MF 117 Frye Mountain Interviews/ Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 117 Frye Mountain Interviews/ Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen

Number of accessions: 7
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1991 & 2002
Time period covered: 1930s – 1950s
Principal interviewers: Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen and Fred Nehring
Finding aides: transcript
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews done by Jeff “Smokey” McKeen concerning the farming community of Frye Mountain in Waldo county and its acquisition by the federal government in the 1930s.

NA2205 Denby Larrabee and Geneva Larrabee, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen, October 28, 1991, in Knox, Maine. The Larrabees discuss the Frye Mountain community in the 1930s – 1950s; land purchases on the mountain by the government during the Great Depression; resistance of the local farmers to selling; problems with mountain roads; burning of farm buildings; dairy farming; unsuitability of roads for automobiles; lumbering in the 1950s; disagreement with how the land is currently used; and how loss of services forced remaining owners to sell to the government. Text: 23 pp. transcript. Recording: C 0845.

NA2206 Clayton Littlefield, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen, November 14, 1991, Montville, Maine. Littlefield talks about his childhood on Frye Mountain; problem of roads unsuitable for automobiles in most seasons; mountain land as good for farming; local families; federal government purchase of land; burning of the farm buildings; partial relocation of cemetery; failure of government to pay town for lost tax income; employment of local men by CCC, turning mountain into a park; and means of income other than farming. Text: 26 pp. transcript. Recording: C 0846.

NA2207 Albert Jackson, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen, December 2, 1991, Morrill, Maine. Jackson talks about the federal government purchase of Frye Mountain land during the Great Depression; story of his grandfather’s (illegal) still; grandfather’s business as an auctioneer; making and selling bootleg alcohol during Prohibition; community knowledge of the bootlegging; and his grandfather’s experience letting 500 hogs loose on the mountain. Text: 18 pp. transcript. Recording: C 0847 45 minutes.

NA2208 Roland Stewart, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen, December 8, 1991, Freedom, Maine. Stewart talks about the Frye Mountain community in the 1930s; carbide lights; small family farms; his schooling; role of bad roads in prompting people to sell land to the government; the burning of farm buildings; local men hired by WPA to work on mountain; and Frye Mountain in 1991. Text: 20 pp. transcript. Recording: C 0848 45 minutes.

NA2209 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; necessity of selling once neighbors had sold as road no longer maintained; raccoon hunting; anecdotes from life on Frye Mountain; and the prevalence of game poaching. Text: 31 pp. transcript. Recording: C 0849 1 hour.

NA2824 Clayton Littlefield, interviewed by Fred Nehring for HTY 210 for Pauleena MacDougall, May 9, 2002, Montville, Maine. Littlefield talks about the federal government’s purchase of farmlands in the Frye Mountain area during the mid-1930s: the layout and residents of the community of Frye Mountain in the 1930s; farming; poor roads; CCC built roads; federal purchase of farm land; cemeteries; schooling on Frye Mountain; Freedom Academy. Text: 27 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2003.

NA3931 Roy Hatch, interviewed by Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen, December 2, 1991, at Hatch’s home in Morrill, Maine. Hatch talks about Frye Mountain, where he was born and grew up. Text: 14 pp. index/transcript. Recording: mfc_na3931_c0847_01 28 minutes.