding
livestock; water availability; using lime; road work; balancing
farming and logging; planting potatoes with horses; using pesticides
and fertilizers; cutting wood on the farm for sale; different
properties of trees; piling wood; and getting supplies from Boston
into the woods.
C8 Side 1 Topics covered include purchasing a window; family and
friend relations; Jakey Shur; business transactions; community life;
hauling pulp butts to Grindstone; the "Snow Gander"; limited crops
in Aroostook; working in the woods; hauling logs; Gus Kennedy; and
property lots.
C8 Side 2 Topics covered include the end of a story about selling
property to Palmington; property line dispute with Palmington; and
family property ownership.
C9 Side 1 Topics covered include Irving Huntley; Harry and Gladys
Miller; childhood memories (making soap; types of wildlife in
region; need for shoes; spinning; games); fishing; blueberrying;
teaching conditions for women; Ina Huntley; joining the navy (WWI)
and homesickness; harvest excursions; and building docks.
C9 Side 2 Topics covered include Frank's eyesight; house raising
after fires; cutting the paper (using unwanted stumps from pulping
for housing projects); community involvement in times of need;
Georgie Gould; blueberrying in Millinocket; Old Bake shooting a
moose; home brewing; checking radio compasses on boats in the Navy;
machine guns on the boats; running on racetracks; George Knight's
camp; horse stories; hair-raising stories; working on a log hauler
road; pine trees; corduroy roads; making ties and cutting pine;
hauling logs at night; furthest trip with a team of horses; and Well
Rockwell moving west.
C10 Side 1 Topics covered include being a selectman; helping poor
people in the community; getting rid of McKee; Alton Boyle;
townspeople who took advantage of help; mix-up about lumber with
Hosford; working with other elected officials; presidential
candidates in the 1930s; patrolling roads; Old Harrison Dewitt; Sam
Kilgore shooting off a gravestone; working for Phil Brannen; Arthur
and Guy Mitchell; marking logs; and a partial story about a guy
testing the saints.
C10 Side 2 includes stories - the end of the man testing saints;
artificial breeding; Doc Newman; Gerald's bull; putting dynamite on
a horse's head; blowing up a groundhog; raising sheep for wool; a
very lazy man; Alder Brook's layout; throwing Andrew's peavey away;
food on the drives; picking beans over; making bean-hole beans;
eating chicken for Thanksgiving; the first turkey for a holiday;
eating exotic meats; McKee's army stories; uncle George dating;
marrying cousins; celebrating a fourth of July without money;
dumping potatoes; and being on the board of selectmen.
C11 Side 1 Topics covered include road monkeying at Umcolcus;
working on an ice cart; working for Joe Michaud; working for Brannen;
Wallace getting stuck on the track near Kingman; hauling across
tracks; teamsters; pranks with Jim Seams; striking a buoy while in
the navy; having a party on the boat with a patrolman; Irish
policemen; schooling for Don's children; working for Stebbins Lumber
Co.; responsibilities of a cookee; and switches in the lumbering and
pulping business.
C11 Side 2 Topics covered include a rosher (pulp de-barking
machine); warming up on a Penobscot Development river drive on
Hasting Brook; seating arrangements for meals on river drives;
Perley Emery; Graden Murphy; checkerberry; learning how to drink
Jamaica Ginger; deer hunting with Dewey; prostrate problems; meeting
Roger's mother; McGidney and the lookout at Milimegassett; Lawyer
Shaw; doing chores at El's house; El's family members; Rabbi
Townsend butchering a hog; selling livestock; and an accident en
route to Houlton.
C12 Side 1 Topics covered include staying warm during drives; rigs
for potato hauling; pungs and buffalo robes; joke about a frenchman;
diets for workers; songs; buying mill wood; potato planting
techniques at the end of the 19th century; Bob Palmer's planting
machines; potato bugs; the porcupine in the camp's refrigerator;
shooting a porcupine and some hedgehogs; sourdough bread; using
grease from cooking; raising pigs; Steve and Charlie Bates; the
Indian term for wagon; dental work; Charlie Mack; Flora Mack
marrying Charlie Carpenter; Fred Hagan's recipe for living; and when
Doc Newman moved.
C12 Side 2 Topics covered include cows; getting good deals from
Canadian cow sellers; washing pails; hunting with a revolver; an
injury from installing a fan and its long term effects; cutting
ties; working with Harry Drew in Umcolcus; tote teams; a
photographer from Patten takiing pictures in Umcolcus; Harry Drew
getting frozen; Amsy Stevens death from a horse; other horse
stories; and other accidents incurred by Don.
C 13 Side 1. Topics covered include accidents while working and
playing; drive to Kingman; breaking roads; pay scale when working in
the woods; driving teams; driving pulp down a hill; Don's dad;
breaking camp; stealing a cocker spaniel; duration of stay in the
woods; railroads in Maine and using tracks on drives; losing loads;
fellow lumbermen; potato prices; communal Thanksgiving meals; taking
out loans; Ansel and Fielder Botting; jacking; and pranks. [Note:
Tape missing. Transcript only.]
C 13 Side 2. Topics covered include moving camp; Jimmy Wright (a
cookee); Gram Clark's bread; the Vinegar twins; Ernest Bates; eating
goldfish; beans; and salmon; cutting wood along a swamp; Uncle John
Rockwell business dealings; M. I. Lee; Sam Gopan; Jaky; Jose Bates;
getting the river ready for a drive; Stair Falls; running boats near
falls; Emerson drive; Crystal Brook; Ed Kennedy's drowning; Clair
Clayton; working for the Hunt Company; security in the woods with
guns; fishing at Trout Brook with Ed; and pranks on Ed. [Note: Tape
missing. Transcript only.]
C13A Side 1 Topics covered include Bake licensing Don's truck; the
bear near the house; living in the woods; deer hunting; trying out
guns; bear story; Jiggs McNalley jacking; and relations with
wardens.
C14 Side 1 Topics covered include Christmas when working in the
woods; Arthur Bertlett; getting first horses for farm; financing
from the Tarbells; going to Drew's Deadwater on a drive; going to
Nantucket while in the navy; pulping on the upper place and
transporting it; and hauling bark.
C 14 Side 2 Topics covered include potato business; going down the
Hasting for a river drive; Perley Hersey fishing; putting a boom of
logs in the wrong cove; Orin Mitchell and Mitchell family history;
Oliver's corn cob pipe; the Mitchells in Argyle; quitting job with
Frank Landry; letting cattle run; a starch job; and loaning farm
machinery.
C15 Side 1 Topics covered include Gram Mitchell; desire to move to
Patten; old folks burning choppings; Grandpa Mitchell's age vs. size
of family when he died; church affiliation of parents; Herb
Hardy's big Cadillac; bird and moose hunting; young Frank McManus
getting shot; rigging dynamite logs; tying logs to hauler sleds;
Clint Corey and the bear; and Clint's practical jokes.
C15 Side 2 Topics covered include Ansel Mitchell; Gene Mason and dam
crews; shooting a loon; an ax with a blade sticking up; Buster
Mitchell; Cash Harris; Roy Mitchell; playing with pig bladders;
farmers going on drives in the spring; coffee story; Ed Seams;
family history; bad odors on the farm; Alton Boyle; town history;
and Scott Bates.
C16 Side 1 Topics covered include the last drive on the river and
getting papers to join the navy on the drive; going to Boston once
enlisted; navy experiences; planting conditions for potatoes;
businesses in Smyrna; Don's first ride in airplane; Mrs. Braun and
beechnuts; cost of mortgage on upper place; Don's parents; Frank
Bates in the army; and Jimmy Wright and his cookees.
C16 Side 2 Topics covered include Jimmy Wright as a cookee; catching
men asleep on drives; Don's shoulder being broken; losing peavies in
the waterhole; stories heard on the radio; basketball with Fred and
Leon Tarbell and Johnny Fitzgerald; leg injury; finding burlap in
beans; Don as a cookee; the foreclosure on a piece of property;
paying taxes; cutting logs on sleds; peeling bark; and a railroad
made of whitewood.
C17 Side 1 Topics covered include Enoch Hughes (minister); the
Mitchell girls' musical talents; horses; bulls; boar pigs; the
Rockwells (Don's mother's family); other family history; staying
with Uncle El (Rockwell); peeling hemlock; and working for Ralph
Furrow.
C17 Side 2 Topics covered include the social security system; work
ethics; World War II; Roger Tozier's stories; Old Bake not taking
ether; Les Curtis and Graden Murphy; Dill and Tracey Brook; hunting
stories; Clint Corey's camp; and Bake's camp.
C18 Side 1 Topics covered include Graydon Branson's saw; Irving's
carelessness with private property; Billy Bates running for high
sheriff; Billy's character and livelihood; Ed Kennedy's baseball
team; sons; and family relations; and Gary Chasing shooting a cow.
C19 Side 1 was recorded at Jackson sluice and includes stories about
life before service during World War I; the mechanics of going down
the river; boys blowing up dynamite at Jackson sluice; people
running the sluice; and catching up with river companions.
2008 Mitchell; Roger E. Maine: Aroostook County. 31 pp. Drawings and
descriptions of sleds used in the woods. Made in connection with his
biography of his father, Don Mitchell. This was published as
Northeast Folklore XIX (1979) "I'm a Man That Works". See also: NA
1202.
