((The last in my repost of the series in honor of Clarence's 120th birthday
on 18 Mar 2015. This was first printed in 2008.
This is the last part of my Granduncle Clarence West’s
memories as taken from “The History of Wilsons Mills-and-
the- Magalloway -Settlements” . The subjects range from
“squirrel whiskey” to grist mills and the cost of food.
“P.C. Ripley worked at the dam when they were building it.
He was the top blacksmith. He could make most anything.
He made wrenches and tools of all kinds for the crews.
Ripley used to say that Brown Company kept all the
ingredients to make `squirrel ’whiskey. You just mix up a
batch, then bury it in the ground to season it. When you dig
it up it’s pretty stout, but good. Just one drink of it will make
a squirrel go up a tree tail first!
That grist stone they took out of the river this spring was
the top stone. If you look at it you can see the holes in it.
There’s a thing goes through the hole in the middle to pick it
up by. Too bad they couldn’t find the other stone. It used to
take days to sharpen those stones. It was all done by hand
and they all had to be the same. They had a nice grist mill at
Errol Dam. They had two stones, one special for buckwheat
and one for flour. The top stone sets still and the bottom one
goes around. You had to be awful careful to keep the grain
running all the time.
If you heard the click of the stones hitting together you
knew you were going to get something hard on your teeth.
The grain went down the cellar to a hopper, onto a
conveyor, through a machine they called the `smut’ mill,
then back upstairs and into a rig they called a bolt. This
was a cylinder screen about 10 feet long and about three
feet around. It had different sized screens and it kept turning
over and over and the grain fell into a row of boxes under it.
When it was done you pulled out a drawer and filled your
bag.
“There’s sure some difference in the price of flour and meat
and everything nowadays. I can remember when Joe and
Martha Brooks had a little store over in Upton. Joe would
kill a cow and go and peddle it around for three cents a
pound. Milk was five cents a quart; butter was high,
twenty-five cents a pound. Eggs were one cent apiece.
When I was going to school, anytime I needed pencils or
paper or anything for school, I’d go out to the barn and get
a few eggs to trade for what I needed.
You know, I was thinking about it the other day, I’ve had
boats all the time I’ve been here, and that’s going on
fifty-one years, and I’ve only been to the head of the lake
ten times.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.96-97
Showing posts with label West Clarence P.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Clarence P.. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT2
((Another of three blogposts in celebration of Clarence West's 120th
birthday. First posted in 2008.))
Here’s part two of my Granduncle Clarence’s memories
of the construction of the Azicohos Dam as it appeared in
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements” including a wandering cow and Clarence taking
a shortcut across the top of the dam:
“Roberge cut the flowage. They used to bring the water
up to the works to keep the frost out of the north side of
the dam. When the water is low you can still see where
the steam pipes cooked the cement. Roberge finished the
flowage by cutting off the trees right at the top of the ice.
Brown Company’s tow-boats had quite a time at first.
Sometimes they’d make a mistake and end up in the woods,
or wind the tow-line up in the propeller, or knock a blade
off the propeller in the dri-ki(driftwood). Stan Wentzell was
the one who finally corralled the dri-ki by booming it in the
coves. Stan was a good man. When he told you something
you could believe it.
There used to be a quarry up in back of the barracks.
When Clarence Gray logged in there a few years ago he
cut trees out of it. That concrete pit up back was the water
pit. Water lines ran down to the houses, storehouses, cook
camps, etc. On one of the cottages the front porch was way
up high. When I had a cow, every time she didn’t come
when I called, I always knew where to find her. Under
that porch!
They used to have a telephone line run up from the top of
the dam to the foot of the sluice. You remember Pat
Crowley. It was his job to stay on the top of the dam and
stop the wood if anything went wrong. It took six feet of
water to sluice and the wood went nine-tenths of a mile in
three minutes. That sluice was the slickest piece of work I
ever saw. It sure took some figuring. George Freeman
designed it. He went to school with Paul Bean. He came
from Gorham, Me. After he left here he went to Chicago
to work on a hotel that was tipping over. Then he helped
build a railroad through the Rocky Mountains. After that
he went out to San Francisco and worked on the Golden
Gate bridge.
Bean and Harris came up one day to see about doing
something to the sluice gates. We drove around to the other
side of the dam and then Bean discovered he need the
blueprints that had been left over at the house. He was
going to send his driver over after them but I told him I
could do it quicker. There was about an inch of water
running over the splashboards but I went across and got
the papers. When I got back, Bean stood there with his
hands in his pockets watching me. He said `I didn’t like to
see you do that, Clarence!’ It wasn’t long after that they
put in the bridge above the splashboards.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.)
pp.95-96
birthday. First posted in 2008.))
Here’s part two of my Granduncle Clarence’s memories
of the construction of the Azicohos Dam as it appeared in
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements” including a wandering cow and Clarence taking
a shortcut across the top of the dam:
“Roberge cut the flowage. They used to bring the water
up to the works to keep the frost out of the north side of
the dam. When the water is low you can still see where
the steam pipes cooked the cement. Roberge finished the
flowage by cutting off the trees right at the top of the ice.
Brown Company’s tow-boats had quite a time at first.
Sometimes they’d make a mistake and end up in the woods,
or wind the tow-line up in the propeller, or knock a blade
off the propeller in the dri-ki(driftwood). Stan Wentzell was
the one who finally corralled the dri-ki by booming it in the
coves. Stan was a good man. When he told you something
you could believe it.
There used to be a quarry up in back of the barracks.
When Clarence Gray logged in there a few years ago he
cut trees out of it. That concrete pit up back was the water
pit. Water lines ran down to the houses, storehouses, cook
camps, etc. On one of the cottages the front porch was way
up high. When I had a cow, every time she didn’t come
when I called, I always knew where to find her. Under
that porch!
They used to have a telephone line run up from the top of
the dam to the foot of the sluice. You remember Pat
Crowley. It was his job to stay on the top of the dam and
stop the wood if anything went wrong. It took six feet of
water to sluice and the wood went nine-tenths of a mile in
three minutes. That sluice was the slickest piece of work I
ever saw. It sure took some figuring. George Freeman
designed it. He went to school with Paul Bean. He came
from Gorham, Me. After he left here he went to Chicago
to work on a hotel that was tipping over. Then he helped
build a railroad through the Rocky Mountains. After that
he went out to San Francisco and worked on the Golden
Gate bridge.
Bean and Harris came up one day to see about doing
something to the sluice gates. We drove around to the other
side of the dam and then Bean discovered he need the
blueprints that had been left over at the house. He was
going to send his driver over after them but I told him I
could do it quicker. There was about an inch of water
running over the splashboards but I went across and got
the papers. When I got back, Bean stood there with his
hands in his pockets watching me. He said `I didn’t like to
see you do that, Clarence!’ It wasn’t long after that they
put in the bridge above the splashboards.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.)
pp.95-96
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1
((I first published this and two other posts back in 2008. Today is the 120th
anniversary of Clarence's birth, so I thought I'd repost the series. It's an
interesting look into life in the lumber industry in early 20th century
Maine.))
My granduncle Clarence P(hilip) West was the caretaker of
the Azizcoos Dam in Wilsons Mills, Oxford, Maine for
fifty years. He was born in Cambridge, New Hampshire on
17 March, 1895 to Philip J. West and Clara (Ellingwood)West
and died on 5 June 1983. The SSDI gives his place of
residence as Errol, Coos Co., New Hampshire at the time
of his death.
Clarence married Mabel Jane Ilsley on 25 Jun 1919 and
together they had three children: their son Lee and their
daughters Leita and Ruth.
When Wilsons Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1975
they decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book:
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements”. It includes an interview with Clarence about
his memories of his time at the Azizcoos Dam and it makes an
interesting companion to the memories my Aunt Dorothy
sent me about her and my Dad’s time there as children,
which I posted here.
Today is the 120th anniversary of Clarence’s birth, so in
honor of him, here’s part one of the interview from the book:
“Clarence P. West, at eighty still caretaker at Aziscoos
Dam, is an interesting man to talk with. He was here
recently to look at some old pictures that had been brought
into the book committee on the building of the Azizcoos
Dam and we got him talking of the old days. He came here
as caretaker in 1924 and has been here ever since. We first
asked him how he happened to come here. These are some
of his comments.
“When we were first married I went to Pontook to work on
a survey with Walter Sawyer. Mabel and I lived in a tent
that summer. Sawyer would have had a nice dam there if
they had let him. He had one planned that was near four
thousand feet across with penstocks clear to Twitchell’s
for power. From that job I went to Lisbon to work in a
sawmill for West Bros. Later I went to see Mr. Bean about
a job and he told me to send in my application. There were
about a hundred other applications but when they got
narrowed down to five I was still one of them. After
Vashaw died, Lewis Chadwick was transferred to Errol and
I came up here. That was in 1924.
When the new Dam was built the gate house on the old dam
was removed and set up for a blacksmith shop. It still stands
there to-day just in back of the parking area. You know, the
timbers in that old shop were hewed by hand.
One of the big towers to hold the cable was up back of the
house, the other one was almost over to where the road to
Rangeley is now. There was a double track from the end of
the dam to the quarry up back on the hill. The cars worked
from a cable, when one went down, the other came back
up. There was a track with a whole string of cars that they
loaded with a steam shovel. The tops of the cars turned
around to dump. That shovel was on wheels and they had
to keep planks under the wheels all the time. It was set up
in a pit to load dirt for fill on the south side of the cam. The
cars were hauled along the tracks by a big black horse. And
when the whistle blew at quitting time that horse stopped
right in his tracks and there he stood till someone unhitched
him and headed him for the stables.
When they were building the dam it was nothing to meet
a string of horses a half mile long from Colebrook to
Azicoos.”
(to be continued)
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.94-95
anniversary of Clarence's birth, so I thought I'd repost the series. It's an
interesting look into life in the lumber industry in early 20th century
Maine.))
My granduncle Clarence P(hilip) West was the caretaker of
the Azizcoos Dam in Wilsons Mills, Oxford, Maine for
fifty years. He was born in Cambridge, New Hampshire on
17 March, 1895 to Philip J. West and Clara (Ellingwood)West
and died on 5 June 1983. The SSDI gives his place of
residence as Errol, Coos Co., New Hampshire at the time
of his death.
Clarence married Mabel Jane Ilsley on 25 Jun 1919 and
together they had three children: their son Lee and their
daughters Leita and Ruth.
When Wilsons Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1975
they decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book:
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements”. It includes an interview with Clarence about
his memories of his time at the Azizcoos Dam and it makes an
interesting companion to the memories my Aunt Dorothy
sent me about her and my Dad’s time there as children,
which I posted here.
Today is the 120th anniversary of Clarence’s birth, so in
honor of him, here’s part one of the interview from the book:
“Clarence P. West, at eighty still caretaker at Aziscoos
Dam, is an interesting man to talk with. He was here
recently to look at some old pictures that had been brought
into the book committee on the building of the Azizcoos
Dam and we got him talking of the old days. He came here
as caretaker in 1924 and has been here ever since. We first
asked him how he happened to come here. These are some
of his comments.
“When we were first married I went to Pontook to work on
a survey with Walter Sawyer. Mabel and I lived in a tent
that summer. Sawyer would have had a nice dam there if
they had let him. He had one planned that was near four
thousand feet across with penstocks clear to Twitchell’s
for power. From that job I went to Lisbon to work in a
sawmill for West Bros. Later I went to see Mr. Bean about
a job and he told me to send in my application. There were
about a hundred other applications but when they got
narrowed down to five I was still one of them. After
Vashaw died, Lewis Chadwick was transferred to Errol and
I came up here. That was in 1924.
When the new Dam was built the gate house on the old dam
was removed and set up for a blacksmith shop. It still stands
there to-day just in back of the parking area. You know, the
timbers in that old shop were hewed by hand.
One of the big towers to hold the cable was up back of the
house, the other one was almost over to where the road to
Rangeley is now. There was a double track from the end of
the dam to the quarry up back on the hill. The cars worked
from a cable, when one went down, the other came back
up. There was a track with a whole string of cars that they
loaded with a steam shovel. The tops of the cars turned
around to dump. That shovel was on wheels and they had
to keep planks under the wheels all the time. It was set up
in a pit to load dirt for fill on the south side of the cam. The
cars were hauled along the tracks by a big black horse. And
when the whistle blew at quitting time that horse stopped
right in his tracks and there he stood till someone unhitched
him and headed him for the stables.
When they were building the dam it was nothing to meet
a string of horses a half mile long from Colebrook to
Azicoos.”
(to be continued)
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.94-95
Saturday, October 09, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE CONCLUSION
In the final installment of excerpts from a 1975 interview, GrandUncle
Clarence recalls more about his life as a logger in Oxford County, Maine.
Thanks once again to Alan Johnson for sharing this interview with me.
Alan is working on a book about the region in Maine my West ancestors
come from, entitled "Another Day in Paradise: History and Memories
of the Magalloway Settlements". I look forward to reading it when it's
published!
A note here: part of this deals with how Clarence lost two fingers so
be warned:
“When I was 17 they wanted me to roll logs on the carriage and I
did that all summer long. I loved it.
The next year I went to Stratford to haul logs for George Van Dyke,
a lumber tycoon with the Connecticut Valley Lumber Co., and
Holyoke Lumber Co., Holyoke, Mass. That was in the days before
there were very many cars and Van Dyke used to ride around in
one driven by a chauffeur. The chauffer drove him onto a high
ledge over the dam so he could oversee the operation. The
chauffer must have let the car out of gear because it rolled
over the cliff and that was the end of both of them. I was just
upriver working
***************************
“The equipment we used was capable of hauling 40 foot logs and
about 7,000 feet of lumber a load. Our runners were hard wood,
seven inches by nine and the roll was seven feet long. The bunks
were 12” by 12” of hard wood and the rockers were 12 feet long.
I’ve loaded many of them. Mister, drove many of them too.
Several times we hauled over the ice and lookout when she starts
to go under you. Just haul a chain around the horses’ collars and
get them out. Let the sledge go. That happened more than once,
I’ll tell you. But, many a driver could tell you that.
*********************************
I remember the time I was monkeying around trying to make an
adjustment under the mill and hadn’t bothered to shut it off. Well,
she snipped off two of my fingers.
I come out from under her and went down to the doctor. He said
he couldn’t help me, to go to the hospital. Well, I remember I
hadn’t filed my report, so I come back here and wrote out my
dam report.
After and hour or so I got it filed and I posted it, then my friend
started to the hospital with me. I had my hand in a raincoat and it
was filled with blood dripping onto the floor of the car. I said to
my friend, ‘I think I’m going to take a little snooze,’ and then
keeled right over.
They got me to Dr. Paul Brinkman and he fixed me up lovely.”
*********************************
I’ve been a lumberjack, teamster, truck driver, mechanic and river
driver and dam tender. I’ve been here at this dam since 1924 tending
it and next month they’re shipping me out. I might add that I don’t
like that a bit.
What am I going to do? I’ll probably get my old sawmill into
operation and saw some lumber.”
Clarence recalls more about his life as a logger in Oxford County, Maine.
Thanks once again to Alan Johnson for sharing this interview with me.
Alan is working on a book about the region in Maine my West ancestors
come from, entitled "Another Day in Paradise: History and Memories
of the Magalloway Settlements". I look forward to reading it when it's
published!
A note here: part of this deals with how Clarence lost two fingers so
be warned:
“When I was 17 they wanted me to roll logs on the carriage and I
did that all summer long. I loved it.
The next year I went to Stratford to haul logs for George Van Dyke,
a lumber tycoon with the Connecticut Valley Lumber Co., and
Holyoke Lumber Co., Holyoke, Mass. That was in the days before
there were very many cars and Van Dyke used to ride around in
one driven by a chauffeur. The chauffer drove him onto a high
ledge over the dam so he could oversee the operation. The
chauffer must have let the car out of gear because it rolled
over the cliff and that was the end of both of them. I was just
upriver working
***************************
“The equipment we used was capable of hauling 40 foot logs and
about 7,000 feet of lumber a load. Our runners were hard wood,
seven inches by nine and the roll was seven feet long. The bunks
were 12” by 12” of hard wood and the rockers were 12 feet long.
I’ve loaded many of them. Mister, drove many of them too.
Several times we hauled over the ice and lookout when she starts
to go under you. Just haul a chain around the horses’ collars and
get them out. Let the sledge go. That happened more than once,
I’ll tell you. But, many a driver could tell you that.
*********************************
I remember the time I was monkeying around trying to make an
adjustment under the mill and hadn’t bothered to shut it off. Well,
she snipped off two of my fingers.
I come out from under her and went down to the doctor. He said
he couldn’t help me, to go to the hospital. Well, I remember I
hadn’t filed my report, so I come back here and wrote out my
dam report.
After and hour or so I got it filed and I posted it, then my friend
started to the hospital with me. I had my hand in a raincoat and it
was filled with blood dripping onto the floor of the car. I said to
my friend, ‘I think I’m going to take a little snooze,’ and then
keeled right over.
They got me to Dr. Paul Brinkman and he fixed me up lovely.”
*********************************
I’ve been a lumberjack, teamster, truck driver, mechanic and river
driver and dam tender. I’ve been here at this dam since 1924 tending
it and next month they’re shipping me out. I might add that I don’t
like that a bit.
What am I going to do? I’ll probably get my old sawmill into
operation and saw some lumber.”
Friday, October 08, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE5
GrandUncle Clarence led an interesting life. Here he talks about
blowing up a mountaintop and handling a team of skittish horses.
And he was still a teenager at the time! :
“I was born March 17, 1895 in Cambridge, NH. I’m 80, and mister,
last winter I shoveled snow off 35 camps!
Father used to blacksmith for Blanchard and Twitchell. He looked
after the campsite and he was a good logger.
I never got much learning, left school in the fourth grade and by the
time I was 15 had my own steam drill. I was going to be an engineer.
Just happened the engineer, Silas F. Peasely, same engineer who put
the road up Mount Washington, was working in these parts and I
went up to see him.
He had a job taking the top of a mountain and I wanted the chance to
do it.
‘Well’, he said ‘I don’t see why not.’ He messed around a little with
pencil and paper and finally he said, ‘I’ll give you $ 66.25 if you drill it,
blow and furnish your own dynamite. I’ll have the teams there to
move the rock.’
I was a tickled to death youngster, I’ll tell you.
My drills was 30 inches and ten feet, and I bought 25 drills and a set of
sharpening tools. Just to test out the new stuff I set the machine up on
granite ledge and let her go full steam. At about 8 inches the drills quit
cutting. I pulled them out and they were as flat as a broomstick. Never
cut the top off a mountain that way
I proceeded to temper those drills and I tempered them right.
I didn’t know anything about dynamite so I put what I figured was
going to most certainly be enough. I put a box and a half into the holes
and set my wire. I had bought 500 feet, figuring that would be plenty,
but overlooked that I would have to double my wire so I could then
only reach 250 feet.
So I set my charger behind a thicket of water maples no bigger than
your arm about 200 feet from the charge.
Now, Peaseley had brought his wife and family to see the mountain
top go up and he had his teams and men ready to haul it away.
I set her off, and Jesus, if the rocks didn’t rain down on us. There was
enough charge in that mountain to do the job four times. It set the rock
right in the road. Peaseley was tickled to death. I got my $66.25 and
felt like an accomplished engineer. Peaseley went on to become world
famous.
After that my father took me with him to drive horses, and gave me a
six horse team. We went through Bethel and Andover with sledges and
just as I got my team onto the tracks in Lewiston a train came blowing
and steaming and roaring. I wish you could have seen those horse eyes
when they saw that. I got down and went up to the leaders and calmed
them and just lucky they didn’t get destroyed themselves and me too
into that train.
Then after we got across the track along comes an electric car. Now,
mister my pole horses weighed 1700 lbs. each and the one on the electric
car side jumped over his pole. I got them untangled- I’ll admit I was a
rugged chap and I got the sledge where they wanted it.”
blowing up a mountaintop and handling a team of skittish horses.
And he was still a teenager at the time! :
“I was born March 17, 1895 in Cambridge, NH. I’m 80, and mister,
last winter I shoveled snow off 35 camps!
Father used to blacksmith for Blanchard and Twitchell. He looked
after the campsite and he was a good logger.
I never got much learning, left school in the fourth grade and by the
time I was 15 had my own steam drill. I was going to be an engineer.
Just happened the engineer, Silas F. Peasely, same engineer who put
the road up Mount Washington, was working in these parts and I
went up to see him.
He had a job taking the top of a mountain and I wanted the chance to
do it.
‘Well’, he said ‘I don’t see why not.’ He messed around a little with
pencil and paper and finally he said, ‘I’ll give you $ 66.25 if you drill it,
blow and furnish your own dynamite. I’ll have the teams there to
move the rock.’
I was a tickled to death youngster, I’ll tell you.
My drills was 30 inches and ten feet, and I bought 25 drills and a set of
sharpening tools. Just to test out the new stuff I set the machine up on
granite ledge and let her go full steam. At about 8 inches the drills quit
cutting. I pulled them out and they were as flat as a broomstick. Never
cut the top off a mountain that way
I proceeded to temper those drills and I tempered them right.
I didn’t know anything about dynamite so I put what I figured was
going to most certainly be enough. I put a box and a half into the holes
and set my wire. I had bought 500 feet, figuring that would be plenty,
but overlooked that I would have to double my wire so I could then
only reach 250 feet.
So I set my charger behind a thicket of water maples no bigger than
your arm about 200 feet from the charge.
Now, Peaseley had brought his wife and family to see the mountain
top go up and he had his teams and men ready to haul it away.
I set her off, and Jesus, if the rocks didn’t rain down on us. There was
enough charge in that mountain to do the job four times. It set the rock
right in the road. Peaseley was tickled to death. I got my $66.25 and
felt like an accomplished engineer. Peaseley went on to become world
famous.
After that my father took me with him to drive horses, and gave me a
six horse team. We went through Bethel and Andover with sledges and
just as I got my team onto the tracks in Lewiston a train came blowing
and steaming and roaring. I wish you could have seen those horse eyes
when they saw that. I got down and went up to the leaders and calmed
them and just lucky they didn’t get destroyed themselves and me too
into that train.
Then after we got across the track along comes an electric car. Now,
mister my pole horses weighed 1700 lbs. each and the one on the electric
car side jumped over his pole. I got them untangled- I’ll admit I was a
rugged chap and I got the sledge where they wanted it.”
Thursday, October 07, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE4
In this installment, My granduncle Clarence P. West talks about
driving logs over the Azicohos Dam, and describes how a wad
of chewing tobacco saved his life:
“We used to sluice here, and when I started they had to have 25 men
on the sluice boom or they wouldn’t open it up. My job was to get up
in the morning, build a fire under the boiler to get up steam, and open
the sluice to get them six feet of water. Then the fireman come on and
took over, winding the boom.
Well, they used to wind in three logs, unmarry them, take them back
and it used to take six men just to do that. When they was sluicing they
averaged 150 cords an hour with 25 men working.
“They stopped driving here and after a number of years commenced to
drive again. A fellow named Stan Wenslow of Gorham was woods
superintendent for the Brown Company. He stopped in down to my
old mill here and said they was going to have a drive here and would
I show him what to do.
I said that I’d like to see ‘em put the wood over the spillway. The sluice
was an antique.
I went ahead and showed him what I meant and I put the whole drive
through with three men, and I didn’t need them. Mister, the second
year I put that drive over with one man and the Brown company felt so
good about it they sent me a check for $ 300 and gave me a medal as
well.
The last drive through here I put through alone with one boy on the pier
to help me. I’ll tell you, I got a power of enjoyment out of that.
I’d like to put a drive over this dam today. The wood was driven down
to Berlin, NH. The funny part of it was, when that wood came in here
with bark on it, when it left the pool at the bottom of the dam it was
peeled perfect. It got an awful cleaning in that dam pool, I’ll tell you.
I'd stay here forever if I could. I love it."
***********************************
“ I was cutting out of that hill across from the dam and it was steep. It
don’t look it maybe, but it was. When I made my turn the scoot caught
on a tree about four inches through. It was yellow birch and it took me
right across the side of the head. I went right off old Kate and I guess
she kept on going. The scoot run right over me, runners 14 feet long
and 8 inches wide.
My friend Littlehill was right there and he picked the scoot up where
it had run over me and let the tractor go. She walked right up a tree,
fell off and turned over. I don’t know how they ever got it straightened
up again because I waren’t there.
Littlehill lugged me out to the main road, I don’t know how in hell he
done it. He was a pretty rugged chap. He piled me into the truck we
was hauling to and rove me to Berlin to hospital. Kept my head in an
ice bag all that time. The nurse tried to prise my chaw of tobacco out
of my mouth, but I had my teeth closed tight around it and nobody
was going to get it loose. The doctor happened by just then and stopped
the nurse just in time. She was going to pry my chaw out with a stick.
‘Leave it in there,’ says the doctor, ‘That’s what saved his life.’ I’d
been swallowing that raw tobacco juice and it kept my heart going.
Nothing else could have done it.”
To be continued
driving logs over the Azicohos Dam, and describes how a wad
of chewing tobacco saved his life:
“We used to sluice here, and when I started they had to have 25 men
on the sluice boom or they wouldn’t open it up. My job was to get up
in the morning, build a fire under the boiler to get up steam, and open
the sluice to get them six feet of water. Then the fireman come on and
took over, winding the boom.
Well, they used to wind in three logs, unmarry them, take them back
and it used to take six men just to do that. When they was sluicing they
averaged 150 cords an hour with 25 men working.
“They stopped driving here and after a number of years commenced to
drive again. A fellow named Stan Wenslow of Gorham was woods
superintendent for the Brown Company. He stopped in down to my
old mill here and said they was going to have a drive here and would
I show him what to do.
I said that I’d like to see ‘em put the wood over the spillway. The sluice
was an antique.
I went ahead and showed him what I meant and I put the whole drive
through with three men, and I didn’t need them. Mister, the second
year I put that drive over with one man and the Brown company felt so
good about it they sent me a check for $ 300 and gave me a medal as
well.
The last drive through here I put through alone with one boy on the pier
to help me. I’ll tell you, I got a power of enjoyment out of that.
I’d like to put a drive over this dam today. The wood was driven down
to Berlin, NH. The funny part of it was, when that wood came in here
with bark on it, when it left the pool at the bottom of the dam it was
peeled perfect. It got an awful cleaning in that dam pool, I’ll tell you.
I'd stay here forever if I could. I love it."
***********************************
“ I was cutting out of that hill across from the dam and it was steep. It
don’t look it maybe, but it was. When I made my turn the scoot caught
on a tree about four inches through. It was yellow birch and it took me
right across the side of the head. I went right off old Kate and I guess
she kept on going. The scoot run right over me, runners 14 feet long
and 8 inches wide.
My friend Littlehill was right there and he picked the scoot up where
it had run over me and let the tractor go. She walked right up a tree,
fell off and turned over. I don’t know how they ever got it straightened
up again because I waren’t there.
Littlehill lugged me out to the main road, I don’t know how in hell he
done it. He was a pretty rugged chap. He piled me into the truck we
was hauling to and rove me to Berlin to hospital. Kept my head in an
ice bag all that time. The nurse tried to prise my chaw of tobacco out
of my mouth, but I had my teeth closed tight around it and nobody
was going to get it loose. The doctor happened by just then and stopped
the nurse just in time. She was going to pry my chaw out with a stick.
‘Leave it in there,’ says the doctor, ‘That’s what saved his life.’ I’d
been swallowing that raw tobacco juice and it kept my heart going.
Nothing else could have done it.”
To be continued
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE3
In this excerpt from the 1975 interview, GrandUncle Clarence talks
about water power and some of the aspects of logging and lumber
drives. I've seen some of those rafts of logs on the rivers and
lakes up in Maine and New Hampshire, but never knew just how
much wood they could contain!
By the way, the "babbitt" Clarence talks about in the mill fire is a
metal alloy invented in Taunton, Massachusetts by Isaac Babbitt in
1839. According to Wikipedia, "Babbitt metal is most commonly
used in as a thin surface layer in a complex, multi-metal structure...
Lead-based Babbitt tends to work-harden and develop cracks but
it is suitable for constant-turning tools such as sawblades."
Here's Part 3:
"We figured 1,000 feet a second of water would give us 66,000 hp and
none of that waterpower is being used to generate electricity. It’s just
storage here and the same with the other dams.
From Middle dam down to Umbagog, I think the drop is 400 feet. It’s
five miles right down hill.
A string of turbines could run off that and there would be no need for
fuel oil from anyplace. I can’t understand it, why we don’t make
electricity from our own waterpower. Seems mighty strange to me.
We got the dams.
My grandfather was a farmer, always had horses. Father, when he first
started out, he worked between Andover and Rumford Point. There
was a mill there and father worked there. But his main job was in the
woods and on the drive. That’s about all there was. We worked in
the woods from fall to spring, come out and go on the drive. Over
and over. That was our work and just about our life too.
When my mill burned, the lightening went into the mill over the wire.
The transformer, they didn’t ground it. After the fire, we didn’t find
a trace of copper. The mainshaft was four inch and had babbitt
bearings and a concrete base. So I figured I could salvage some of
that babbitt.I’ll bet you can’t imagine what happened to them.
People outside watching the fire were brushing their faces. You’d
think the midges was too thick to see through. Not midges, mister,
it was that babbitt going up in the air and lighting on the people’s
faces. You wouldn’t believe it, spattering of the babbitts all over.
Didn’t we haul wood with horses. I’ll tell you, we had a router. It
went along with a knife in the runner and it just planed the grooves
for the runners. Then we came along with a sprinkler, a great big
water box on a set of sleds. They’d run the water into the runner
tracks, deep tracks mister. We could haul an awful load in those
tracks.
The biggest load I ever heard of hauling was over here in the
Cupsuptic Valley, a fellow by the name of Pete Petegan. He hauled
21,000 feet of logs and he worked for Albert Bean of Milan at the
time.
We used to cut the trees 40 feet and if we wanted boom logs we
took one of them and fitted it.
It takes 75 boom sticks 40 feet long to hold a million feet of wood.
100 sticks would hold two million feet afloat in the lake.
To be continued
about water power and some of the aspects of logging and lumber
drives. I've seen some of those rafts of logs on the rivers and
lakes up in Maine and New Hampshire, but never knew just how
much wood they could contain!
By the way, the "babbitt" Clarence talks about in the mill fire is a
metal alloy invented in Taunton, Massachusetts by Isaac Babbitt in
1839. According to Wikipedia, "Babbitt metal is most commonly
used in as a thin surface layer in a complex, multi-metal structure...
Lead-based Babbitt tends to work-harden and develop cracks but
it is suitable for constant-turning tools such as sawblades."
Here's Part 3:
"We figured 1,000 feet a second of water would give us 66,000 hp and
none of that waterpower is being used to generate electricity. It’s just
storage here and the same with the other dams.
From Middle dam down to Umbagog, I think the drop is 400 feet. It’s
five miles right down hill.
A string of turbines could run off that and there would be no need for
fuel oil from anyplace. I can’t understand it, why we don’t make
electricity from our own waterpower. Seems mighty strange to me.
We got the dams.
My grandfather was a farmer, always had horses. Father, when he first
started out, he worked between Andover and Rumford Point. There
was a mill there and father worked there. But his main job was in the
woods and on the drive. That’s about all there was. We worked in
the woods from fall to spring, come out and go on the drive. Over
and over. That was our work and just about our life too.
When my mill burned, the lightening went into the mill over the wire.
The transformer, they didn’t ground it. After the fire, we didn’t find
a trace of copper. The mainshaft was four inch and had babbitt
bearings and a concrete base. So I figured I could salvage some of
that babbitt.I’ll bet you can’t imagine what happened to them.
People outside watching the fire were brushing their faces. You’d
think the midges was too thick to see through. Not midges, mister,
it was that babbitt going up in the air and lighting on the people’s
faces. You wouldn’t believe it, spattering of the babbitts all over.
Didn’t we haul wood with horses. I’ll tell you, we had a router. It
went along with a knife in the runner and it just planed the grooves
for the runners. Then we came along with a sprinkler, a great big
water box on a set of sleds. They’d run the water into the runner
tracks, deep tracks mister. We could haul an awful load in those
tracks.
The biggest load I ever heard of hauling was over here in the
Cupsuptic Valley, a fellow by the name of Pete Petegan. He hauled
21,000 feet of logs and he worked for Albert Bean of Milan at the
time.
We used to cut the trees 40 feet and if we wanted boom logs we
took one of them and fitted it.
It takes 75 boom sticks 40 feet long to hold a million feet of wood.
100 sticks would hold two million feet afloat in the lake.
To be continued
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE2
Here's more from the 1975 interview in Maine Profiles of my
Granduncle Clarence West by Lynne Franklin. In this excerpt he
talks about memories of P.C. Ripley's encounters with game
wardens and a school principal (the "school pa"). Clarence
also recalls how he got his job at the Aziscohos Dam with the
Brown Paper Company:
"Rip and Walter Bucknam built two camps on the Little Magalloway
and in the spring of the year he would take parties.
Well, one time they got some liqour and about noon they decided to
have some fish. They went and caught 'em and by the time they had
'em dressed on the bank they see the game wardens peeking over
at 'em.
'Now Mister Ripley,' says one, 'you've been breaking the law. I'm
going to have to take you down.'
'Oh, no, chummy,' says Rip, 'me and Buck is having a party. We're
going upriver.'
'Oh, no.' says the warden, 'you've got to go down river with me.'
'Oh, no,' says Rip, and he starts to grow a little bit. 'We ain't going
down.' They started to move around a bit and then it started.
Old Rip,he catched each one of them wardens by the nap of the
neck and he bumped their heads together and as he did he growled:
'We going upriver, we going upriver.' And he danced like a bear
bringing the wardens heads together bonk, bonk, and swinging
them out one on each side and then crashing them together again
and chanting: 'We going upriver, we going up river...'
I tell you they had an iron form in the hop here to make rings on.
It was two feet wide at the base and tapered up so you could make
any size ring and it was solid iron. I know it weighed 400 pounds.
Rip would take that thing and lug it around the shop and think
nothing of it. Now, Rip could be awful proud of his children even
if they didn't always deserve it.
His boy had a little trouble with the school pa here and the school
pa came up here to see his father.
Well, ol Rip, he talked with the school pa and I could see he was
getting madder and madder. He started stamping his feet and pretty
soon he went in and got that iron ring form and lugged it out and
layed it on the bench.Then he picked it up and set it down again,
stamping his feet, growling, and the school pa took right out down
the road.'
************************
'About fifty years ago I was working in the garage and I decided to
ask the Brown Company for a job. I wanted a recommend and I
went down to old Eugene Croyden, at that time Mayor of Lewiston.
He always called me Old Trapper and so I went over to the city
building and asked him if he'd write a recommend.
'Sure, Old Trapper,' he says and you should have seen him. He'd
stick a piece of paper in the typewriter and zzzzzzippp, bap bap bap
out he'd pull another one, smash it up and throw it in the trash. By
and by he got one to suit him.
I got another recommend from Carl Woodcock, one of the professors
at Bates College. I'd worked on a survey with him for a lawyer. 'Yes,'
he said. 'I'd be glad to write you one, but I'd rather not do it with you
looking over my shoulder.'
'Alright,' I says; and here it is better than 50 years later and I'm still
in the job that they had the recommends for."
To be continued....
Granduncle Clarence West by Lynne Franklin. In this excerpt he
talks about memories of P.C. Ripley's encounters with game
wardens and a school principal (the "school pa"). Clarence
also recalls how he got his job at the Aziscohos Dam with the
Brown Paper Company:
"Rip and Walter Bucknam built two camps on the Little Magalloway
and in the spring of the year he would take parties.
Well, one time they got some liqour and about noon they decided to
have some fish. They went and caught 'em and by the time they had
'em dressed on the bank they see the game wardens peeking over
at 'em.
'Now Mister Ripley,' says one, 'you've been breaking the law. I'm
going to have to take you down.'
'Oh, no, chummy,' says Rip, 'me and Buck is having a party. We're
going upriver.'
'Oh, no.' says the warden, 'you've got to go down river with me.'
'Oh, no,' says Rip, and he starts to grow a little bit. 'We ain't going
down.' They started to move around a bit and then it started.
Old Rip,he catched each one of them wardens by the nap of the
neck and he bumped their heads together and as he did he growled:
'We going upriver, we going upriver.' And he danced like a bear
bringing the wardens heads together bonk, bonk, and swinging
them out one on each side and then crashing them together again
and chanting: 'We going upriver, we going up river...'
I tell you they had an iron form in the hop here to make rings on.
It was two feet wide at the base and tapered up so you could make
any size ring and it was solid iron. I know it weighed 400 pounds.
Rip would take that thing and lug it around the shop and think
nothing of it. Now, Rip could be awful proud of his children even
if they didn't always deserve it.
His boy had a little trouble with the school pa here and the school
pa came up here to see his father.
Well, ol Rip, he talked with the school pa and I could see he was
getting madder and madder. He started stamping his feet and pretty
soon he went in and got that iron ring form and lugged it out and
layed it on the bench.Then he picked it up and set it down again,
stamping his feet, growling, and the school pa took right out down
the road.'
************************
'About fifty years ago I was working in the garage and I decided to
ask the Brown Company for a job. I wanted a recommend and I
went down to old Eugene Croyden, at that time Mayor of Lewiston.
He always called me Old Trapper and so I went over to the city
building and asked him if he'd write a recommend.
'Sure, Old Trapper,' he says and you should have seen him. He'd
stick a piece of paper in the typewriter and zzzzzzippp, bap bap bap
out he'd pull another one, smash it up and throw it in the trash. By
and by he got one to suit him.
I got another recommend from Carl Woodcock, one of the professors
at Bates College. I'd worked on a survey with him for a lawyer. 'Yes,'
he said. 'I'd be glad to write you one, but I'd rather not do it with you
looking over my shoulder.'
'Alright,' I says; and here it is better than 50 years later and I'm still
in the job that they had the recommends for."
To be continued....
Monday, October 04, 2010
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS MORE1
Back in 2008 I did a series of posts in which I shared a published
interview with my granduncle Clarence P. West in which he looked
back on his life. Recently Alan Johnson, who is writing a book about
the area in Maine where my West ancestors lived, sent me a copy
of another interview with Clarence. This one appeared in a publication
called Maine Profiles back in 1975 and Lynne Franklin the interviewer.
Clarence was 80 years old at the time and had been forced to retire
from his job as caretaker at the Aziscohos Dam and was not happy
about it. He'd held the position since 1924.
"Rip" was P.C. Ripley, and "father" was my great grandfather P.J.West.
In this installment, Clarence reminisces about a log drive, a trip to
Rangeley, and some advice from "Rip":
“I remember just a boy on a drive. I had the wood going alright
past my station and I built myself a birch bark shelter to get out of
the rain.
Well, I had got in there, everything going alright, and gone to sleep.
I woke up thinking I heard something funny and listened for it. I
heard a clucking and cracking, like chickens but not altogether,
then I looked out of my hut and lookout! It was afire.
Now, who in the hell could have done that? I don’t smoke on the
drive, just chewed, you know, so it weren’t me. I looked over by
the riverbank and there was the boss trying to walk away out of
sight.
He had come around and found me asleep and played a trick on
me, burned my shack over my head.
Them was the days mister. You had your breakfast before daylight,
then at 10 o’clock cookee (cook’s helper) comes up with two pails
full of beans and a knapsack of biscuits and you had baked beans,
boiled potatoes, meat, pie, cake, coffee, tea. And at 2 o’clock you
got it again and you got another feed when you got back to camp.
Four times a day they fed us, but you worked and that’s why we
fed the way we did. I liked it. No, I loved it.
One time I was working with my father up near Deer Mountain. It
was winter, but it commenced to rain and it cut the ice right out.
What with one thing or another, father says we'll go out through
Rangeley and down around Phillips and to Andover and go home
that way.
I was tickled to death. I was going to see Rangeley. Why, we went
through Rangeley and never saw a person. They roll the carpet up
right after Labor Day, deadest place you ever saw.
But go there in the summer season, well, you'll have hard work to
get down Main St.
They used to have a sawmill there, but that's gone by. All they got
now is filling stations and stores. It's the highest priced place I think
I ever tried to buy anything in. Terrible. It costs more to go there
than it does to go to Berlin, N.H. or to Colbrook, Canada.
It's 26 miles to Rangeley, 38 to Colbrook and 56 to Berlin.
I was down in Berlin coming up one day and I run into old Rip.
'Hey,kid' says Rip. 'Can I ride up with you?' .
'Why sure.' So he gets in the car and we started up.
He says 'You know, the Brown Company has all the ingredients in
their locker to make whiskey.'
'Yeah,' I says, 'I believe it.'
'Now,' he says, 'You take a jug and you put your prunes and your
raisins and...'
He tells me all the folderol you want in the jug and you mix it up
and bury it in the ground.
'And when you take it out of the ground,' he says, 'you got squirrel
whiskey.That stuff's so strong it will make a squirrel run up a tree
backwards.'
interview with my granduncle Clarence P. West in which he looked
back on his life. Recently Alan Johnson, who is writing a book about
the area in Maine where my West ancestors lived, sent me a copy
of another interview with Clarence. This one appeared in a publication
called Maine Profiles back in 1975 and Lynne Franklin the interviewer.
Clarence was 80 years old at the time and had been forced to retire
from his job as caretaker at the Aziscohos Dam and was not happy
about it. He'd held the position since 1924.
"Rip" was P.C. Ripley, and "father" was my great grandfather P.J.West.
In this installment, Clarence reminisces about a log drive, a trip to
Rangeley, and some advice from "Rip":
“I remember just a boy on a drive. I had the wood going alright
past my station and I built myself a birch bark shelter to get out of
the rain.
Well, I had got in there, everything going alright, and gone to sleep.
I woke up thinking I heard something funny and listened for it. I
heard a clucking and cracking, like chickens but not altogether,
then I looked out of my hut and lookout! It was afire.
Now, who in the hell could have done that? I don’t smoke on the
drive, just chewed, you know, so it weren’t me. I looked over by
the riverbank and there was the boss trying to walk away out of
sight.
He had come around and found me asleep and played a trick on
me, burned my shack over my head.
Them was the days mister. You had your breakfast before daylight,
then at 10 o’clock cookee (cook’s helper) comes up with two pails
full of beans and a knapsack of biscuits and you had baked beans,
boiled potatoes, meat, pie, cake, coffee, tea. And at 2 o’clock you
got it again and you got another feed when you got back to camp.
Four times a day they fed us, but you worked and that’s why we
fed the way we did. I liked it. No, I loved it.
One time I was working with my father up near Deer Mountain. It
was winter, but it commenced to rain and it cut the ice right out.
What with one thing or another, father says we'll go out through
Rangeley and down around Phillips and to Andover and go home
that way.
I was tickled to death. I was going to see Rangeley. Why, we went
through Rangeley and never saw a person. They roll the carpet up
right after Labor Day, deadest place you ever saw.
But go there in the summer season, well, you'll have hard work to
get down Main St.
They used to have a sawmill there, but that's gone by. All they got
now is filling stations and stores. It's the highest priced place I think
I ever tried to buy anything in. Terrible. It costs more to go there
than it does to go to Berlin, N.H. or to Colbrook, Canada.
It's 26 miles to Rangeley, 38 to Colbrook and 56 to Berlin.
I was down in Berlin coming up one day and I run into old Rip.
'Hey,kid' says Rip. 'Can I ride up with you?' .
'Why sure.' So he gets in the car and we started up.
He says 'You know, the Brown Company has all the ingredients in
their locker to make whiskey.'
'Yeah,' I says, 'I believe it.'
'Now,' he says, 'You take a jug and you put your prunes and your
raisins and...'
He tells me all the folderol you want in the jug and you mix it up
and bury it in the ground.
'And when you take it out of the ground,' he says, 'you got squirrel
whiskey.That stuff's so strong it will make a squirrel run up a tree
backwards.'
Thursday, April 16, 2009
UNCLE!
I've been sort of caught up in my research on Jeremiah Swain so I
haven't written anything new for this edition of the Carnival of Genalogy
which focuses in the topic of "Uncles". So I'm crying "Uncle!"
However, I thought I'd mention three of my granduncles I've posted
about previously, the first two from Mom's side of the family and the
third from Dad's.
The first is Frank McFarland, who I wrote about in one of my earliest
posts, "TOMATO SANDWICHES AND UNCLE FRANK" .
Next is Frank's brother, my granduncle Tommy McFarland in
"THOMAS LUKE MCFARLAND" .
On my West side of the family, I posted a series with my granduncle
Clarence P.West's memories of his fifty years as the caretaker of the
Azizcoos Dam in northwestern Maine. You can read them starting here
with "GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1" .
I'll try to have something new for the next edition of the CoG!
haven't written anything new for this edition of the Carnival of Genalogy
which focuses in the topic of "Uncles". So I'm crying "Uncle!"
However, I thought I'd mention three of my granduncles I've posted
about previously, the first two from Mom's side of the family and the
third from Dad's.
The first is Frank McFarland, who I wrote about in one of my earliest
posts, "TOMATO SANDWICHES AND UNCLE FRANK" .
Next is Frank's brother, my granduncle Tommy McFarland in
"THOMAS LUKE MCFARLAND" .
On my West side of the family, I posted a series with my granduncle
Clarence P.West's memories of his fifty years as the caretaker of the
Azizcoos Dam in northwestern Maine. You can read them starting here
with "GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1" .
I'll try to have something new for the next edition of the CoG!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
AN ADDENDUM TO THE PURSUIT OF DAVID ROBBINS
I was just rereading the Merrill account of Robbins' capture and
saw that it supposedly took place at Aziscoos Falls. Nearly
100 years later Daniel Gould Ellingwood's grandnephew,
my granduncle Clarence West, would become the caretaker
for the Aziscoos Dam at the same site!
saw that it supposedly took place at Aziscoos Falls. Nearly
100 years later Daniel Gould Ellingwood's grandnephew,
my granduncle Clarence West, would become the caretaker
for the Aziscoos Dam at the same site!
Friday, March 21, 2008
SOME THOUGHTS ON UNCLE CLARENCE'S MEMORIES
I meant to post these comments yesterday but sleep won out.
The blacksmith P.C. Ripley that Clarence mentions was Percy
C. Ripley who apparently is a local legend. He ran away to sea
as a boy for three years and then on his return spent four
years living with the Indians and learning how to trap and
live in the woods. He settled in the Magalloway area where
he worked as a guide and blacksmith and had quite an
illustrious career befuddling the local game wardens who
sought to catch him hunting and fishing out of season.
The mention of the Brown Paper company brings memories to
me of our own visits “up home”. We’d pass through
Berlin, N.H.where the paper mill was on the Androscoggin
River and there was the faint smell of rotten eggs in the air,
caused by whatever process was used to make paper.
Reading Clarence’s stories of his time at the Azicohos Dam
made me go back and read my Aunt Dorothy’s memories of
her childhood there. The quarry “up back of the barracks”
must be the one Dot mentions as being home to a bear.
The log sluice that Clarence thought was the “slickest piece
of work I ever saw” may the one at whose end my Dad
liked to fly fish.
And Clarence’s final comment about rarely using his boats to
visit the “head of the lake” only ten times in fifty one years
brought to mind Dot telling how she napped in the boat
“Kiko” while her father was still building it, and of its state
when she saw it years later as an adult.
I’m fortunate to have their accounts of their lives in Maine.
How I wish some of my other ancestors had left behind some
of their own accounts as well!
The blacksmith P.C. Ripley that Clarence mentions was Percy
C. Ripley who apparently is a local legend. He ran away to sea
as a boy for three years and then on his return spent four
years living with the Indians and learning how to trap and
live in the woods. He settled in the Magalloway area where
he worked as a guide and blacksmith and had quite an
illustrious career befuddling the local game wardens who
sought to catch him hunting and fishing out of season.
The mention of the Brown Paper company brings memories to
me of our own visits “up home”. We’d pass through
Berlin, N.H.where the paper mill was on the Androscoggin
River and there was the faint smell of rotten eggs in the air,
caused by whatever process was used to make paper.
Reading Clarence’s stories of his time at the Azicohos Dam
made me go back and read my Aunt Dorothy’s memories of
her childhood there. The quarry “up back of the barracks”
must be the one Dot mentions as being home to a bear.
The log sluice that Clarence thought was the “slickest piece
of work I ever saw” may the one at whose end my Dad
liked to fly fish.
And Clarence’s final comment about rarely using his boats to
visit the “head of the lake” only ten times in fifty one years
brought to mind Dot telling how she napped in the boat
“Kiko” while her father was still building it, and of its state
when she saw it years later as an adult.
I’m fortunate to have their accounts of their lives in Maine.
How I wish some of my other ancestors had left behind some
of their own accounts as well!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS Pt3
This is the last part of my Granduncle Clarence West’s
memories as taken from “The History of Wilsons Mills-and-
the- Magalloway -Settlements” . The subjects range from
“squirrel whiskey” to grist mills and the cost of food. I ’ll
have some comments on all of this in a following post:
“P.C. Ripley worked at the dam when they were building it.
He was the top blacksmith. He could make most anything.
He made wrenches and tools of all kinds for the crews.
Ripley used to say that Brown Company kept all the
ingredients to make `squirrel ’whiskey. You just mix up a
batch, then bury it in the ground to season it. When you dig
it up it’s pretty stout, but good. Just one drink of it will make
a squirrel go up a tree tail first!
That grist stone they took out of the river this spring was
the top stone. If you look at it you can see the holes in it.
There’s a thing goes through the hole in the middle to pick it
up by. Too bad they couldn’t find the other stone. It used to
take days to sharpen those stones. It was all done by hand
and they all had to be the same. They had a nice grist mill at
Errol Dam. They had two stones, one special for buckwheat
and one for flour. The top stone sets still and the bottom one
goes around. You had to be awful careful to keep the grain
running all the time.
If you heard the click of the stones hitting together you
knew you were going to get something hard on your teeth.
The grain went down the cellar to a hopper, onto a
conveyor, through a machine they called the `smut’ mill,
then back upstairs and into a rig they called a bolt. This
was a cylinder screen about 10 feet long and about three
feet around. It had different sized screens and it kept turning
over and over and the grain fell into a row of boxes under it.
When it was done you pulled out a drawer and filled your
bag.
“There’s sure some difference in the price of flour and meat
and everything nowadays. I can remember when Joe and
Martha Brooks had a little store over in Upton. Joe would
kill a cow and go and peddle it around for three cents a
pound. Milk was five cents a quart; butter was high,
twenty-five cents a pound. Eggs were one cent apiece.
When I was going to school, anytime I needed pencils or
paper or anything for school, I’d go out to the barn and get
a few eggs to trade for what I needed.
You know, I was thinking about it the other day, I’ve had
boats all the time I’ve been here, and that’s going on
fifty-one years, and I’ve only been to the head of the lake
ten times.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.96-97
memories as taken from “The History of Wilsons Mills-and-
the- Magalloway -Settlements” . The subjects range from
“squirrel whiskey” to grist mills and the cost of food. I ’ll
have some comments on all of this in a following post:
“P.C. Ripley worked at the dam when they were building it.
He was the top blacksmith. He could make most anything.
He made wrenches and tools of all kinds for the crews.
Ripley used to say that Brown Company kept all the
ingredients to make `squirrel ’whiskey. You just mix up a
batch, then bury it in the ground to season it. When you dig
it up it’s pretty stout, but good. Just one drink of it will make
a squirrel go up a tree tail first!
That grist stone they took out of the river this spring was
the top stone. If you look at it you can see the holes in it.
There’s a thing goes through the hole in the middle to pick it
up by. Too bad they couldn’t find the other stone. It used to
take days to sharpen those stones. It was all done by hand
and they all had to be the same. They had a nice grist mill at
Errol Dam. They had two stones, one special for buckwheat
and one for flour. The top stone sets still and the bottom one
goes around. You had to be awful careful to keep the grain
running all the time.
If you heard the click of the stones hitting together you
knew you were going to get something hard on your teeth.
The grain went down the cellar to a hopper, onto a
conveyor, through a machine they called the `smut’ mill,
then back upstairs and into a rig they called a bolt. This
was a cylinder screen about 10 feet long and about three
feet around. It had different sized screens and it kept turning
over and over and the grain fell into a row of boxes under it.
When it was done you pulled out a drawer and filled your
bag.
“There’s sure some difference in the price of flour and meat
and everything nowadays. I can remember when Joe and
Martha Brooks had a little store over in Upton. Joe would
kill a cow and go and peddle it around for three cents a
pound. Milk was five cents a quart; butter was high,
twenty-five cents a pound. Eggs were one cent apiece.
When I was going to school, anytime I needed pencils or
paper or anything for school, I’d go out to the barn and get
a few eggs to trade for what I needed.
You know, I was thinking about it the other day, I’ve had
boats all the time I’ve been here, and that’s going on
fifty-one years, and I’ve only been to the head of the lake
ten times.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.96-97
Monday, March 17, 2008
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS Pt2
Here’s part two of my Granduncle Clarence’s memories
of the construction of the Azicohos Dam as it appeared in
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements” including a wandering cow and Clarence taking
a shortcut across the top of the dam:
“Roberge cut the flowage. They used to bring the water
up to the works to keep the frost out of the north side of
the dam. When the water is low you can still see where
the steam pipes cooked the cement. Roberge finished the
flowage by cutting off the trees right at the top of the ice.
Brown Company’s tow-boats had quite a time at first.
Sometimes they’d make a mistake and end up in the woods,
or wind the tow-line up in the propeller, or knock a blade
off the propeller in the dri-ki(driftwood). Stan Wentzell was
the one who finally corralled the dri-ki by booming it in the
coves. Stan was a good man. When he told you something
you could believe it.
There used to be a quarry up in back of the barracks.
When Clarence Gray logged in there a few years ago he
cut trees out of it. That concrete pit up back was the water
pit. Water lines ran down to the houses, storehouses, cook
camps, etc. On one of the cottages the front porch was way
up high. When I had a cow, every time she didn’t come
when I called, I always knew where to find her. Under
that porch!
They used to have a telephone line run up from the top of
the dam to the foot of the sluice. You remember Pat
Crowley. It was his job to stay on the top of the dam and
stop the wood if anything went wrong. It took six feet of
water to sluice and the wood went nine-tenths of a mile in
three minutes. That sluice was the slickest piece of work I
ever saw. It sure took some figuring. George Freeman
designed it. He went to school with Paul Bean. He came
from Gorham, Me. After he left here he went to Chicago
to work on a hotel that was tipping over. Then he helped
build a railroad through the Rocky Mountains. After that
he went out to San Francisco and worked on the Golden
Gate bridge.
Bean and Harris came up one day to see about doing
something to the sluice gates. We drove around to the other
side of the dam and then Bean discovered he need the
blueprints that had been left over at the house. He was
going to send his driver over after them but I told him I
could do it quicker. There was about an inch of water
running over the splashboards but I went across and got
the papers. When I got back, Bean stood there with his
hands in his pockets watching me. He said `I didn’t like to
see you do that, Clarence!’ It wasn’t long after that they
put in the bridge above the splashboards.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.)
pp.95-96
of the construction of the Azicohos Dam as it appeared in
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements” including a wandering cow and Clarence taking
a shortcut across the top of the dam:
“Roberge cut the flowage. They used to bring the water
up to the works to keep the frost out of the north side of
the dam. When the water is low you can still see where
the steam pipes cooked the cement. Roberge finished the
flowage by cutting off the trees right at the top of the ice.
Brown Company’s tow-boats had quite a time at first.
Sometimes they’d make a mistake and end up in the woods,
or wind the tow-line up in the propeller, or knock a blade
off the propeller in the dri-ki(driftwood). Stan Wentzell was
the one who finally corralled the dri-ki by booming it in the
coves. Stan was a good man. When he told you something
you could believe it.
There used to be a quarry up in back of the barracks.
When Clarence Gray logged in there a few years ago he
cut trees out of it. That concrete pit up back was the water
pit. Water lines ran down to the houses, storehouses, cook
camps, etc. On one of the cottages the front porch was way
up high. When I had a cow, every time she didn’t come
when I called, I always knew where to find her. Under
that porch!
They used to have a telephone line run up from the top of
the dam to the foot of the sluice. You remember Pat
Crowley. It was his job to stay on the top of the dam and
stop the wood if anything went wrong. It took six feet of
water to sluice and the wood went nine-tenths of a mile in
three minutes. That sluice was the slickest piece of work I
ever saw. It sure took some figuring. George Freeman
designed it. He went to school with Paul Bean. He came
from Gorham, Me. After he left here he went to Chicago
to work on a hotel that was tipping over. Then he helped
build a railroad through the Rocky Mountains. After that
he went out to San Francisco and worked on the Golden
Gate bridge.
Bean and Harris came up one day to see about doing
something to the sluice gates. We drove around to the other
side of the dam and then Bean discovered he need the
blueprints that had been left over at the house. He was
going to send his driver over after them but I told him I
could do it quicker. There was about an inch of water
running over the splashboards but I went across and got
the papers. When I got back, Bean stood there with his
hands in his pockets watching me. He said `I didn’t like to
see you do that, Clarence!’ It wasn’t long after that they
put in the bridge above the splashboards.”
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.)
pp.95-96
Sunday, March 16, 2008
GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS Pt1
My granduncle Clarence P(hilip) West was the caretaker of
the Azicoos Dam in Wilsons Mills, Oxford, Maine for
fifty years. He was born in Cambridge, New Hampshire on
17 March, 1895 to Philip J. West and Clara (Ellingwood)West
and died on 5 June 1983. The SSDI gives his place of
residence as Errol, Coos Co., New Hampshire at the time
of his death.
Clarence married Mabel Jane Ilsley on 25 Jun 1919 and
together they had three children: their son Lee and their
daughters Leita and Ruth.
When Wilsons Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1975
they decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book:
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements”. It includes an interview with Clarence about
his memories of his time at the Azicoos Dam and it makes an
interesting companion to the memories my Aunt Dorothy
sent me about her and my Dad’s time there as children,
which I posted here.
Tomorrow is the 113th anniversary of Clarence’s birth, so in
honor of him, here’s part one of the interview from the book:
“Clarence P. West, at eighty still caretaker at Aziscoos
Dam, is an interesting man to talk with. He was here
recently to look at some old pictures that had been brought
into the book committee on the building of the Azizcoos
Dam and we got him talking of the old days. He came here
as caretaker in 1924 and has been here ever since. We first
asked him how he happened to come here. These are some
of his comments.
“When we were first married I went to Pontook to work on
a survey with Walter Sawyer. Mabel and I lived in a tent
that summer. Sawyer would have had a nice dam there if
they had let him. He had one planned that was near four
thousand feet across with penstocks clear to Twitchell’s
for power. From that job I went to Lisbon to work in a
sawmill for West Bros. Later I went to see Mr. Bean about
a job and he told me to send in my application. There were
about a hundred other applications but when they got
narrowed down to five I was still one of them. After
Vashaw died, Lewis Chadwick was transferred to Errol and
I came up here. That was in 1924.
When the new Dam was built the gate house on the old dam
was removed and set up for a blacksmith shop. It still stands
there to-day just in back of the parking area. You know, the
timbers in that old shop were hewed by hand.
One of the big towers to hold the cable was up back of the
house, the other one was almost over to where the road to
Rangeley is now. There was a double track from the end of
the dam to the quarry up back on the hill. The cars worked
from a cable, when one went down, the other came back
up. There was a track with a whole string of cars that they
loaded with a steam shovel. The tops of the cars turned
around to dump. That shovel was on wheels and they had
to keep planks under the wheels all the time. It was set up
in a pit to load dirt for fill on the south side of the cam. The
cars were hauled along the tracks by a big black horse. And
when the whistle blew at quitting time that horse stopped
right in his tracks and there he stood till someone unhitched
him and headed him for the stables.
When they were building the dam it was nothing to meet
a string of horses a half mile long from Colebrook to
Azicoos.”
(to be continued)
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.94-95
the Azicoos Dam in Wilsons Mills, Oxford, Maine for
fifty years. He was born in Cambridge, New Hampshire on
17 March, 1895 to Philip J. West and Clara (Ellingwood)West
and died on 5 June 1983. The SSDI gives his place of
residence as Errol, Coos Co., New Hampshire at the time
of his death.
Clarence married Mabel Jane Ilsley on 25 Jun 1919 and
together they had three children: their son Lee and their
daughters Leita and Ruth.
When Wilsons Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1975
they decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book:
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements”. It includes an interview with Clarence about
his memories of his time at the Azicoos Dam and it makes an
interesting companion to the memories my Aunt Dorothy
sent me about her and my Dad’s time there as children,
which I posted here.
Tomorrow is the 113th anniversary of Clarence’s birth, so in
honor of him, here’s part one of the interview from the book:
“Clarence P. West, at eighty still caretaker at Aziscoos
Dam, is an interesting man to talk with. He was here
recently to look at some old pictures that had been brought
into the book committee on the building of the Azizcoos
Dam and we got him talking of the old days. He came here
as caretaker in 1924 and has been here ever since. We first
asked him how he happened to come here. These are some
of his comments.
“When we were first married I went to Pontook to work on
a survey with Walter Sawyer. Mabel and I lived in a tent
that summer. Sawyer would have had a nice dam there if
they had let him. He had one planned that was near four
thousand feet across with penstocks clear to Twitchell’s
for power. From that job I went to Lisbon to work in a
sawmill for West Bros. Later I went to see Mr. Bean about
a job and he told me to send in my application. There were
about a hundred other applications but when they got
narrowed down to five I was still one of them. After
Vashaw died, Lewis Chadwick was transferred to Errol and
I came up here. That was in 1924.
When the new Dam was built the gate house on the old dam
was removed and set up for a blacksmith shop. It still stands
there to-day just in back of the parking area. You know, the
timbers in that old shop were hewed by hand.
One of the big towers to hold the cable was up back of the
house, the other one was almost over to where the road to
Rangeley is now. There was a double track from the end of
the dam to the quarry up back on the hill. The cars worked
from a cable, when one went down, the other came back
up. There was a track with a whole string of cars that they
loaded with a steam shovel. The tops of the cars turned
around to dump. That shovel was on wheels and they had
to keep planks under the wheels all the time. It was set up
in a pit to load dirt for fill on the south side of the cam. The
cars were hauled along the tracks by a big black horse. And
when the whistle blew at quitting time that horse stopped
right in his tracks and there he stood till someone unhitched
him and headed him for the stables.
When they were building the dam it was nothing to meet
a string of horses a half mile long from Colebrook to
Azicoos.”
(to be continued)
Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.94-95
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