MF 063 UM-Augusta Communication Course Interviews

0Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 063 UM-Augusta Communication Course Interviews

Number of accessions: 20
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1975, 1977, 1978
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: none
Finding aides: indexes
Access restrictions: none
Description: The collection consists of a series of interviews done for a University of Maine at Augusta course in Speaker-Audience Communications, Fall 1977. Topics covered include: the Farnsworth Museum; the Robert Abbe Museum; Lucy Farnsworth; Rockland, Maine, in the early 1900s; Northport in the War of 1812; Waldoboro News Stand; Knox Arboretum in Warren, Maine; lace mills and the lace business in St. George, Maine; lime kilns; Clark Island Quarry and quarry stone cutting; farm life in Vassalboro in the 1930s and 1940s; the Children’s Aid Society; Sweetser Children’s Home in Saco, Maine; Fleming’s Upholstery Shop in Rockland; Stockton Springs; work as a town clerk; Rockland, Thomaston, and Camden Street Railway; teaching in Warren and Northport; Butler’s Boatyard; Snow’s Shipyard; Graffam Island; lobstering; Belfast, Maine; recreational activities in Thomaston, Maine, in the 1930s; sawmills; school systems; transportation of blueberries to market; and the Christmas tree business.

0985 Dana Hodgkins, interviewed by Joseph Narauska for HY 345, summer 1975, Hermon, Maine. 31 pp. Tape: 1 1/4 hrs. w/ brief cat. & trans. Hodgkins about his career in the aviation industry; air shows at Augusta; changes in safety and tool development. Text: brief catalog and transcript. Recording: T 0985 1 1/4 hours.

1152 Wendell Hadlock, interviewed by Katherine Weatherbee for COM 101-46, fall 1977, Rockland, Maine. 10 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Hadlock, former curator of the Farnsworth Museum, talks about his educational background and publications; his anthropological studies of Maine Indians; his time as Director of the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland; his work at the Robert Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor; his understanding of the work of Dr. Frank Speck, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm and others; his thesis “War Among the Northeast Woodland Indians;” Gluskap; Indian music, dance, art, and entertainment; the Iroquois League; the Green Corn ceremony and Mid-winter ceremony; White Dog sacrifice; tribal government; Indian Island; uses of nature and relationship to the environment; basket making; canoes; crafts; Red Paint; Katahdin Iron Works; tobacco, etc. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1218 – T 1219 / C 1720 – C 1721 (originals) 1 hour.

1153 Winola Cooper, interviewed by Sandra Huntly for COM 101-46, December 22, 1977, Rockland, Maine. 11 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Cooper talks about Farnsworth family history including Lucy Farnsworth’s donation of $1,300,000 estate to construct and support the William Farnsworth Library and Art Museum in Rockland; recollections of Rockland in early 20th century; modes of transportation including electric trolley car, horse and buggy, and steamship. Also mentioned Rockland Water Company; children’s entertainment; “Ship’s Rock;” Turnpike Hill; holidays; four horse sleigh called the “Mammoth;” Ford cars and Stanley Steamers; the last three masted schooner launched from Snow’s Shipyard; lighthouses and fog horns; Limerock Street; homes torn down for Farnsworth Museum; Thurlow’s Ice Cream Parlor. Text: brief catalog. Recording: C 1722 (Original), T 1219 – T 1220 1 hour.

1154 Ruth Wiley, interviewed by Connie Leavitt for COM 101-46, April 20, 1977, Rockland, Maine. 6 pp. Tape: 3/4 hr. w/ brief cat. Wiley, 81, recounts stories told to her by her great-grandmother (in 1908) of British soldiers landing in Northport in War of 1812; Sunday picnics at Oakland Park; picking blueberries near Bear Cave; Roscoe Staples and his band; Lucy Farnsworth’s interactions with her grandfather, Fred Smith; horse races; Thurlow’s Ice Cream Parlor; sickness and herbal remedies; worst storms she remembers; heavy snow drifts. Text: brief catalog. Recording: C 1723 (original), T 1220 3/4 hour.

1155 Douglas Parent, interviewed by Richard Petrovitz for COM 101-46), spring 1977, Waldoboro, Maine. 7 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Parent, 59, owner of the Waldoboro News Stand, talks about his life, business, community, opinions past and present. UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Text: 5 pp. catalog. Recording: T 1121, C 1724, PM 0256 1 hour.

1156 Diane Corbett, interviewed by David Provost for COM 101-46, April 22, 1977, Thomaston, Maine. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Corbett talks about the Knox Arboretum in Warren, Maine; early history of the area where the Arboretum is located (Indian attacks, ship building, etc.); lime quarry operations; building occupants during the 1960s who lived there with a pet lion; early ship building on George’s River. Text: 2 pp. brief catalog. Recording: T 1222, C 1725 (original) 1/2 hour.

1157 Andrew Crowe, interviewed by Anne Copeland for COM 101-46, April 23, 1977, Thomaston, Maine.Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Crowe, age 80 and a retired lace mill owner and operator, talks about the lace business in St. George, Maine 22 years ago; his life and background working in mills; his decision to start a lace mill in St. George, Maine in the 1950s; aspects of work and operations in a lace mill; sources of machinery used for lace mills including part of a plant in Lewiston, Maine. [Note: The lace mill in St. George had been converted to a rope mill at the time of the interview.] Text: 1 pp. brief catalog, 2 pp. interviewer’s notes. Recording: T 1222 – T 1223, C 1726 (original), CD 0985 – 0986 1 hour.

1158 Irving “Baldy” Keizer, interviewed by Ib T. Barfod for COM 101-46, January 12, 1978, Rockland, Maine. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Keizer, b. 1906 and who was one of the last surviving lime rock wagon drivers in the area, talks about his life; details of the work of quarrying and lime rock driving; lime kiln operations; uses for lime; home and community life in 1910-1920s (including entertainment, foodstuffs, medicines, etc.); caring for wagons and horse teams; his contentment with his retired life (mentions emphysema from lime dust in his lungs); humorous anecdote about cleaning up after a horse; horse rental business in the 1940s; a quarry accident. Text: 3 pp. brief catalog. Recording: T 1223, C 1727 (original), CD 0990 1 hour.

1159 Bjarne Peterson, by Joan W. Watts for COM 101-46, April 27, 1977, St. George, Maine. 2 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Also present: Ina Peterson and Floyd G. Watts. Petersen talks about beginning work as a stone cutter in Norway at age 9; immigrating to the U. S. at age 17 to work at quarry; stone cutting mostly for the Clark Island Quarries in Maine; his immigration experience in 1923, explanations of quarry operations, tools, etc. especially as they relate to stone cutting; his work helping cut stone for buildings at West Point (New York); Italian stone cutters working in Egypt (Maine?); wages; and home life. Text: 2 pp. brief catalog. Recording: T 1224, C 1728 (original), CD 0966.

1160 Robert J. Howe, interviewed by Moyle B. Howe for COM 101-46, December 20, 1977, Vassalboro, Maine. 11 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ trans. Recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Howe talks about farm life in Vassalboro during the 1930s and 40s; heating; family lineage; schooling; natural resources; canning; telephone party-line; entertainment (harvest fair, box socials, etc.); helping neighbors; shopping; mail order catalogs (Sears Roebuck); itinerant peddlers. Text: transcript. Recording: T 1225, C 1729 (original) 1/2 hour.

1161 Margaret M. Stone, interviewed by Karen Scott for COM 101-46, December 11, 1977, Belfast, Maine. 7 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview done in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Stone (age 80) talks about the formation of the Children’s Aid Society in 1893, its operation over the years, and its cooperation with the Sweetser Children’s Home in Saco and the Portland Childrens’ Home. Topics include legislative authority to establish “Homes” for the needy in Maine; the Girls’ Home in Belfast (funding, management, activities); and history of relations between the various organizations. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1225 (cassette original = C1730) 1/2 hour.

1162 Evelyn Fleming Raymond, interviewed by John Graf for COM 101-46, May 9, 1977, Rockland, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Raymond (age 71), former owner of Fleming’s Upholstery Shop in Rockland, talks about how she got her start in the furniture upholstery trade and relates some of her experiences as an accomplished upholsterer; impact of World War II on the upholstery trade; upholstery work for summer people; new fabrics and materials introduced for upholstering; comments on modern furniture styles versus antiques. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1225 / C 1731 (original) 1 hour.

1163 Walter Trundy, interviewed by James Stewart for COM 101-46, December 15, 1977, Bradbury Nursing Home, Belfast, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Trundy (age 98) talks about growing up in Stockton Springs, Maine; his many years as town clerk; hunting licenses; Mr. Trundy’s thoughts on living in Maine; his work as a storekeeper; prices seventy five years ago; a fisherman story; stone quarrying; hunting stories; Trundy’s thoughts on Indian land claims; his job as town clerk. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1226 1/2 hour.

1164 Jennie F. Butler, interviewed by Evelyn Boyington for COM 101-46, April 22, 1977, Thomaston, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview done in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Butler (age 84) lived most of her life on Old County Road in Thomaston where the trolley used to run past her house. The interview is concerned with her recollections of the Rockland, Thomaston and Camden Street Railway; boys jumping on cow catchers; Fourth of July firecrackers; tricks played by boys to aggravate the motorman; plowing snow off the trolley tracks; the trolley barn; cost to ride; description of cars; motorman and conductor; children placing items on track to be flattened by trolley car; children playing on siding; method of reversing trolley by shifting electric pole. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1226 (cassette original = C 1733) 1/2 hour.

1165 Edith F. Mahoney, inteviewed by Patricia Ryan for COM 101-46, May 1977, Rockland, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview done in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Mahoney taught school in Warren, Maine and talks about teaching in Warren and Northport in 1918-1920; her education at Castine Normal School (Maine Maritime Academy); Finnish children in the school; riding to school on a “pung” or horse pulled sled; traveling on the Boston Boat from Rockland to Belfast; traveling on the Maine Central Railroad; traveling in winter by horse drawn sleigh; taking trolley to Oakland Park in Rockport; the dancing pavilion at Oakland Park; entertainment at the Park; the saw mill at Snow’s Shipyard; a six-masted ship built at Butler’s Shipyard (the “Myrtle B. Crowley”); prices for food and lodging in those days. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1226 – T 1227 (cassette original = C 1734) 1/2 hour.

1166 Myles Weston, recorded by Priscilla Barnes for COM 101-46, April 22 and May 9, 1977, Thomaston, Maine. 6 pp. Tape: 1 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview done in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Weston (born 1898) tells his personal history and talks about history of the Thomaston area; attending Rockland Commercial College; earning money as a chauffeur; working at Thomaston Garage; playing on Thomaston waterfront as a boy; shipbuilding before and after World War I (names several ships); sail lofts; piloting ships out of the harbor; various aspects of sailing and life at sea; the lime business; the Maine State Prison and its industries; lime kilns (J. A. Creighton Co.); lime schooners; limerock hauling and lime casks made by farmers; community dances (anecdotes); older buildings and residents of Thomaston. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1227 (cassette original = C 1735) 1 hour.

1167 Walter Drinkwater, Sr., interviewed by Cinda Peterson for COM 101-46, spring 1977, Graffam Island, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Drinkwater (age 69) was a lobster fisherman off the coast of Spruce Head for the past 57 years. He has been caretaker for Graffam Island for the past 43 years and talks about the fishing industry; houses built on Graffam Island; boats owned by Drinkwater; dogs (Black Labrador Retrievers) he has owned; description of Graffam Island; family history; development of Spruce Head; service in the Coast Guard; Lighthouse Service, Merchant Marines; rum runners and bootleggers; other memories and aspects of life on Graffam Island. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1228 (cassette original = C 1736).

1168 Charles Robbins, interviewed by Dorothy Ann Rich for COM 101-46, March 19, 1977, Belfast, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Robbins talks about Belfast from 1901 to 1977. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1228 (cassette original = C 1737) 1/2 hour.

1169 Sally Hill, interviewed by Pamela Jones for COM 101-46, December 21, 1977, Thomaston, Maine. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Hill talks about recreational activities during her youth in Thomaston in the 1930s. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1229 (cassette original = C 1738) 1/2 hour.

1170 Roy Hobbs, interviewed by Susan Leonard for class (COM 101-46) in Spring 1977. Maine: Hope. 5 pp. Tape: 1/2 hr. w/ brief cat. Interview recorded in conjunction with student work done for UM-Augusta, Speaker-Audience Communication Course. Hobbs talks about sawmills; school systems; transportation of blueberries to market; Christmas tree business. Text: brief catalog. Recording: T 1229, T 1230 (cassette original = C 1739).