Uncle Jefferson Hartill Maine Autobiography

THE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

JEFFERSON

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CHAPTER

EARLY

ONE

DAYS

In a few days I'll be 69, and I'm getting a little dilapidated, and if I have to put down on paper a little of my life history, I'd better begin now. I would like to have known more about my father and mother in their younger days. I would like to have known all about my grandparents, and their parents and their life history. I think I have led a varied and eventful life and maybe some grand-child, greatgrand child, or great-great grand child may want to hear or read about it. I

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I was one of 14 children born to Henriette and Richard H artil. I wa s the thirteenth child and the seventr. son. I was born with a skin-like thin over my head and face that they called a hood and veil. In olden times, sea captains paid money for these. They s aid wit. h 0 n e 0 f the sea boa r d ash i p, the s hip w 0 u I d never sink, o,r if in a house, it would never burn. When I was 13 and leaving home, my mother wrapped this hood and veil in chamois cloth and gave them to me, which I still have. More about this later. I was born on North 9th Street, Brooklyn, New York. I do not remember anthing there. When I was 2 years old, w e m 0 v edt 0 Hun tin g ton, Lo n g lsI and, New Y 0 r k . The house we lived in was called Brian's Castle, a three- story and attic ram shackled old farm house, with two barns and a corn crib, and quite a few acres of land. It was about three miles from town with the nearest house about 1/2 mile away. On the first floor was a big kitchen, a big Dutch oven, and a big basement in the back with a stone floor that was used as a refrigerator and a place to store corn cobs for the kitchen stove. On the second floor was a parlor, living room and a small room where I wa s forbidden to go and where Pop kept what he called his bloody helix. On the front of the second story was a porch with pillars to the ground. On the third floor there were four bedrooms and then the attic where flying squirrels used

to play and stored all kinds of nL-=:= :0:: the winter. The r e was ace 11 a ran d the 0 n I y t h :'0 : -; I can rem e m b (~ r seeing there was Pop' s three barre~:: :f cider. I

When I was born, two of my bro:::::rs and one si:,ter had died. T heir names \' ere Clara, ~ ~ r;; u e 1 and C h a rl e s . Those living were: EdisGl1, the you:.;-:::st; then me; then R u f us; the n Mar y; the n Le a n a r d; thE:' ::. a 1 and; the n Lucricia; then Elizabeth, then Victc::-::'i; then Jack and the oldest, Henrietta. Henrietta h=.: already married and was 1 i v i n gin 1\11 asp et h . Vic tor i =. was ina n u r sin g school and Elizabeth was living wit:: my grandparents i n Bra a k 1 y n, m y Mot her' s Fat her a n C ~Ii at her . E d a il d I, being the two youngest, played together. I can r e ill e m b e r w hen E d s till had his mil k b at tIe and sam e times threw it on the floor from his highchair. It was quite a calamity because it was a long way to town to get another one.

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By the way, I am two years older than Ed. Rufus was two years older than me, and Mary was two years older than Rufus. Rufus and Mary were the scholars, and played together and worked in school together for a great many years until they became school principals in New York. Then Rufus went on to become a District Superintendent of Schools. Rufus, who we all called Ruf, and I, were always locking horns together and this lasted until our grown up days. "· M y Mot h er we called "Mom" and my Fat h er "P o p Pop, until he was an old man, was tough to live with. He liked his drinks and was a poor :;:;rovider. He made it awful hard on Mom and us kids. _~_fter living in Hun tin g ton a few yea r s Le n wen t tow 0 r k for a ric h 1 a d y who had abe aut i f u 1 est ate bet -/.- 2 e n our pIa c e and the village. She sent him to schoo!. 3.nd he had it soft, I t h i nk . J a c k s 0 a n wen t t a l i v e i n t:=. -= cit y and wed i d not seem him very often. The famil~- at home was getting smaller and a little easier t-:- provide for. My sister, Elizabeth was teaching schc~.l in New York and during the summer vacations ca=:2 to live with us. She p aid b a a r dan d t hat he 1 p e d out -:=_ 3. twa y . M a rr rna K and Papa K helped too. They were; =:.y Mother's I ather I

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and Mot her. Po p was a bra ssm old era n d had a l i ttl e foundry about I 1/2 miles from where we lived. When any of us boys got big enough to be of any help there, we had to work after school. When I was about 10, I had to pound the charcoal and rumble the castings while standing on a big iron pot. When pounding charcoal with a big iron ball with a long handle, I cam e dow non my big toe and fl a t ten e d i t o u t . Po P got the whisky bottle and poured some on. Mary hauled me to school for about a month.

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Papa had a sailboat, and the one I remember the best, he named after me, the Jefferson. He used to drop his work at the foundry and be gone up to two weeks in the boat. He used to take me on some of these trips, other times some of his friends. Once or twice each summer he would take the family and stay for a couple of days. At that time there was won d e r f u I cam pin 9 g r 0 u n d son the nor t h s h 0 reo f Lo n g Island. We hod the whole beach to ourselves. I must have been about 8 or 9 when Roland built a nice little log cab i n up in the woo d s. I twa s a s ho c k tom e w hen some months later, Rol came from the city, Jack had torn it down and hauled it to the house for fire wood. Jack and Rol did not get along too good in their younger days, and this did not help matters. Roland used to like hunting and he took in the sportsman shows. He came home once with a new hatchet and I see him put it under the bed. When the coast was clear, I got it out and before long, I cut my hand. I have the scar to this day. He used to bring home hunting and camping scene s, pretty nice picture s, I thought. They worked on my imaginations and I thought some day I would live some of those pictures. No one can imagine the work Mom had to do, all the wash that had to be done on a scrub-board, all the sewing, cooking, baking and so little to do it with. I remember once the yard became suddenly full of cows, so we drove them in the barn, and I think it was Rol who milked them before turning them loose. Was that a help. I

Living out in the country we had to have a horse. Pop wasn't the best judge of horses. He once brought one home at night and the next morning he took Mom out to see i t , and discovered it was blind. He said to Mom, "get my double barrel twist" - that was his shotgun and he wanted to shoot it. Another time he had a cribber that would eat the crib and stall. He took me with him one day after pepping up this cribber to another old horse t~ader. He had almost made a swap when I threw a monkey wrench into the deal. I said right out loud, "he eats the crib up". All the way home I was told a thing or two. At about this time I reD ember Rufus and I singing in the choir in the Episcopal Church. I always knew that when I got home Mom would have a big batch of home-made candy waiting for us.

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At Christmas one year she was called to the city by her Mother who was sick. Christmas Eve came and no Mom. We kids were in an awful way. We knew who Santa was. We were sure wishing she would show up. At the last moment, when we were about to give up and go to bed, in she came with a big bag on her back. She had carried that over two miles from the railroad station. When I we. s eleven years old, Ed and I were both in bed v'lith the measles. Mom was the only other person in the house. The house caught fire. Mom got some clothe s on Ed and me and sent me in one direction and Ed in the other for help. Help came and a few thing s were saved, but the hou se burned to the ground. By the way my hood and veil were in the City at Mama K' s at the time. We stayed at the neighbors for a couple of days, and then rented a house at the fair g rounds about three miles away. There was some insurance money Mom received for the furniture loss, but Pop took that and bought a motor for hi s boat. One day when we were out in the boat, he go hard clamming. We took the row boat and off. When we got to the spot he wanted, the about waist deep so he took off his pants and

dicided to started water was went over

the sides hanging on the row boat treading with his bare feet. All at once he sprung into the boat and said tom e, "Li ttl e B u c k" - t hat was the n i c k n a m e h ega v e me, "I stepped on something I thought was a hawser, a large rope, but when it sta rted to wrap around my legs, I knew it was a giant eel. 11

In the fall of the year Pop took the spars out of the boat and us kids had to scrape them clean with glass. We did not live at the fair grounds very long and we m 0 v edt 0 Mas pet t Lo n g I s I and, New Y 0 r k qui ten ear my married sister, Heddy. At first I didn't like it at all, it was right in the City and soon I learned to play marbles, top-shinnegers, skating, etc. The boys were rough and tough and I guess I became that way too. Many bad tricks we played on the Chinaman, the peanut man , and lots of others. I went to a city school and did not I ike it. R 0 I and Le n got job s a s con d u c tor s on the trolley cars. Jack got a job as a motorman. Mary and Rufus were going to college. Pop got a job at a brass foundry. Elizabeth had been married and then Jack got married. Jack was a pugilist and I listened to many tales of gory fights once saving Pop from being beaten up. At the present time I think he i 80 and he is still full of fight. Once I had some pi g eons in the backyard and one day I let them out thinking they would come back, but that was the last I see of them. By this time, I belonged to a gang of boys they called the "Sunshine Gang". One day in a. stone fight a boy got hurt real bad and was taken away in the ambulance. That broke up the gang. Two boys, whose father had a saloon, ganged up on me one day, and I carne home with a black eye and some bruises. When Pop seen me and heard the story, he marched me to the saloon and or dered the saloon-keeper to trot out his boys one at a time for me to go to work on. But he kept them hid, if I remember right, I think I was glad of it for I had enough for one day.

While skating on a pond covered with all kinds of cultch, I tripped and fell, cutting my wrist very ba d. I fell on a broken milk bottle. I've had a crippled right hand ever since. The family started calling me the calamity for good reasons, I guess. I used to go barefoot and once I hopped into the house with a board nailed to my foot. That was another job for Mom. I had a long thin tube called a putty blower. I would flatten out some putty on my hand and stick the end 0 f the tub eon i t a n d blow. I two u 1 d goa Ion g ways and hit someone on the face. I hit a man going by and he chased me and I ran into a tree with the putty blower in my mouth. It stuck in the roof of my mouth. The man seeing this, gave up the chase.

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After a few months as a conductor Rol left for the West. He came back with glowing accounts of Oregon and the claims that were being taken up, but instead of going back, he and my sister Heddy's husban d went to Maine and made arrangements to buy a farm four miles out of Brunswick. With the financial help from some of the family, the farm was bought, and Rol, Ed, Mom and I left for Maine to be followed in the summer by the others. Ed and I started to go to the one room school and Rol was supposed to make a fortune growing potatoes. Vlfe had one horse named "Butternut Bill," and we were going to town. I tried to get him in a corner and get on his back, but he had other ideas. He turned aroun d quick and let me have both feet and knocking me for a loop, breaking my lower jaw and cutting my face very bad. I managed to walk home and when Rol saw me coming, he took me to the pump to wash off the blood. Mom saw me about this time and thought it wa s the end of me. The y caught" B ill" and we went to town in a hurry to see the doctor. He worked on me off and on for weeks, a good old country doctor. I had a support under my chin and around my head all summer. the only food I had was what they could pour between some teeth that were kicked out.

In the fall,

I started to go to school again.

The next spring Rol decided he did not have capital enough to buy a horse and equipment to make a go of potato growing so we just locked up the place and went back to Brooklyn. I

After a while I started to go to school again. Rol started to look around for someone to finance him for another go at the farm. He found one, and went ba ck to ~\1aine taking Ed with him. My mother and the rest of us stayed in Brooklyn. Rol then bought horses, potato planters potato diggers harrows, cultivators sprayers, etc. I

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In a couple of months, I followed them to Maine. Mary , knowing I was determined to go , went to the boat with me and carried my suitca se. I had my fare to Maine and this is about all, so I decided to sleep up on the top deck that night. I curled up around a smoke stack and went to sleep, but in the middle of the night, I was awakened by a man and he was bound to take me down below and put me in a berth. He had a wife and 3 or 4 children and he couldn't do enough for me. He had me take pictures with their camera of the whales we saw and of each other. When he left me in Portland, he gave me about $ 5.00 and told me if I ever get back to New York to hunt him up at his office there and he gave me his address, but I never saw him again. Rol did the cooking and Ed and I did the outside chores besides washing the dishes and washing our clothes and keeping the woodbox full. When there wasn't too much work, Ed and I went to school in a little one room school house. On the way there, we passed the Clark farm and Mrs. Clark would call us in as we passed and put an apple or cookie in our lunch box and mend a rip or'two in our clothes. It was tough living and I gu e s s i t wa s making me tough. In the summer, besides the potatoes, Rol cut the hay on 3 other farm s, and I turned and pitched a lot of hay. Rol was never too good at working for himself and was getting behind. He was a hard boss too. Ed

and I had to be in bed by 9:00 P. M. On a farm about two miles through the woods and fields from our farm, there was a boy about our age who came from a boy's home in Boston. He had to work for his board until he was 18. On Sundays after dOing our chores and helping him with his, we would hunt and trap together. To beat the 9:00 o'clock deadline before going to bed some nite, Ed and I would put up the long pole from the ground up to our bedroom window, and after saying goodnight to Rol, we would slide down the pole and get the home boy and spend h a I f the n i g h t rid i n g h 0 r s e s i n the pas t u rear· row i n g the boat down the bay, or just talking and dreaming about the future. Then we would come back home and climb the pole back to our room. Rol never did get wise to this. Of course, I told him about it years later. I

An incident I must relate, -- A girl about Rol's age from the next farm wa s to our hou se one Sunday. At the end of the house were two big trees and Rol had put up a swing there. He VIas swinging her as high as he co u 1 d . I was pIa n n i n g to ski p 0 u twit h my air ri fIe and as I went out the back and around the shed, I could not see Rol but every so often I caught a glimpse of the girl's bottom as she swung high in the air. After aiming a couple of times, I pressed the trigger and I heard her say "ouch" and I ran to the woods. The summer I was 16, Rol called me down for something that was not my fault. I told him where to get off and left, anc I went over to see the horne boy. We had been talking about running away and this brought it up to a head; but we decided not to tell Ed. That night when he wa s suppa sed to go to bed, he slipped out the window and joined me. I had $10.00 and he had no money. -We walked to Brunswick and on the way we planned to go north and tried to get a job in a logging camp. We thought there would be a freight train we could hop; and after waiting until about midnight we decided to hop the first train gOing north. It was a passenger train and as it pulled down the track, we jumped on the rear platform of the rear coach and climbed to the roof and then we hung on to a ventilator and rode

'til daybreak. VV'h'n people began to see us, when the train slowed for the next station, we climbed dowr. and jumped and we were at northern Main Junction. We ran for the nearcst woods, found a br ook and began to clean up. We were covered with soot from the coal burning engines. After this, we went back and found a store and got a loaf of bread and sandwich meat. We felt better then. Someone told us if we went to Bangor, which was about ten miles, they were hiring men for the woods and iNe could get a job. So we set off on foot down the tracks, walking the railroad ties and this gets tiresome, as you have to keep your eyes on the ties every moment for each step is different.

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When we got to Bangor, we went to the employment agency that were hiring men for the woods, but after look i n gus 0 v e r an d ask i n g que 5 t ion s, th e y s aid we were too young. They al so said that if we went on to Old Town, which is about 10 miles down the track, we would be sure of getting a job for they were hiring everybody that came along for the woods; so we set out once more down the track. We had not gone far when night came on. We gathered some wood, had something to eat and slept alongside the track. We got into Old Tow n about noon the next day; and we went to the employment agency there; and they told us about the same as in Bangor, that we were too YOllng. We tried other places and towards night we gave up and headed ba ck up the track for Bangor again. We slept alonside the track again that night. During the day we discovered an onion patch or bed near the tracks so we camped here for the rest of the day and the next night. We cooked onions to stretch out our grub supply. Our money was just about gone and we went back to Bangor. I went to the railroad station there and was washing up when a big man tapped me on the back and asked me why I was there. I said I had been looking for a job for 4 days. He asked me if I had ever worked on a farm and I said "yes", and then he offered me a job on one of his farms near Moosehead La k e . Ito 1 d him I had a f r i end 0 u t sid e and w 0 u 1 d h e hire him too. He did and he gave me a dollar and told us to eat and report back at train time.

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When we arrived in Greenville, he had a man with a trotter waiting for us and took us to a farm about 3 miles out. We were to get $22 a month and board. This big man who found me in the waiting room and gave us jobs was Henry Botley. He was a big man, 6 J 5", and he owned three farms, and he owned Moosehead Inn and a lumberjack hang-out which was called the "P us han d Po 1 e . He a 1 soh ads eve r a l l 0 g gin g camp s and he was a sheriff too. At thi s ferm there were 3 men besides the home boy and me. No women. One of the men did the cooking~ the home boy and I did the regular farm work. After being paid off for the first month J s work, the home boy left, buty I stayed on; I needed clothes and a rifle to hunt deer. II

After the home boy left, one day he beckoned to me from the edge of the woods. I was glad to see him, but after he told me he had stolen a canoe and wanted met 0 g 0 wit h him up Moo s e h e a d La k e, I t o 1 d him w hat a fool he was and we parted company again. Henry Botley used to come out to the farm once a week all dressed up and with diamonds on. It was great fun for him to wrestle with a big lumberjack there and to lead the pig chase in the pasture. He did not look so nice when he went home. I heard of an Indian in town who had a 38.55 rifle for sale, so one night I walked to town and bought it with 2 boxes of cartridges. Every chance I get I practiced shooting. I have not changed my mind about working in a logging camp. I wanted to get far en ough back in the woods that I could not hear a train whistle. The weather was getting cold and I had bought heavy clothes, long johns, mackinaw, moccasins, tassel hat, socks,etc. One day when Henry Botley was at the farm, I told him I wanted to quit and go in the woods. He first offered me a job at Moosehead Inn as a page-boy, telling me how nice I would have i t , and explaining how tough it was in the logging camps. After seeing I was determined, he told me when to see him at the Inn. He

said he wanted to see I got a camp with a good boss. They were just starting logging operations at Sugar lsI and, Moo s e h e a d La k e the n . The log cab ins had just been completed by a small crew and now about 10 of us, four horses, provisions, etc. went up the lake about 20 miles in a big boat. The boss's wife was the cook and she asked me to be the "cookie". I thought at first it must be a sissy job, but I soon changed my mind. My work consisted of carrying about 20 pails of water a day from the spring, cutting and carrying the wood for 2 kitchen stoves and one big stove in the bunk house and washing the dishes, peeling the spuds, and a hundred other thing s.

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At noon time I had to carry dinner to the men into the woods and build a fire and get water, make the tea and warm up the beans and meat, and call them to dinner. I was getting the water for the tea one day I had the water in a big pot on my shoulder; I heard a noise coming toward me; I stopped and a big buck deer ran up to about 30 feet of me. He cocked his head from side to side and sniffed the air. The wind was blowing from him to me and he could not smell me. He had big antlers. I got a little nervous and moved a little and when I dj d he took for the tall timber. The cook knew I liked to hunt and she saw to it I had most of the day off on Sundays. I would pack a little lunch and take off with my rifle. I had quite a few adventures. I must tell about the first deer I shot. About the second Sunday after getting in camp, I struck out and had not gone far when I jumped a deer. I fired twice, three times, I think in his direction, but he waved his white flag, which is his tail and said, "so-long." I felt like a little boy a dog ran over. I figured I would never see another deer as long as I lived. I had lost my only chance and was I a bum shot. Well, later that day I see two more deer together. I fired one shot at the one nearest me and down he went stone dead. I bounded over to where he lay, rolled

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him up on a stump, got him on my shoulders and started for camp. I soon came to a brook and started to cross on a log and fell in, deer and all! This soaked me somewhat. I dragged the deer to dry ground, left it and went to camp for help. The boss sent two men back with me, they dressed it and carried i t in. It was the first deer killed in the camp that fall and I had the honor of having the first meal of deer steak. After that, there was plenty of deer meat for everybody. It wa s a rough but colorful kind of life. T he men dressed mostly in bright colors and the horses were always decorated with plumes, brass and bells, etc. and they were separated into groups, seven men and a team of horses.

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Each night the scaler would put down on a bulletin board in the bunk house the amount of logs each crew got out. It was a continual struggle not to be at the bottom of the Ii st. I f you were there too often, you stood a good chance of being told off and fired. Then the lights were put off at 9:00 as everybody had t 0 b e i n bed. Sat u r day n i g h t the y co u 1 d s t a y up to 10:00 and these big chumps would dance, and play games and act like a bunch of kids. Sunday they would do their mending, darn their socks, boil their clothes in a big pot to kill the lice. I have seen these men when they had cut themselves with an a~ and sew themselves up with an old hand stitch like one would a rag doll, and don't remember seeing any infection. At Christmas time, they sent in a barrel of apples and some candy and there was a great celebration. We Had some French fellows in the camp with us that were very superstitious and I heard one Frenchman telling of somebody who tried to enter a barn with cattle in i t on Christmas Eve at 12:00 and he said that man was automatically thrown right out of that barn and that hour at 12:00 Christmas Eve, the cows a 11 k nee 1 e d dow nan dan yb 0 d yin the bar n w 0 u 1 d automatically be thrown out.

Around the first of February, some of the men tried to get amorous with the cook; and the boss and his wife moved into a small cabin by themselves, and he threatened to shoot the first man who looked at her. They installed a man cook and the boss took me to driving a team. I took this for about a month, and then I swamped for a while, tended sled and other jobs until the camp broke up in April. The boss and his wife used to invite me to their cabin in the evening and they could not understand why a boy from the city took to the woods like I did. They were fearful that when I was paid off for my winter work and landed in Greenville I would be robbed, so they made me a moneybelt and they said to trust no one.

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We had gotten out during the winter about 4 million feet of log s and they were all on the lake now with a boom around them. We all started out one morning for the 20 mile walk to Greenville on the ice. There we got paid off; we each received the same pay for the winter, $ 3 a a month and board. I put mo st of the money in my belt and put the belt around me next to my skin. I tried to get in the YMCA for the night there, but i t was full so was Moosehead Inn. Dozens of camps let out at the same time and Greenville was a mad house. I found Henry Botley and he took me over to the Push and Pole, a lumberjack hangout. Push and Pole was a building made of logs about 100 feet long and 40 feet wide. On one side there was a big long bar and at the end of that bar was a room they called the dead room where they threw the men that got drunk, etc. On the other side of the room was three seats they called the decon seats where everybody sat and watched the performances. In the middle of the room was a great big stove that took a 4 foot stick of wood. It was a notorious place known all over the State, in Massachusetts, etc. too. Well, Henry took me to a room upstairs and told me to stay there until morning and not to let

anyone in. For an hour or two I went downstair s to see them drinking and fighting and some of it was too brutal to tell about. I went to my room then. There wa s no lock on the door and the transom overhead was going. I barricaded the door, loaded my rifle and set up in bed all night and waited for someone to try and break in. I was left entirely alone though. The next morning I went to the railroad station and bought a ticket to New York. I was dressed in my woods clothes, had a green duffel bag and my rifle. I landed in Grand Central Station like this and the trolley car took me within ten blocks of home. I then had to walk but by the time I reached home, a gang of kids were following me. I hadn't had a haircut in almost a year. When I rang the doorbell my Mother came to the door and we had a great reunion.

CHAPTER EAR L Y

DAY S

TWO "C 0

N T I N U E D"

At home then, there were my brothers Ed and Rufus and my sisters Mary and Lucretia. They took away my woodsclothes and had my hair cut; and within 24 hours had me in school. Mary and Rufus were both teaching and they dragged me off to their school where a friend of the family was principal. I was installed in the last grade in the grammar school and told I'd have to study and be good. At the first recess, I had a scrap with the basemen and at noontime another and was taken up to the principal.

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I had my fill of kids and school and made up my mind to go back to Maine, or at least as far as Boston; where somehow I found out the home boy I had ran off with was working. I told no one but my Mother. I'm giving here most of my money to mind. I with my woodsclothes in the bag, took off on a boat for Boston. I had no trouble finding Tom Stevens, the home boy. He was working, but he did not like his job. And when I said I was going to Maine, he said he wa s going with me. He had an idea he could go back to the farm there, and this time get paid. We took the train to Portland, and then the trolley to Brunswick. It was ten o'clock at night when we got in Brunswick, and we walked to Bunganuk. I had mad e up my min d to s top at Mrs. CIa rk ' s . There were no lights in any of the houses when we got near Bunganuk. So we went down in Oark's woods, built a little fire, and put our backs to a tree, and stayed all night. That's one of the campfires I will always remember. The next morning Tom left for Ali's farm where he'd lived as a home boy and I went up to Clark's. That's the last time I ever see Tom.

The C 1 ark's mad erne rig h t to horn e . l e u t ten cords of wood for them and by that time Torn had left Ali's and Ali's called to see if I would work for him. Itoo k the job for him - f 0 u rt e end 011 a r s per m 0 nth and board and stayed with him til after fair time, helping with his stock at three fairs. But because I quit he would not pay me for the la st month I worked. I kind of like Ali in spite of this though. He knew how to handle kids. But the woods were calling me again and I struck up north. I stopped at Fairfield and I got a job at a big saw mill, where I was paid ten dollars a week and I paid four dollars a week board. I sent Mom some every once in a while to mind for me. I was getting along pretty good there working at several different kinds of jobs, until the woman where I boarded took in another boarder - another young fellah - and put him in my room, and he was t 0 s 1 ee pin the sam e bed wit h me. I did n 't 1 ike t his and instead of looking for another boarding house, I quit my job at the mill and with another man, took the train to Greenville. Then we went up to the Canadian Pacific Railroad, to a place called Tarry tine. It was just a flag stop where they discharge provisions and stuff for camps and woods. There they put me to work driving four horses - toting to four lumber camps, one back four miles, one six miles, one eight miles, and one twelve miles. It was a tough old road I hauled over. All I could haul was a ton with the four horses. I went right along the edge of the river. Some name wasn't it? I didn't mind being blocked by windfall in the day when I could see but sometimes coming home at night there'd be a big tree aero s s the way of the teams. We'd stop and I'd have to get out and light my lantern to get my axe and cut my way through a big windfall. I

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The cooks in the camps were very good to me. They'd always save some pie and something extra for me when I'd stop in with their provisions. Sometimes the road would be cordoroid, where there'd be logs laid one right after the other, in the road, and sometimes they'd be afloat and it would bed a n g e r 0 u s for the h 0 r s e s t 0 c r 0 s s t h is a t t his tim e . At other times I'd have steep hills to go down and have to slide between wheels. One day I had a big hughead full of molasses aboard and I hit something or other, and the hughead was slung off the wagon, and landed down the side of the road, rolled down a steep embankment and fixed up against a tree. I couldn't do anything with it so I went on to camp and told the boss at the next camp about it. And he sent a logging crew down after it. I remember one night coming in, I composed a song like, to pass the time and i t was something like this:

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At night by the misury toting, I encouraged my horses along. I think of the far away cities, And my far - oh how far away home. Oh come Chuck, come Dick, come Harry, Come Jerry, we must hit home. Come Chuck, come Dick, come Harry come Jerry, go home. When my days work is done I am tired. And off to my bunk I must go. And think of the oncoming morrow And the things I must tote through the snow.

Once when I had a day off, another man that was loose through the country took me hunting. He said he'd been an old guide and we went into the woods. I never paid any attention to what I was dOing. About noon time, I noticed he was hurrying and I told him, what was his hurry? And he said he guess he was lost.

Well I didn't know where I was either. And then we had a little conference and struck off. We walked for hours. After while, it was getting dark and finally we came to a beaver dam. The beavers had built this dam across a bog like, and it had the area covered with water for a long ways back. When he sees this dam he said, "Oh, I krJow where I am now." But we were still quite a way s from camp, and we had some job crossing that dam and gettin' to camp that night. One of the horses that I drove was a notorious baulker. He didn't bother me much because I had him on the pole, and he had to go where I wanted him to. The other horses would pull him along. If they wouldn't back up, I'd take the leaders off and hook them on the back and drag him back.

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But one day a walking boss come along and he wanted to go out to the camp; and he insisted on taking Bud. This was on a Sunday. I told him that he baulked, and he said, "he won't with me." And a way he s tart e d . T hat n i g h the cam e ina n d he ask e d me for a rifle. He wanted to shoot Bud. He got through the camp alright. But on the way back Bud refused to go. He got out and cut a stick and started to hit Bud. And Bud came at him with his mouth wide open. He thought that was enough of that so he got some sugar out of his pocket and give Bud some sugar. And he got b a c kin t o t he cart. At la s the tho ugh t to himself why I'll leave you there 01' Bud, and he started walking to camp. After while he looked back, and Bud was right in back of him. And that's the way he did all the way to camp. Bud followed him in, all the way to camp, him walking. The timber they were cutting in those days was mar vel 0 usb i g stu f f . You d 6 n 't see i t a n y m or e . But one day, I heard of a big bunch of timber IS or 20 miles away and another fellah and I decided we'd have to see it, so we started for it. There was supposed to be 10 thousand acres to it and it'd never been cut over. It wa s down in a big valley, where

at that time it was supposed to be impossible to get. But I suppose it's long gone now. And by the way, there was no chain saws in those days. It was all cross-cut saws I the axe and the can gog . I worked in another camp that winter too, at a place called Skinnah, on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In the early spring, I went home to New York a g a in. T his tim e I b 0 ug h t a n e w sui t 0 f c lot h e s , really dre s sed up, and then back to Maine again. There I worked at Hunt's dairy for awhile, then back to the sawmill at Fairfield. I heard Rol was getting married in B run swick, so I went down th ere for the wedding. Some of the folks from New York were there. He married Harriet Woodside. I went back to the sawmill again. I wasn't there long when Rol came up and said he knew I had some money and wanted to borrow it. He had bought a farm up near Augusta Maine. I let him have it, and then I quit my job at the mill and went to his farm and cut cordwood for him.

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Ed and I built a little camp down in the woods and bought it ourselves and cut wood. One day, a sapling sprung up and hit my wrist - put it on the bum. I had to quit cutting wood. I went to New York again. My sister Lucretia had been working a long time. She was sick of the city and wanted to get out in the country; and we got to talkin' farm. It was decided I should go back to Maine, look around for a farm, find one I liked, and then she would come up and look a t i t , and if she Ii ked it, wh y she I d buy it, and Ed run it. After about a month's search, I found one between Schohegan and Madison, a place called Blackwell. It had a nice house, a good barn, a half a dozen cows. It was on a high hill overlooking the H I - LO W M 0 u n t a i n Ran g e; apr e tty s pot. I w rot e t 0 Lu and she too k the t r a i n rig h t a VI a y for M a i n e . She met me in Schohegan, and she and the farm agent and I went and looked the farm over. Lu liked it very much, so we decided to buy it. After I was installed in i t , Lu went back to New York. When I had been there alone for about three months, Lu, Marna, and Ed arrived.

Meanwhile, with help from Ed, I bought a pair of horses, a few hands, and a couple of pigs. T here was a big maple orchard on the farm. And that spring I tapped the trees, boiled down the sirup and made over 40 gallons of sirup, which I sold a dollar and a quarter a gallon. Twice a week, a man would come around and gather the cream which I skimmed from the milk - which gave us a small but steady income. Every chance I got

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I worked out with my team.

My Uncle Charlie came up - made quite a long stay with us, of course paying his board - and in the summer we had a lot of company. There was Mary and Ruf and Libby and her children. And they all paid board, which helped a lot.

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I had apr i ze h a If a c reo f pot at 0 e s t hat fir stye a r . I received 245 bushels of saleable potatoes from it. We also had lots of blackberries and rasberries. And I grew corn and cabbages and turnips for the cows. We weren't there a great while, when Lu started keepin' company with a man from Schohegan. When we had been there about a year, Ed joined the army. Then Lu talked about getting married. This sort of left me out on a limb. So it was decided that I should take the horses and $100 cash as my share in the place, and Lu would sell the farm and move with Mama back to New York. After putting everything in ship-shape around the farm, I took the team and drove to Brunswick. It's a distance of about 100 miles. I made it in 2 days. I went right to Clark's, and was. received with open arms again. There I bought" a newer horse and went to doing most anything with my horses. I ploughed and I harrowed and I thrashed grain and I hauled wood and I even cut logs in the woods and hauled em out and hauled them to town to a saw mill and sold them. At this time, I used to go to dances in Bunganuk. And I became real aquainted with a girl I later married.

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One of the horses I had, was jet black, all but a white star on his forehead. He was kind of wild, and everyone called "Wild Harry." I used to love to ride him. People still talk about him. I finally sold him to a man who lived on Birch Island, in Casco Bay. He put him on a scon to take him over to the island, and then when he was about midway, why he broke loose and dove overboard. He had a harnass on him when he dove overboard; and when he came up, he was striped. He made for the boat, and they had to ward him off with an oar. The next thing they k new, hew a s ash 0 r e, a qua rt e r 0 f ami I e a way, and they made for that. That's where he lived out his life to be 32 years old. Mrs. Clark wa s a very fine woman, and she took a great interest in me. In the evening, we would sit and talk: and she used to say I should get busy and get a job, or where I'd learn a trade. And then Mary,

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a good girl,

settled down.

Mr. Clark didn't move very much in his old age. The last few years of his life, he just sat; and his back was just molded right into the back of the chair he sat in. Work for my team began to get pretty scarce around Bunganuk, and the lectures I used to get from Mrs. Clark began to payoff. So I sold my horses and went to Portland. A contractor there was about to begin digging a big ditch for a sewer in Biddeford. And I went down there to work. The man I w 0 r ked the r e f 0 r, was Li n n i asS i ley. He had been president of the prohibition party. He liked me, I guess, because I didn't drink. He gave me two jobs. In the daytime I shored around the big ditches, kept the fire in th·e donkey engins, and if it rained, kept the water pumped out of the ditch. I had a little shack on the job, and I slept and ate and everything right there. The job was steady alright. I got one day a month off, and that day I

Bunganuk. We got big wages in those days. The rest of the men got $12 a week and I got $24, for working 2 shifts. I saved at least twenty of these t wen t y - f 0 u r doll a r s t ha t I r e c e i v e d e a c h wee k, and that was put in the bank. Mr. Siley used to come into my shanty quite often and have a drink. Mr. Siley says, as soon as this ditch is completed, we'll go back to Portland, and he t 11 teach me to be a real good carpenter and builder. At first, while living in thi s shack, on the job, I had some trouble with the boys. Sometimes they'd throw stones at my shanty and raised cane with me in general. But one night, I got fed up with this stuff, and when the boys were gathered around a big barrel of water, by one of the donkey indians, I rushed out and grabbed one of the biggest ones, turned him upside down and shoved him into the barrel of water. I pulled him out and kicked him in the pants, and they all disappeared like magic. From then on, they were my best friends. They used to come into the shanty, and I'd talk with em. They'd help me fill my lanterns and put them out; and i f any trouble was along the ditch, that they knew about, why they'd tell me. This ditch was a big one. It was about half a mile long. In places it was 30 feet deep - ten or twelve feet across at the top. There were many caveins. And sometimes, some of the men would get hurt pretty bad, often taken to the hospital. This job lasted nine months, and when it was through I went to Portland and worked for Mr. Siley at odd jobs. f

The War was on in Europe and I didn't think the United States would get into it. I looked around and found a little house, and bought this from a Mrs. Clara I. Caswell. It wasn't finished off inside, and it had no ceIl a r . And i n my spa r e t i ill e f l u sed t 0 wo r k 0 n i t . I t be g ant 0 1 0 0 k a s tho ugh I eve n b 0 ugh t fur nit u r e. I was going to get married. And then the United States got into the fricas. I was of draft age, but I didn't want to be drafted. So I went to Bunganuk and talked it over with Hetzel

and her folks, and then decided I better join the army, and put off getting married til after the VI/ar. I wanted to rent this place while I was in the army, but I had to have a cellar and a good foundation. Now Hetzel's cousin, that was a building contractor, and I, talked it over with him about putting in a foundation and a cella r under it. And he looked it over; and he gave me a price, the sum of which I don't now remember.

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But he waited until the dead of winter before digging the cellar and putting the foundation in; and it cost him much more then he figured on. And he just passed that price onto me. I could only pay him so much a month, out of my army wages, which wasn't too much; and that didn't satisfy him. And he wrote saying he was going to put a lean on the place. I wrote to my trouble shooter Mary - my sister Mary, and she turned out to be more than a match for this cousin of Hetzel's. This cousin now is dead and gone, so I'll say no more about this. When I took my physical in Portland, they told me I was fit t c j 0 ina n y bra n c h 0 f the s e rv ice Ide sir e d . You know I had ridden Wild I chose the Cavalry. Harry a lot, and I thought I was pretty good. I had visions of being in a Cavalry charge. I guess I was patriotic too.' But later on; some of this was knocked out of me. I believe I was the first man to enlist after war was declared from Brunswick. I was shipped at once to Ft. Slokem, New York. There my sister Mary and Leo and my mother came to see me. I was in uniform and felt pretty proud. After being raked over the coals there for about 2 weeks, they put a bunch of us aboard a train, locked the doors so we couldn't get off, and we were shipped to Ft. Riley Kansas. It was a big 'Cavalry post in the center of the United States. There our training began in earnest. First dismounted, and then with horses with no saddles, and then they issued our troop, of a hundred and five men, ten saddles. In the morning they would line us up, with the stables about half a mile

away, and we'd make a grand dash to get a saddle. r wa s a pretty good runner, and I u sually go~ a saddle, which I most always turned over to somebody else, as I had rode alot bareback. From the start I didn't like army life or army discipline. And many' s the b awl i n g 0 utI got for 1 e a v i n g m y s h i r t un but ton e d at the nee k 0 r h a v i n g dirt y s hoe s . Aft e r b e i n gin Ft. R i 1 e y a few m 0 nth s, w ewer e s hip p e d toM cA 11 e n T e x as, h 0 r s e san d a 11 . It was a I itt 1 e border town about 8 or 10 miles from the Rio Grande. In our outfit were the remnents of the 13th Cavalry, the out fit t hat Per s h i n g wen t i n toM ex i cow it haft e r Po n c h 0 Villa. McAllen was our headquarters, but the troops took turns in dOing outpost duty along the River. A troop of about a hundred men would have about, oh, fifty miles of river to patrol. A patrol consisted of about eight men on a non-com or commissioned officer. These patrol s would be going night and day constantly. On one of these got 10 st. So he out the patrol. star, and with a out.

night patrols, the sergent in charge called on me - see if I could straighten I looked around and found the north little luch soon had him straightened

The Mexicans were always fighting between themselves. And sometimes after a battle over there, why the ones that got licked, would cross the river into the United States. And then we were supposed to chase them back over into Mexico again. On one of these night patrols, I was bringing up the rear. We were single file along a winding trail, with trees and vines. I had in my right holster, a big single action 45. The word was passed along - no talking, no smoking. And then there was a shot right close to me. I rolled off my horse quick and grabbed for my 45 but it was gone. Then it occurred to me that it must have been my gun that went off. So I felt around on the ground and found it. The boys in

the front were kinda panicky. They jumped off their horses and hid in the The word was pasted, "What wa s That? What wa s That?" I confe s sed after a while i t was me I and that it had been an accident I but they never belJ.eved that it was an accident. They thought I shooted it on purpo se. A limb of a tree mu st have pulled the hammer up on that gun and discharged it.

Sometimes they would place some of us men about a mile a part a Ion g the r i v e ron w hat the y call c a usa c k posts. We would hide our horse back from the river, c raw 1 t o t her i v e r, hid e be h i n:i a bus han d s t a y the r e all day, looking for Mexicans who might try to cross the river.

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On one such occasion, two men, two women, a little girl, and a bourough came down to the river, right opposite me, and after looking up and down the river, crossed over in shallow water. They came right toward me. The only trouble I had taking them back to where my horse was, wa s the bourough, who was so loaded down I he bumped into a tree. And when he bumped into a tree he went cross legged and fell down. I had searched the men for arms. They had none. After waiting for hours for 2 other men down the river, wet 0 0 k the s e un fort u n at e s t 0 cam p. I carr i edt h e little girl. We had about six miles to go when she soon fell asleep. I never knew what became of them. I was sorry anyway that I had taken them prisoners. About every so often, there would be a soldier killed by a Mexican, and then his buddy would try to even it up by wanting to kill a couple of Mexicans. I was doing guard duty one night where along the canal there was a waterfall. I was on foot. The post next to mine was a mounted post that ran along near some Mexican shacks in a backwoods road. I was supposted to see this man once in a while at the end of my post, but when the guard was changed I hadn't. The next morning his body was found in the ditch, alongside that back rOQd. I was questioned why I hadn't heard the shot. The only reason I could give, I mu st have been near the waterfall, when the shot was fired.

We had been back at McAllen drilling for about a month when the troop was called to outpost again. But I was told to stay put and mind the quarters, take care of the mail, and eat with B troop, about half a mile away. T hey left me my horse. I liked this setup. I had access to the supply tent and I helped myself to plenty of ammunition. And while I was exercising my horse, I did a lot of pistol shooting. Once every other day, someone would come in from outpost and get the mail. This lasted for one month and when it wa s over, I was sorry. I had done a lot of rifle shooting before I had enlisted in the army, and when we were out on the rifle range, I was in my glory. I had no trouble in making expert rifleman. Shooting on the range one day, alongside a sergent named Sulivan, our captain stood right in back of us and said to Sulivan, "My you're a lousy shot. Take a lesson from Hartil." The sergent said, "captain, you know Harti! come from Maine and each morning, he had to go out looking for a squirrel to shoot, and if he missed the squirrel, he missed his breakfast. That's why he's a good shot. Texas is hot in the summer. Our would get up to 110 during the day, but the night s were cool. When I had a day off, I would get away from camp, and man's the a d ve n t u res I' v e had. Ius edt 0 I ike to hun t rattle snakes. I've hunted ducks with my rifle, waiting alongside a pond, til a bunch of them got in a line, and then with a single shot, get as many as six. These were always eaten, for at times, we did not have too much food on the boarder. And I used to stroll from camp too far sometimes, and it Vv 0 u 1 d bed ark w hen I got b a c k, and I wo u 1 d h a v e to slip in between the guards. On one of my long hikes, I came near falling into a cave. There was a small opening at the top, but

down below, it spread out into quite a room. I looked down and saw what I thought were 2 turkeys. I broke off some mosquito brush and blocked the entrance. And I tied my lasso to a bush, squeezed under the brush and lowered myself down. There were some rabbit and snake skins and bones down there, but what I wanted were the turkeys. I got them in a corner, grabbed them, took off my belt and tied t~eir legs together. I then tied them to the end of the lasso, climbed out of the vace, and pulled my birds up. I was nearing camp, when a buddy came along. He asked, "where did I get the buzzards?" I was shocked to learn they were buzzards, but I told him I 13.ssoed them. I gave him one; and we marched into camp with them. I had to get busy dOing something, and the last I saw of them, the boys were flying them like !-~ite s.

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Every now and then a rancher would come into camp, and say some Mexicans had stolen his horses or cows. The buggle would sound boots and saddles, and away we'd go. But we seldom caught the theives. We had orders to stop the chase at the river. On one occasion, our Mexican scout killed one, after he had a crossed. And another time after capturing one, the sC:Jut tied him to a tree, talked to him in Spanish for awhile, then drew his pistol and shot a couple of times just abov(' his head. He feinted; and I never did like that Mexican scout. He loved to lord i t over the other Mexicans. We used to swim a lot in the ::,ig canal. It had a high platform in the air, which we dove from. Playing tag, and being cha sed, I slipped when I dove, and landed in shallow water. I struck the bottom with my head and darn near broke my neck. I was in the base hospital in Brownsville for 3 weeks. A couple of months later, they called for volunteers to go to the horseshoeing school in Fort Sam Houston. It's near San Antonio. I volunteered, and was there 3 months, and received a diploma of proficiency. When I got back to M cAllen anothe r man and I had to I

keep 110 horses shod. I was shoeing the Captain ' s horse one day. He was a mean buckskin, and I had tied down his foot, fitted the shoe, drove one nail, when he gave his foot an awful yank, nearly standing me on my head. I hadn't had time to clinch the nail, and it ripped my leg wide open. I picked up my rasp and gave him a sock. I turned around and the Captain was standing there. He said if you ever hit Buck again, t ha twa s the h 0 r s e I s n am e, I I 11 put you so far be h i n d bars, you'll never see daylight again.

got ahold of Buck's leg again, pc.t it in between my legs, and started to put in another nail, and again he went into the air. I grabbed the rasp and socked him again. By this time the blood was running down my leg in a stream. T he Captain walked off without saying a word.

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A hundred and five of us were sent to a re-mount station, where there were 5000 horses and 5000 mules. I took my turn breaking in horses, picking out the sick ones, and separating the Cavalry horses from the artillery horses. I learned how to rope, but never was good at that, not as good as some of the men who had been cowboy s . There was a camp with cowboys nearby and they watered and fed the horses and mules and helped us. At the end of 2 months we were relieved by another bunch of cavalrymen. And we went back to M cA 11 en T e x as. I wen t b a c k to s hoe i n g h 0 r s e sag a in. Some mules are different - difficult to shoe, and what we call a twix, that we put on their nose, didn't do much good. But we learned that if one man got ahold of 3.. mule's ear and sunk his teeth in it, he would s';and as if hypnotized, while another worked on him. I have been kicked many times :::y both horses and mules, but none was as serious as the one I got from Bunganuk Bill. I had been thrown from horses many times, and once, I remember I stayed with a

bucker til the saddle since loosened, and the saddle went flying.

and both me

In each troop of cavalry, there was always an outlaw horse for us to practice on. One day, I was told the whole 13th Regiment was going to move to Ft. Clark Texas, a di stance of 360 miles, as the crow flies, and I was to get busy and fit as near as possible a front and hind shoe for each horse, to be carried in the saddle bag of each man, along with a few nails. I had to carry a miniature anvel, a ra sp, a knife, a pi stol, a jammer, and a hoof cutting tool, be side s my regular full pack, with clothe s, rifle, pi stol, sword, c,~nteen, pancho, and so on. T he other horse shoer and I had to work overtime getting ready. We had 110 horses to take care of, and few mules that were to pull the supply wagons and the ambulences. We got started on this bright and early one morning, in a column of tow's. And we stretched out for miles. We could not go in a direct line as the crow flies, but he.J.oed ':0 :he water holes, that took us out of our way. E a c h m 0 r n i n g w e w 0 u 1 d fill 0 u rca n t ee n san d t hat' d have to do us til we made camp at night. And the w ate r was boil e d an d hung u p in a go at skin to coo i . I would drink this ":;ater when it was still warm, and then vomit. At night we stayed in pup tents. D uri n g the day, w hen a :10 r s e t h r e w his s hoe, his rider would pull him out of the column. I would fall out to put the shoe on, and gallop back to my troop. Maybe I would have a shoe or two to put on at night. Believe it or not I enjoyed this hike and gained weight. Although in a week or two, one man had died and some were riding the ambulences. And we lost some anirn a 1 s. I 1 if-. e d the open c a rn p fire s at night and when we couldn't find firewood, at one stop we pulled up miles of a rancher's fence posts. But later we had t 0 pa y for t his .

A s we neared Ft. Oark, some of the men noticed t hat the y had los t so m e 0 f the i r e qui p men t. And I heard the top sergent tell some of the men, "I ain't telling you to steal and you'd better not be caught, but when we get to Fort Clark and have an in spection, you better have everything." At Ft. Clark, there were barracks and nice beds and all waiting for us. But to show how tough we were our colonel took us out on the drill grounds and made us pitch our pup tents there, and spent the night. Here at Ft. Oark there was good stone barracks, but the other horseshoer and I and the saddler and staple sergent stayed in the squad tent down by the stables. Every other day, one of us horeseshoers had to do mounted drill with the troop. It was about this time I received a letter from Ed saying he had been wounded and lost his arm, but had not told Mom yet. I felt pretty bad that I had not been over there to help :lim out.

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Ft. Oark was out in the sticks. Some would call it a prairie. It was ten miles from the nearest sma 11 tow n . Li few ask i n d a hum d rum, and the men were discontented. Three from our troop de serted. They then drilled us all the harder. In a while we all wont on the rifle range. -I stayed there 60 shots a day fot two months. I was high man, in first my troop, then squadron, and then regiment. The captain of our troop did not like me. Captain C ox, his n arne was. H e call e d m e 0 u t i n fro n t 0 f the troop one day and said if he had anything to do with it, he would not let me go to Demoines Iowa and be put on the cavalry rifle team. But evidently that was up to someone else. I was given railroad tickets, hotel expense for a stay over in Kansas City, and five dollars a day ration mO:;1ey. At thi s shoot every branch of the army was represented. Colonel Mulemar was the captain of the cavalry team, and he gave us qui tea s pea c h. 0 n e of the t h i n g she s aid was i f any of us were caught smoking we would go back to I

I

our troop. We al so had to be in bed at nine a I clock. There had been two men selected from each regiment in the Unit e d S tat e s . W e fir e d 60s hot s a d a y and had all day to do it. For the first two months I did good. I believe I stood seventeen f rom the top. Then one day on the thou sand yard range, I made a complete mi s s. It may have been a default in the cartridge or it may have been me. But anyway, from then on I was finished. I could not catch up. At the end of nearly 3 months shooting here, I was sent back to Ft. Clark. I had had a good time and wa s sati sfied. The armistice had been signed and I wanted to get out of the army. And at the business of making some money, and getting married, or getting married and then making some money.

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Back at Ft. Clark, things went on as before. And in a field meet, I was picked to run against 12 other men from 12 other troops. It was a 1/2 mile run. An indian from Cow Isle was picked to win, but I fooled the judges. One of my buddies told me he was getting out of the army, and I asked him how. He said his congressman had written a letter to our commanding officer say i n g hew a s nee d e d at hom e . I h ad e n I i s ted for the duration of the war, and the war had been over: for some time. So I wrote to my sister Mary explaining how I could get out. She got in touch with her congressman and in a few days, I was told to come and get my discharge. I have never been so excited in my life. I ran by commissioned officers without saluting and then after I was discharged, saluted them from force of habit. I said so long to my buddies and horse. They gave me transportation money to go by train to Port 1 and, VI h e;- e len 1 i s ted. But 1st 0 p p e din New York and Vlent to my sister Mary' s, where I stayed a week. I see all the folks. Ed was home from Walter

Reed Hospital. Rufus was home from the army. He had been in the Intelligence Service. It was good to be out of the ar:ny. The day after I landed home, I went to work a s a car pen t e r Ish e I per for a f r i end 0 f Mar y I san d Le 0 ' S I bought a suit of clothes in about a week, went to Maine. I wanted to get married. Before I got married, I went to see Mr. Sieley, the man who wanted to make a carpenter of me. I had kept in touch with him while in the army. He did not offer me as much money as I thought he should, so after getting married, we took the boat for New York. By the way, in the afternoon, on the day we were married, I dug potatoes for Rol who lived in Portland. In New York, we stayed at Mary's for awhile, and we rented the small side of my sister Heddy's house. I worked as a carpenter's helper and painted jn the evenings.

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Then I took a job as a, guard on the subway trains. I wanted to make more money - my brother Jack v;as working as a rigger for a millright, and was making more money than me. I see his boss and he put me to working with Jack. I still wanted more money. I had very little schooling and I knew if I made money, I'd have to do it the hard way. I would like to have stayed in Maine. But making money there was tough, so I had to down that feeling. I asked the millright one day how much he paid a day for a 5 ton truck he was hiring. He said $27.50. Vvow, I thought that was for me. I asked him if I got a truck, would he hire me instead of the other guy, and he said he would. Now this was a big step. I didn't know about trucks. I started to price them and found that a five or six ton truck costs about six thousa.nd dolla.rs. Someone told me get a 3 - point. He see one with ten ton on it pulling another with 10 ton son. T his sou n d e d very goo d . I los t so m e s 1 e e p worrying if I had better take a chance. I would have

to borrow some money for the downpayment, try to sell my little house in Maine, and work like the very divi! to make the monthly payments on it. My brothers in law, Mary's husband loaned me some, so did Heddy's husband. I took the plunge and went and got the truck. I worked it for a week before I went to New York to take a test for a drivers license. It was a 6 ton 3 - pOint truck. Now the trick was to keep i t busy and get together $420 a month besides making a living for myself. It wasn't easy.

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These trucks were very slow. The top speed was about 18 miles an hour. Not so good for long distan ce hauling. So I hauled most short distances. I put up a sign saying "General or Contract Heavy Hauling." I hauled cement blocks, monumental stones, marble, machinery, steel, 1 umber, and so on. And I did thi s any hour of the day or night. Many is the time I would be getting in about breakfast time, eat in a hurry and be gone for the day again. Hetzel went on some of these night trips with me. I was 23 when I got married, and at the end of that fir 5 t yea r I had paid 0 f f my deb t s tom y b rot her sin law and my truck was free and clear, and in good condition. I went to Maine and sold the little house there, and I believe Lreceived $1500 for it. -1 made--a downpayment with the money on another 3 - point truck. I now had 2 trucks to make the payments on one. I hired a man to drive one and I drove the other, and secured work for them both. My brother Ed, went to work for me then, listening to the telephone and k e e pin g the boo k s. Le 0 had ago 0 d car and Sundays he V\O uld take us for a ride out on the islands. I continued to haul everything under the sun. At about this time Jack was working in the New York Saburn Company, and he helped me get the job of hauling all their steel. There was a man by the name of Ststson here who got a rake-off. It was a hard job, but it paid well.

When I got the notice that there was a freightcar to unload; I would hire a couple of men and we'd always unload one a day. There were days when I'd make as much as $60 with one truck. Before I'd been in business 3 years I bought the 3rd 3 - point truck. I trucked all kinds of stuff through these roaring twenty years. T here were plenty of gang sters around New York at that time and the cops, judges, state troopers and the like, had their hands open for graft. A violation can be found for any truck on the road. I had to answer many summons for my drivers and myself. Sometimes I would payoff the cop or judge or state trooper and never have to appear in court. When I had been married 2 1/2 years, the first child was born, and we named her Jessie Virginia. My fat her a 1 way sus edt 0 c a II her the "Li ttl eRe bel . "

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I bought an old used car and then every Sunday a couple of car loa d s 0 f the fa mil y wo u 1 d gop i c n i c in g. Ius e d to love these times. My mother would always go, although I knew she would rather have stayed at home where she could have been more com:ortable. But she was ago 0 d s port. S 0 met i m e s we w 0 u 1 d cam p 011 t i n a t e n t 0 v ern i g h t, and we would try to m a k eh era comfortable bed, wit h 2 cushions. After I bought the 4th 3 - point truck Jack started to work for me, and that summer Hetzel, Jessie, and I went to Maine, for a week and stayed at Hetzel's mother's. I

Back in New York I started to get contracts for hauling lumber from the docks to the lumber yards, wit h ina r ad ius 0 f 5 0 mil e s of New Yo r k . We had to have a few extra men now to load lumber. I finally found out tt!~t Mac trucks were better for this kind of hauling than the 3 - point trucks, so I bought a Mac. And from then on, I bought nothing but Macs.

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At that time they were chain driven, slow, with wolid rubber tire s, but they were rugged. Where I was staying in Masbeth I ran out of space to put the trucks, so I had a garage built of brick and cement blocks. It measured 40 by 100 feet. There was a c 0 a 1 fur :1. ice and a sma 11 ceIl a r . I t a l soh a dan office, a toilet, a gas tank, and ,; pump. We then bought our gas and oil at wholesale prices. Le n had bee n in the N ear E a s t for 3 yea r s do i n g w 0 r k for the Agricultural Department ci the Near East Relief. Her e t urn e d h 0 ill e and he and I a g r e edt 0 be part n e r s in the trucking business. He bought half of the business and I had a house built in Flushing with this money I received from him. We were partners for a few yea r s, and the n I b 0 ugh t Le n I S S h are .

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My brother Rol came to New York about this time bought a Mac truck, and did well for awhile. But he soon had other ideas. He kept a store for awhile. And then he went to Townsriver New Jersey where he w 0 r ked for the Power and Li g h t e o m pan y for a g rea t many yea rs. At one time their were five of us brothers in the trucking bu sine s s. And about this time my father died. He had been very well t i l t hen i g h t be for e he die d . H e had bee n staying with us for several years. We now had 3 children. This time i t was twin boys, and we named them David and Donald. We bought a couple of waterfront lots at Huntington Lo n g lsI and and b u i 1 t a cot tag e the r e. W e had sma 11 boats there with outboard motors and we all had wonderful! times. It was lots of fun to go to North Port for provisions or gas in my little boat. Each summer we had been spending a week in Maine at my mother in laws; and 1° was looking for a spot to build a log cabin, where we could live while on our vacations there. The trucking business was going good. I had bought two Mac tractors and two Mac trailers and had "2bout 20 men working.

Our forth child was born and we named her Mary Breeze. The stock market was booming, but I had no stocks. But I did h a v e so me fir s t mort gag e bon d s. I t s aid 0 n them that they were redeemable in gold and they paid 6% interest. I had secured two very good contracts from two concerns. One was to handle all the European spruce that were being brought in at that time. And the other was to handle about 2 million feet of lumber a man t h, s hip p e d fr 0 m the w est c a a st. At tim e s we w ere so busy, we had to hire trucks. The fir s t s i g n s I s a w 0 f a de pre s s ion com i n g, was when a manager for one of these gib firms told me they had to dispose of a cargo of lumber at cost. A few months after this, my men all went on strike. There was a building materials strike on at the time, which made i t worse. I tried to fight i t , but didn't make much headway. They broke into the garage at night and stole all my tools, and messed up the office. I had lumber on the docks, and in freight cars, and I was paying demurrage. And the owners of the lumber were after me to move it. So I had to give in to the men's demands and take them back. But I had made up my mind to get out of the trucking business. Things began to slow down, most of the men, and began tractors. I sold them very out in a hurry. In a weeks two left, and I turned them then rented out '~he ;ara·;e.

and one day, we fired selling the trucks, and cheap. I wanted to get time, there were just over to Ji3Ck to run. J

I had been in business eleven years, and was 34 years old. When I took stock of thing s, I had a little over fifty thousand, countin' what I put into the house and the garage. Now my mind turned toward a good farm - one I used to dream about. With some of the family in my car, we struck out farm hunting. We hunted through several states but could not find my dream farm. I

At last I

settled for one in Cloverhill,

New Jersey.

It was about half way between New York and Phil-

adelphia. It had rolling fertile fields of a hundred and sixty acres, about all tillable. And there was a brook running through the pasture, and a grand 14 room brick house, large barns, corn cribs, smoke houses, and so on. We had been talking it over, saying what fun we thought i t would be i f Mom, Lu and Ed would live with us at the farm. Well they did for awhile, but somehow these things don I t a I way s w 0 r k 0 u t. I was v e r y u nh a p p y for a Ion g time after they left. I rented out the house in Flushing, sold the cottage in Hun tin g ton toM a r y and Le 0 , and beg a n w 0 r kat the farm. There were thirteen cows on the farm and three horses. Wh e n I t 0 0 k 0 v e r I had the cow s t est e dan d s 0 m e had T. B. I got rid of them all and the horses too. I bought a big pair of Persheron horses that weighed 3300 and 40 cows. I hired 2 men to start with. We sold the milk in 40 quart cans to a creamery. We had bought the farm in the summer, so that fall I had the corn to hu sk, the wheat and oat s to thra sh, and some hay to bail and sell, which helped. I n the spring I planned to do a lot of farming so bought more farm machinery. Jack did not make out so good running the 2 trucks, so I sold them and he and his wife moved to the farm and lived in one side of the hou se. He stayed on the farm with me for a couple of years and then moved back to the city. I

He had been my chicken man, taking care of about 1500 chickens. I now got rid of the chickens, never to have any more. I never could do anything with chickens. I rented some vacant land the next year, bought a 21/2 ton truck to haul fertilizer and lime with, and to haul our crops to the barn and to market. I also had to install a walk-in refrigerator in the barn

and a milk standardizer to control the amount of butterfat in the milk we sent out. The man who bought our milk, distributed milk in a dozen different towns and cities. And each one of them had an inspector going around and inspecting the dairy farm s, and the rule s th ey laid down were all different. They drove us crazy. Since landing on the farm, I had been spending money like a druken sailor, and about the second or third year there, the Depression hit hard, and we were selling milk for 31/2 cents a quart, corn for 70 cents a bushel, oats for 30¢ and wheat for 90 cents. Now, when a farmer gets less for his milk or other crops, he produces more to make a living, and that makes for surpluses. So I enlarged the barn, had two big silos put up to hold insulage, and put on more cows and more men.

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And then our fifth child was born, Ruth Evelyn.

and we named her

The kids all liked the farm, the stream that ran through the pasture. They liked to watch the men in the fields and they liked to watch them milk the cows. They also had plenty of with the pony I got them. On-a farm that was nearby and what we- call the fox farm, they had over 400 black foxes. It took a lot o f mea t t 0 fee d the s e fox e s, and a t tim e s t hey W ou I d have hundreds of horses running around to be butchered or all re adied butchered and hanging up in an immense refrigerator. Vvith the Depression, the price of black fox furs took a nose dive. And they found out too, that the climate there was not the best for foxes. So they moved them t o t h e Po can 0 M 0 u n t a ins. They put the farm up for sale, ing I bought it.

and after some dicker-

I had just sold my garage in Masbeth at a sacrifice,

as I could not collect the rent at times, when it was rented. So with the money, I bought the fox farm. This farm contained 160 acres r had a good house and barn, a grand meadow, and a very good water supply. I tore out the big refrigerator in the barn, and put in a TX and drinking cups for 20 cows, and a c 00 1 i n g s y s t e m t 0 c a a 1 the mil k . I a 1 sop u t u p a 40 by 12 ft concrete stage sylo. I installed a man and his wife in the house and for YEars we tore out wire where the faxes had been.

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I had 5 men besides myself working now. In the winter when there wasn't so much outside work to do on the farms, we kept busy in the woods. I bought a good sized wood lot in the Salamon Mountains, hired men to cut cord wood by the cord. We would haul i t to the farm, saw it with a power saw, and sell it for firepla ce wood. We al so cut quite a few log s. I bought another small wood lot, covered with locus trees. We cut these into fence posts. These sold like hot cakes. We sold thousands, and we fenced the farms with them. I noticed these 20 years after we had sold the farm, and they were just as good as ever. Besides the cows we kept on the fox farm, for 2 years we raised turkeys - 300 the first year and 500 the second year. We sold most of them for the Harvest Home Suppers around the countryside, in the fall of the year. Wh e n w e had bee non the far m f i v e 0 r six yea r s, our sixth and last child was born, and we named him Robert Edwin. When he was about four years old, he fell out of the haymow and landed on his head on the concrete floor. We rushed him to the hospital. He had a bad fracture and was unconscious for a long time. A year or so before this, he broke his leg. VI/ith so much machinery around the farm, there was always danger of someone getting hurt. I had one of my overall's legs ripped off on that one machine and another time, when I was feeding the insulage cutter, the knives hit the shear plate and the whole

t h i n g ex p 10 d ed, around me.

s cat t e r in g par t s

0

f i t ina 11 d ire c t ion s

The last years on the farm, the price of milk went up to 7 1/2 cents a quart. The price of grain rose too. And then Uncle Sam started giving us things like lime and fertilizer. He even paid us for not raising so much corn. I had been rai sing quite a few hog s but when the price went down to 7 cents a pound, I quit raising them to sell. We had a good smoke house and we always had plenty of hams, bacon, sausage meat, and pork for ourselves. I

There was a Dr. Brickel who had a farm next to the fox farm. He did not farm the land so I rented it. I also rented 2 big fields of 70 acres at Dushanig. I

One year, I planted 150 acres of corn, 100 acres of wheat, and 100 acres of oats, besides cutting enough hay for 60 cows and 2 horses. I began to wonder how long my health wou ld allow me tow 0 r k the way I had bee n w 0 r kin g. I de c ide d I would not farm after I was 50. I wanted a change too. I put both farms up for sale. Farms were not selling good, but in a year or two, I sold the fox farm, but still kept the farm land, which I rented. A year or two later, I had an attack of Siatic Reumatism, and went to Florida. The sun worked wonders and in 2 weeks, I felt fine. I read an add in the paper about a place for sale 7 cottages with garages, set among orange, gratefruit, tangerine, lime, and lemon trees. It looked wonderful. It was a block square and had sidewalks all a r 0 u n d it. I fig u red I co u I d m a k e a n e a s y 1 i v i n g renting cottages. So I plucked down $5000 as a downpayment before going back to the farm. It wasn't long after I got home, when I was offered $32,000 for the farm, lock, stock, and t"arrel. I had

paid $27 / 500 for it on it.

l

but had spent a lot of money

WeIll we let it go for $32,000 and five years later, the man I sold it to was offered $50,000 for it. It was a good farm and I hadn't hurt it any. To sum thing s up, we were on the farm 11 years. I was 45. We did not have much money, if any. Vve did not have much, or much more than when we bought the farm. But we were all well, and had lived pretty good for the past 11 years.

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CH APT E R

"C 0

A L S

B Y

M Y

T H R E E CAMPFIRE

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I have always loved hunting trips and campfires and must record some of them here. In spite of the fact that I have worked hard most of the time, about every fall or most every fall since getting out of the Army, I have gone on a hunting trip. I have told about the camp fires along the railroad track and the one in Clark's woods and about the first deer I killed when I was sixteen. Skipping a few years, I remember the camp fires at night along the Rio Grand and the deer I missed because it was too dark to see my sights. And then aye a r o r two after I got out of the Army, I struck out for northern Maine and landed at a camp 'On Nesowadnehunk Stream. In a few days I had my deer and baited a bear trap with the deer head. It snowed before I got back to look at the trap and it must have snowed after the bear got in the trap, for everything looked disturbed. I prodded around with a stick for awhile but the trap and log I had it fastened to were gone. I began making circles and soon heard the trap and log I had it fastened to were gone. I began making circles and soon heard the trap chain rattle. It was a small bear. I had the skin with the head on mounted, and Jessie, my oldest daughter, fell asleep on it many a time. Forty five years ago, game was plentiful in this region. My brother, Rol, had hunted and trapped here 12 years before me. While trapping and hunting here in the late fall, he carne back to camp one night to find his camp burned to the ground. He struck right out for a lumber camp to try and get a job. On the way, just after dark, he shot a big wild cat. He got a job at the logging camp and traded the wildcat skin for a pair of snowshoes. I hunted in this part of the country for several years. Up to now, I had scorned carrying a compass. I thought I had a perfect sense of direction, but

one day I started up Katahdin Stream and then out across country to Abol Stream and when I got there it was flowing the wrong way. I sat down, smoked my pipe, and finally came to the conclusion t hat I had turned around completely and was back at Datahdin Stream. I've always carried a compass since while in the woods. I was Ol t hunting with Fred Pitman one day he owned the Katahdin View Ca~lps. It had rained all morning and we were wet and cold, and then the sun came out. \"Ie built a big fire, took off all our clothes, wrung them out and got them warm - if not dry. We put them on again and we took off in differen t d ire c t ion s. I had jus t g 0 n e ash 0 rt way w hen I came face to face with a bull moose. It was the first one I'd ever seen, and we stood looking at each other. There was no open season in Maine at the time on moose, so I began to call as loud as I could for Fred. I wanted him to see the moose. As soon a s I started to yell the moo se took off. F red came up puffing and when I told him about the moose, he s aid, 1 shoUt 1 d h a v e s hot it, but I k new a s w e 11 ash e that all the provisions had to be brought in from Millinocket 21 miles away. J

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Well, I set off on a run after the moo se, and in ten or fifteen minutes saw him ahead about to cross a stream. I fired and down he went; For the-· next tow days, all Fred and I did was pack moose meat to camp. His wife started right avvay to can it. I ate some and i t was good; it was my first moose meat. A year or two later I changed hunting grounds. In payment to a man who threw a lot of trucking my V>lay, I took him on a hunting trip just north of Moosehe a d La k eon the W est Bra n c h 0 f the Pen 0 b s cot R i v e r . A man with his family living along the river put u sup. The i rna m e \v a s the II 0 d g e s. T 11 ism a n I brought from New York, \vhose name was Dick Horn, had never been in the big woods and was no hunter but he was full of fun and enjoyed i t all. The first m0 r n i n g 0 u t '.'I' i t 11 i n 3 0 0 y a r d s 0 f c a Tn p, I j u m p edt \V 0 J

deer and got one. We had an idea the woods were full of deer, so we went back to the camp and asked Bill Hodges if he wanted a deer. He did, so we told him where it was and we started out again. We hunted here several days and never saw another deer, but wed i d h a v e a lot 0 f fun. W e s pen ton e e v en i n g at a logging camp. Dick was quite a dancer and he did some fancy tap dancing along with wome of the loggers. He was a big hit. He vvent with me one o the r fall, but had a g u ide sol co u 1 d hunt alone. When he was with me in the woods it was hard for him to keep from talking. I

Some of the game I did not get, I've had much more kick from them than tho se I've shot. I followed a big buck's track for miles one day and at last he 1 e d me up a very s tee phi 11 . A s I c 1 i m bed, I had to hold on to the trees to keep from sliding back. As I neared the top I heard something above me. I n an in stant a big buck wa s looking right down on me_

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We glared at each other for a few seconds. Then, I let go of the tree I wa s holding on to and took a slide backwards, as I tried to bring my rifle up. He was gone with the first movement I had made, but I was satisfied, and went back to camp happy. Another time, I was hunting in northeastern Maine with Ernest Benoit. We had stayed together until about noon, when we got a glimpse of an albino deer. We then decided to separate. An hour or two later when I began to think of heading for camp, I came to a valley where the hardwoods were thick and there were plenty of leaves. I scooped up a lot of them into a pile and threw myself into them for a catnap. I guess I dozed off for the the next thing I knew there was something pounding the ground real close. I thought it must be Ernest and he wanted me to jump_ But when this vras repea~ed, I rolled over with a grin on my face expecting to see Ernest. Instead,::1 big buck. He had been stamping with his feet

t

but now after

going backwards was making some mighty leaps to get away. I never took my eyes off the deer. I reached for my rifle, expecting to put my hand right on it, but it was mixed up in the leaves and he was soon out of sight. 1 did not try to follow him. He had given me a good time and I was happy. For many years I hunted along the st. River in Maine and must relate some of my the r e. Vv hen a bun c h 0 f u s fro m B run s \v i c k started to hunt this region, game was very

Johns adventures fir s t plentiful.

On our first trips there, we walked from St. Pamfield to a place called Seven Islands - distance of about 20 miles. There we crossed the river in a hollowed out log and put up in a log cabin, the owner of which we found out later wa s aU. S. Army deserter. A team of horses brought our supplies in over a rough woods road. I was young and could cover a lot of ground and do it quietly, and I saw plenty of deer.

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There is one I mu st tell about. Donald Hunt and I had been hunting together. He jumped a deer and wounded it. We followed it and he finished it. After dressing it out, he asked me if I would spot it out to the nearest trail. We separated and I began spotting trees with a little hatchet I carried. I did this so we could find the deer when we were ready to bring it to camp. I was going along, with my rifle in my kft hand and the hatchet in my right, blazing tree s. I heard something coming. At first I thought it came into view, heading my hatchet and threw my to get away. But, when again and came straight

was Donald and then a buck right for me. When I dropped rifle up, he was on the move I fired, he changed directions for me.

I was using a 35 semi-automatic rifle and kept 11 0 0 tin g. VV hen h e VI a s abo u t t o r uno v e r i o r t h r 0 ugh me, I j U in P e d b a c k tog e t 0 U t 0 f his \'{ a y and f ell d 0 VI n . I looked to see that he was dovvn and struggling to get on his feet. I pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. I got a couple ;3

shells out of my pocket and tried to get them in the rifle, but dropped them on the ground. } guess I was somewhat excited. By this time I see the deer is done for and I did not have to clout him over the head with my rifle. I had hit him four time s out of five shots. I have thought about it many times since, and after I had shot the first shot he just run blind, and I happened to be in his way and I had not known it. After that first hunt at Seven Islands, we found abe t t e r way tog e t the r e _ W e use d tog 0 t 0 La k e Frontier and take a logging road to Nine Mile Bridge then go down the road on foot and continue to Seven Islands. I was there early one fall with three men from New Jersey. One of these men grew up here and liked to follow me in the woods. I did not mind because he used to stay about 50 feet in back of mel and hew a s very qui e t. Hew en t wit h me 0 n s eve r a 1 hun ts inCa n a d a . l

This day at Seven Islands we set out for a long walk. At about 11 o'clock, I caught a glimpse of a bear as he jumped over a windfall and made off. I told Bill I had seen a bear, but I guess he thought I was spoofing. We continued along until noon; we s top p e dan d had 1 u n c h, and the n s tart e d b a c k tow a r d ca m p . I guess it \vas about 3 o'clock, when seeing a fallen tree, I decided to rest awhile. I stepped over this tree and sat down. Bill just turned around when he got to it and sat down facing the other way_ I don't remember hearing any noise but I got up and took a couple of steps and there was a bear. The h air s to 0 d u p 0 n his n e c k a s I s low I y r a i sed my rifle just as he started to Like off. l

Bill had not seen me get up off the log and he jumped up and said, "Vvhat did you shoot at?" I said, "a bear", and he said, "OJt out the fooling."

Within c few minutes I found the blood trail and it made Bill more excited. That bear took us through thickets and down into a swamp before he dropped. We dressed him out and headed for camp, but it was after dark when we got there. The next day we got a logging horse and went back for the bear. We put a bag over the horses eyes and hoisted the bear into the air and lowered i t on to the horse. We tie d i t fa s tan dIe d the her sew i tho uta n y t r ou b 1 e . I had heard that this could not be done. The men guessed the weight of the bear at 300 pounds.

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On one trip up the river from Seven Islands to Nine Mile Bridge, I made the longest shot I ever made on a deer. We were on our way home, pulling a big canoe loaded with game and luggage up the river. We would take turns sitting in the stern to steer the canoe. V\ie were in sight of Nine \1i1e Bridge when I notic8d two deer on the other side of the rive;. At this point in the river, it widens out and there is an island in it. We pulled the canoe ashore and I got my rifle, set down on the bank and aimed it at the deer's shoulder. I fired and nothing happened. The next shot I aimed at least a foot over its back. It fell like a rock. We all thought it was a buck, but it was a doe. We needed that deer to fill our bag. The game warden~ a Mr. VI/ilson, was standing on the bridge at Nine Mile and saw the shooting. He said it was the longest shot he had ever seen on a deer. There was no way of telling how long the shot was. I had bought a log cabin in Brunswick, Maine and had wonted a moose head for over the fireplace. So, another fellow, George Dilts, and I planned to go hunting in New Brunswick, Canada. \\,7 ell , we went. We went up along the coast to a place called Saint Mottens. 'Ne hired guides, got our $50 licenses and hunted for a v\leek. saw plenty of cow moose and young bulls and nothing legal. We went home to New Jersey, but on the vvay horne vve had planned to return the Vve

same fall if po s sible so we could use our same licenses. We went back this time to a place called Greer Settlement. We only had one guide so one day he would hunt with me and the neRt day with George. This suited me for I like to hunt alone anyway. I

I met an Indian and asked him the best way to catch up with a bull moose. And he said, "Find a good fresh bull moose track and follow him. One day, two day, maybe three day you catch a moose." It had snowed the night before, and it was my turn to go out with Bob Floyd, our one eyed guide. We left camp as soon as the sun got up. A new snow covered everything. We had not gone far when we walked into three moose tracks. After looking over the tracks and following them for awhile, the guide said that two of them were good sized bulls, the othe, a cow. The tracks of the bulls were larger and spread out mar e, e s pee i a 11 y the i r fro n t fee t. \V hen the y \vent through a thick growth, we could see where their antlers scraped the bark on the trees. These moose would stay together for aWhile as we followed them and then separate, and then come together again, and then they would separate again. Will, vlhen they would separate, I would follow the tracks of t\"o'O moose and the guide the other. They kept crossing and recrossing a stream and we had gone over our 12" rubbers many times that day. About 1 o'clock, Bob Floyd vvanted to turn back, but I coaxed him to go on. I had in mind what the indian had told me. At about 3 o'clock I was following the tracks of the two moose and Bob was following the tracks of the other. About 200 yards ahead of me, I suddenly 5dW a moose get to his feet, and start off. I firedhe ran and I ran. T hen I see the other one running and I fired at him. He ran in to some alders and

I found him dead. I was out of breath and I sat down to wait for Bob. He had heard the shooting and soon came up. I told him that I had a shot at a not her 0 n e , s o w ewe :-, t b a c k an d f 0 u n d t hat I had wounded the other one. We followed the trail for abo uta ha 1 f ami 1 e and f 0 u n d him d e ad. H e had travelled in a circle and had fallen within a 100 yards of the other moose. When we had them gutted out, it was dark, and we made for a trappers camp, that Bob knew about. The next day we got to a farm house and hired a team and dragged the moose to the nearest road where we cut them up. George took one moose and I the other. antlers on George's moose were not so good, bought a big pair of antlers and when we got taxidermist mounted these on the head. This put up in Joe Bell's Saloon in Three Bridges, Jersey, and I'll bet it's still there.

The so he home the head he New

For several years, George Dilts and I hunted along the Bay of Fondy in New Brunswick. With a moose license, we were allowed two deer apiece, besides a moose, and it was fair deer country. On one trip up there, we stayed in a logging camp in Little Salmon River. Bob Floyd was our only guide again. One night, I was inquiring about a good place to hunt deer because the next day I was to hunt alone. The bo s s of the camp told me up the coa st about seven miles where there had been a logging operation was as good a place as any, and there was a trail through the --;',7oods leading up there. Then he got a tide calendar and after looking it over said that if I got started back for camp by I o'clock, the tide would be out and I could walk home along the shore. I pac Ie e d a 1 u n c h t 11 e next through the woods, taking my every minute of it. I arrived campsite and without seeing a

'n 0 r 11 i n g and set 0 u t time and enjoying at the old logging deer or moose. It

-

-----~~~----------------~

was a I ike I y I 0 0 kin g p I ace t 0 see dee rand lot s dee r S i g n s a r 0 u n d . I had lu n c han d k e p t 0 u t 0 f sight and so did the deer.

0

f

The tim e s lip p e d by - 0 n eo' c I 0 c k, two 0' c I 0 c k ,and I wanted a deer - three o'clock and then I started home through the wood s. At four 0 ' clock it star,ted getting dark in the woods so I headed for the shore. I

Along the shore here, the banks are high almost straight up and down, but I got down on the beach without much trouble and broke into a trot. No sign of water, but before long I see it coming and coming in fast. Right then I should have tried to go over that bank, instead I kept to the beach as long as I could. And, when the water had me pinned to the bank, it was dark, and I had some job to get- up that bank.

-

Right here I must say something of thi.s Bay of Fundy - a 35 foot tide is not unusual and when the tide comes in it really comes in. Well, when I got to the top of that bank, I was thankful, and lay there resting. I thought then by guardin g my face with my arm and rifle, I could push back into the woods until I came across some good wood build a fire and stay there until morning, but, it was a· black growth I ran into and it was a black night and I did not make out so good. I

I kept gOing, and then I bumped into a man. In that instant I thought it was a deer and almost pushed him over with the side of my rifle and I gave a yell. He flashed a flashlight on - I could not see his face, but I bet his hair was standing on its end. We began to talk. He had been over to the logging camp where I stayed and was gOing to a little cabin of his in the woods. He was on a path he knew well and was saving his flashlight. Well, he turned around and escorted me home.

In the thousands of square miles of woods around us, we were the only two out that night strange that we should bump into one another. I had a sixteen milimeter movie camera with me and got some good shots of a fall run of salmon on the Little Salmon River. I also got a shot of a moose, coming toward the camera which George killed. have been trying to remember where I went the following fall - there were several years when I hunted both in Quebec and Maine and one year I hunted first in Quebec, then in New Brunswick and then in Maine. I

I must tell of this when I think of it. One night, George, Bob Floyd and I were camped in pup ten t s 0 v e rIo 0 kin g G r ass y La k e inN e w B run s w i c k . While I gathered some wood and George started supper, Bob made a horn of birch bark and g-ave some moose calls. We heard no answer then, but then it got dark. We had a good campfire going which lit things up close by and we were eating supply when we heard a moose coming close. I grabbed my rifle and jumped to the opposite side of the fire - Bob began throwing the firewood in the direction of the moose hollering all the time to get out of there.

When things quieted down, I asked Bob why he did not let the moose come on. He said it must h a v e bee n a y 0 u n g and' ,f 00 1 ish 0 n e and he did not want us to have an illegal moose on our hands. At that time to be legal a moose must have had at least ten points on his antlers. This Grassy Lake near where we camped was full of trout. We cut a couple of trees, made a raft and George had the time of his life fishing.

on

the way home from hunting one fall, we met and talked to a man who had just come from the Gasby. He had a caribou head on his car. We got all the information we could from him and promi sed 0 u r s e 1 v e s t 0 g 0 car i b 0 u hun tin g the next fall. So,

the

next

fall

we

struck

out

for the

north

shore of the Gasby pennisula. Up there we had thouble understanding French. It was difficult to find anyone who could talk United States but we did. We met a man who had worked for the National Geographic and he too k u s t 0 the home 0 f a F r en c l} guide an d trapper, who in turn went out and got two more men. We had quite a confab and were told that the caribou were back about 20 miles or more in the mountains. Everything had to go in on our backs and the gOing was rough. Well, we hired all three. They helped us pick out our grub supply and no canned goods. We left our city clothes at the guides hOllse and stripped for action, so to speak. We had to take a tent, an ax, a folding stove, two rifles, blankets, provisions and a few extra clothes. At this time they had not begun the cutting of the forest on the Gasby, and for the first few hours we walked through beautiful timber. As we climbed higher in the mountains, the trees began to get smaller, and at the end of the first day we had gone about 12 miles, and we made camp by a lake. Here I see my first caribou tracks and I was sur p r i sed at the s i z.e 0 f the m, the y we r e wid e r than a moose. In the afternoon of the second day, it began to rain and I was glad when the guides threw down their packs and started putting up the tent. At the end of the first day, one of the men had stashed his load and went back for another one. George and I got real busy cutting wood for the fire and boughs for the bed. We got a good· fire going in the stove, brought a lot of boughs into the tent and kept flipping the m u p t o t h e st. 0 v e u n til the y w ere dry. The s e fellows were as good a woodsmen I had ever seen - They made plates, cup s, candle holders,

and so on, of birch bark. In the night, this first night, the rain turned into snow, and I was awakened in the morning by someone hitting the tent on the inside to get the snow off. George was fat and heavy and was very tired from the hike in and did not do much hunting. When he got rested, he fi shed, and when he got more than· he could carry he threw them back. These were rainbow trout. We were camped just below the called the table top. The trees up and grew just a few feet high.

rim of what they here were stunted

In places we could see for miles, and then the clouds would come down and we couldn't see anything. The n you had t 0 k now you r bus i ne s s i n 0 r d e r to fin d your way back to camp.

-

We were up there five days and we tracked caribou each day. I think some caribou never stop w al kin g . 0 ned a y i t s now e d h a r dan d we a 11 s t aye d in the tent until noon. When my guide had seen me ready to go out, he got ready too. Right near camp, we ran into some fresh tracks and took up the chase. It was about an hour later I saw one and squeezed off a shot. Evon and I ran to where he had disappeared and he said quick, the he art, the he a rt, s o l s hot a g a in. E von the n g r a b bed me and said, good, good, good. We dragged the caribou over to a little shelter and dressed it out. I took the head and cape and Evon a hind quarter and we were soon in camp. We been gone about two hours. It was not a qrize head but it was a good size caribou. It had eleven points and I was proud of it. I planned to go back the next year, but I got a letter from Evon the next summer saying the table top and M 0 u n t A I bert we reb e i n g tu r ned in to a gam e refuge and no hunting was allowed, but there would be some caribou outside the game preserve however.

had

The next fall, Fred Ike, Mike Gravik and I went to Cascapadia on the south side of the Gasby. We hired three guides. Fred and Mike and two guides went up the south branch of the Cascapadia River and my guide and me took to the woods away from the river, we were after moose. My guide and me each had a pack sack - I carried a rifle, he carried an ax and in our pack sack we had a silk tent, extra underwear, . sock and shirt, blanket s, tobacco and grub for four days. We had in mind walking for one or two days, get a good moose head, bring out the head and scalp. At the end of the first day's hike, we had not seen a moose, but the signs were very good. OHry Wolf, my guide, said he didn't think we would have to go any further. We pitched ou{ tent, had supper and went to sleep. Before we had breakfast the next morning, we went for a little walk. Curry cut himself a piece of birch bark and made a horn. This wa s in the calling sea son, and I had been waiting for this for a long time. As soon as Curry put out a call, we received an answer rig h t b a c k . Cur ry sa i d her e is 0 u r moo s e, rna k e you r self com fort a b Ie.

sat

I mo v e d down.

ba c k

fro m

a

b roo k

t hat

flo wed

by

and

When the moose first answered our call, he must have been a half a mile away. We did not hear anything for awhile, so Curry coazed him on with another light call. This time he answered three or four times, and we could hear him coming making as much noise as he could. If one has never had a moose come to a call, you cannot imagine the thrill you get. I shot him. We dressed him out and went and had our breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to the moose. Cur ry had a n i d e awe co u I d get t hat moo s e hom e . It was a fine piece of meat. He said to me let's

see if we can find a s,tream nearby that flows toward the Cascapadia River. He said there must be one. We were not very long in finding a good size stream. He said this must be Fall Brook and he k new w 1- ere i t e a m e 0 u t i n t o t h e Cas cap a d i a R i v e r . The ide a was now t o e u t u P the moo s e i n top i e c e ,s t h at w e co u 1 d car r y , carry it 0 v e r t o t h e s t rea m about a half a mile away, build a raft and take it downstream. Curry carried moose meat and moved our tent and things while I went to work with the ax cutting spruce and fir logs close to the stream. Time goes f a s t w hen you wo r k h a r dan d t hat day was g 0 n e before we knew it. It was quite a job to get some of the logs into the stream, and to get them together. It takes quite a raft to carry a moose, two men and their duffle. And then there was the job of tying it together with the moose hide. We got gOing at last but had trouble most of the way down for we had t o e u t 0 u r way t h r 0 ugh t r e e s, w e VIO U 1 d run aground and get overboard with a pry and try to get going again. Sometimes one of us would be left behind for awhile, and then at times the water was too fast and the raft would start to come apart and we did not get very far in a day. Before we got down into the ::ascapadia River, we were living on moose meat and tea and tobacco. We would stop every so often, cow off a steak, boil the kettle and have moose meat and tea. It was quite a trip. When we go t b a c k, F red and M ike had a moo s e t 0 t a k e b a c k too. Before I went home I promised Curry that I would be back again sometime and hunt caribou with him. He thought we could get one not very far from the Cascapadia River.

"C

0

A

L S

B

Y

M Y

CAM

P F I R E"

CONTINUED

The Upselgooch River in New Brunswick, Canada is a famous salmon stream, it is a branch of the likewise famous Restagooch River. Restagooch in" Indian means the rest of the goose. I have been told what Upselgooch means but lIve forgot. I cannot remember the first year we hunted the Upselgooch, but anyway, five of us fellows landed in the 1 itt 1 e tow n 0 f Ups e 1 goo c h 0 n e fall and in q·u ire d about deer hunting. We were put in touch with some fellow s who were fishermens guides in the summer. They said, sure they could fix us up with a good hunt. T hey had a scow about forty feet long and twelve feet wide, that they used on the log drives, and it drew very little water. We hired five men as guides, a teamster and a pair of big horses. We loaded everyting but the horses and the teamster on the scow, hay, grain, provisions, all our duffle, and we climbed aboard. There was a big sweeper on the stern so that we could steer it. We fastened a 300 foot rope to the bow, and the team with the teamster on their backs, hooked to this a.nd away we started upstream. This was going into the woods the easy way. The team would pick their way along the shore where the water was shallow, and sometimes where the water was too deep the team would take to the woods, and then we would have to pull the skow. Once a horse threw a shoe and I put another one on. At noon we stopped, fed the horses and had dinner ourselves. All day, the first day, we went up through burnt woods. That night, we made a lean to of canvas, built a fire in front and were comfortable. By noon the next day, we were in tbe green woods, no more burnt woods. We continued on almost until dark.

There were two fishing camps and we took over. I had seen some good deer hunting country and this turned out to be some of the best I'd seen. We w ere a 11 0 wed two dee rap i e c e, and we fill edt h e b ag in about three days. While roaming around, I picked up a dropped ,I showed it to a warden at Upselcaribou antler. gooch and he said it couldn't have been dropped more than a year or two. ' There had not been a caribou seen in this part for many a ye ar. We loaded everything on the scow, even the horses, all we had to do was steer the thing as went down the river.

went most

-

we

An 0 the rye a r, e ig h t o r ten 0 f us, from New Jersey, But, I got- the up the river the same way. kick from it that first year.

I made two more hunting trips on the Gasby with Fred Ike after caribou. We walked our legs off without seeing one, but I did get a deer. One day it snowed down along the river. Fred was following its tracks and I made a half circle and caught the de e r wa t chi n g his b a c k t r a i I . W est 0 p p e d over at Upselgooch, New Brunswick on our way going. Up the river, I got two more. The last time I hunted the Gasby, Donald Hunt was along. We never got a thing. Donald was a very good hunter and on these trips to northern Maine, he could be counted on to bring to camp more than his share of game. I moved from New Jersey to Maine, and every fall I would hunt with the boys from Brunswick. The game at Seven Islands was getting scarce and sow e mo v e d b a c k fro m the r i v e r six 0 r e i g h t mil e s t 0 La Fen s e Lo g gin g Cam p . Her e the hun tin g was good again. I was told of a deserted camp four or five miles from here where a horse had died or was killed, and bears were working on it.

So, Ern est Ben 0 it and I t o 0 k so meg rub, a c ou pIe of blankets and· a flashlight and set out. The horse was pretty well eaten up, and there were bear tracks everywhere, little ones and big ones. Jus t a t d u s k, w hen w ewe reg e tt i n g rea d y t 0 move in to the hobble near the dead horse, I shot a nice buck. We heard the tote team coming and we did not have time to dress it out. We put it on the tote wagon with instructi ons to have one of the boys at camp dress it. It had been a nice war m day, but a s night fell it got cold. There was a little hay in the hobble and we put this in the corner and wrapped ourselves in the blankets and waited.

-

About every half hour, we would get up and poke the flashlight out the window at the remains of the dead horse. Some time during the night, I heard a grunting noise, I gave Ernest the nudge and he went to open the door. I had the flashlight and Ernest the rifle. I flashed the light along side the hobble and there was a great big porcupine. It kept getting colder and colder during the night, and we thought if we could only build a fire and get warm. But I guess we wanted a bear more than we wanted to keep warm. We stuck i t out un til m 0 r n i n g, but.n 0 be a r s howe d up. We we r e about froze and should have gone outside and built a fire, but instead we got one going inside. Under a lot of dust, there was a log floor in the hobble and there was a lot of sled material s tor e d her e too. W hen w ego twa r m e d u P, weI 0 0 ked for something that would hold some water so that we could put out the fire, but the only thing we could find had holes in i t . ' We would run with this bucket from the brook to the hobble and we thought we had the fire out when we left. But we found out a year later that the hobble had burned down. Someone found my hatchet at the scene of the crime.

..

,

One of the trips to the Seven Islands the boys always talk about, is the ime we got caught in the big snow. On this trip, there was Donald, his father-in-law, Charlie Gibons, George Leonard, John Ben 0 it, M ike the hot - dog man, and mea n d I bel i.e v e two more. On thl strip, we had a big truck, c. cleat track tractor, a scoot and a square stern canvas covered boat, besides a couple of automobiles. We drove all of this rig to Nine Mile Bridge. There we loaded the tractor and scoot from the truck. We loaded all of our provisions and duffle onto the scoot and hooked the tractor to it. We put the boat into the river and started down the e a s t sid e 0 f the r i v e r but ran i n t 0 a lot o-f windfall that had to be cut out 0£ the way. It was slow going and we got no more than halfway that first day. T

-

We had a big tent and everybody was even Mike who had hurt his foot.

happy,

We made i t down the next day okay and we began to hunt. I don't remember how many days we were there when we heard over the radio that a snowstorm was coming. We had one day to go to fill our bag. The boys voted to stay and get that other deer but it was hard to get. In one night it had snowed about two feet and then we all wanted to go home. It was decided to cross the river and go up the West side to Nine Mile Bridge. I was to cross the river with the boat and Donald was to follow with the tractor. All went well until we neared the further shore, when Donald took a short cut and. went into deeper water. We were pulled out with a team of horses but the motor had been under wate r and it took hours to get it dried out. It

was

getting

along

in the

day

when

we

got

started for Nine Mile. A big tractor gave us a start and then Donald took over with his little tractor. This tractor was a bit too small for this kind of going and we kspt getting stuck. Now nine miles in two feet of snow is a long long way. It was get tin g dark, but w eke p t rig h t o n , the men did not want to stop. And then we got stuck good. We unhitched the tractor from the scoot, grabbed some grub and with the empty tractOr leading the way, we hiked on. Donald and I got to Nine Mile about the same time. There was a Forestry Service cabin there and I knocked the lock off the front door with an ax. We had a job get tin g a fir e s t a rt e din the s t 0 v e , there mu st have been a lot of snow in the chim ney. The men kept straggling in, until they were all accounted for. I think i t was around 11 o'clock at night, and we just flopped around anywhere and went to sleep. The next morning Charlie and Donald went back for hal f the stu ff we .h a dIe ft 0 n t h e t r a i I and Don a I d and I went back for the other half in the afternoon. We had plenty to eat and were thankful to be in a good cabin. In a couple of days, a log haul came from somewhere and p u 11 e d u s t 0 La k e Frontier. Now a t La keF ron tie r, we f 0 un d 0 u t t hat all the roads were closed and they were not gOing to plow them out, and that we would have to go as far as St. George by train. There was one flat car a t La keF ron tie r, but nor amp to 10 a d the t r u c k , tractor or automobiles.

-

Well we. all got busy carrying railroad ties and built a ramp and loaded all we could on that flat car. But there was still some left over and one automobile. Well, Johnny Benoit and I stayed behind. The rest left with the freight train. We stayed there for four more days until we could get hold of a flat car. After John and I got to St. George, we had trouble getting home. It had snowed all the way. We got stuck twice and were

pulled

out

by

snow

plows.

One fall we hunted below Seven Islands and this, if I remember right, is when we had trouble the men who woned the camp. And then one fall we stayed and hunted in Nine Mile.

with

Before leaving Brunswick, I got a trappers 1 ice n s e a n d I s e t a b ear t rap n ear C h u r chi 11 La k e t ha t yea r . The For est r y S e rv ice cab i n had bee n ruined by a bear. I c h e c ked t he t rap the n ext day but it had not been disturbed. It took a half a day to go over there and back and the road was so rough. I asked my son David to check the trap as I was going down the river with Donald for a couple of day s. John Benoit went along with David and sure enough the bear was in the trap.

-

Johnny shot the bear and they put it in the station wagon and brought it to Nine Mile. The warden happened to be there and asked who had shot the bear. Johnny said he did. We were fined $20.00 for shooting the bear on a Sunday. We may have gotten out of it if we had gone to Fort Kent to court there, but that was a long way off and then the warden went down the river for Donald and me. Donald had shot a deer the day before and I went with him to bring it in. Donald took his rifle and I did not. We cro s sed the river in a canoe and pulled it up on the bank. The warden going down the river saw the cano e and followed us and he caught Donald with a loaded rifle on Sunday and we were fined for that. We never went back to the St. James river to hunt again. It had been a wonderful country for deer. Maybe we did some things that were not quite right, but I think we were a good bunch of fellows.

had

Li v i n g in Maine at this time near the bay, I a boat. I was lobstering one day and I see

a deer swimming between Mare Point and Flying Poi n t it was a s p ik e h 0 r n b u c k . A ft e r rna kin g several trys, I pulled up along side of him an d put my hand on him. I wasn't satisfied with this so I made a noo se in a rope and when I got near him again I threw it over hi shead. I thought I would drown him the way he struggled before I got it off his head again. The last I see of him he headed for Flying Point.

I

I

The non e sum mer, G eo r g e Le 0 n a r dan d I s e t out to make the Allegash trip. I had a seventeen foot canoe with a 3 horsepower motor and a map of that region. We had a tent, provisions, gas and had expected to finish the trip at the town of Allegash or Fort Kent. We put the canoe in the water and we we r e a t Sun Coo k La k e . We had qui t e a loa d for a small canoe and it was a little choppy, so I steered with one hand and bailed water with the other. There was approved camping grounds on this trip and it is a must that you build fires where these are and no where else. Our first stop was near T scheshuncook Village where I see two deer. The next night we were at Tomutponcari. We were told at the dam that old Frank at Tomutponcari had a t e a m 0 f h 0 r s e s a n d w ou 1 d car r y u s a c r 0 s s t 0 Mud Pond, a distance of about four miles. But he had no horses. After tog i v e u p decided i t Charlie Gi sometimes regularly.

camping there a couple of days, we had the tr i p . W e see pIe n t y 0 f dee ran d I might be a pretty good place to hunt. bbons, Art Adams, Bob Moore and I and other Brunswick men have hunted here

Sometimes we had good luck and sometimes not so good. 'I well remember the trip up the lake the first time we went hunting there with Charlie and Art, in Art I s fourteen foot boat and seven horsepower outboard. It was rough, the wind blew and Charlie and I bailed water all the way up. We were seven

hours going up, part of the time in the dark. Charlie, Art Adams and George Leonard have two cam p s a t F 1 a g s t af f La ken ear M 0 u n t Big low. We hunt here sometimes. Deer are not very plentiful but we have good times. George and Bob are the cooks and lobster and crab meat stews are common. In the evening we playa game of cards called sixty-three, and it is almost as exciting as deer hunting. We have a midnight snack and then turn in. When I was sixty-four, an old hunting pal, Mike Gravik, wrote to me asking if I wanted to go moose hunting in New Foundland. Of course, I did and I told him so. In due time, he arrived from New Jersey with another fellow. We drove to New Brunswick, Canada and then to Nova Scotia and across Nova Scotia to North New Sidney. There we left the station wagon and boarded a big steamer for the the Port of Bask, New Foundland. It was about 100 miles across the water here. We had made arrangements for a guide to meet us here.

-

He had a boat about a 35 footer - and we started up the coast, and it is a rugged coast. At noon we pulled into a small fishing village, had dinner and then continued up the coast, the La P a u 1 R i v e r was 0 u r de s tin at ion, and we a rr i v e d there before dark. We put up in the guides home. There were about a dozen small houses here, some sheep, some dags and I gue,ss every man owned an ox. It was the quaintest place I I d ever been in. We landed in the LePaul River two days before the moo se season opened, so the next day we loaded an ox and walked up river for about five miles and arrived at a little camp. The two fellows from New Jersey fished for trout. One of them kept me pretty busy taking the fish off the hook and putting them in a pool, fenced off with rocks. The guide and I left them fishing the next morning and we started to climb away from the river. I

In

about

an

hour,

we

see

a

cow

moose

nearby

and pass it up and he re and there and bull stuck his head The gui de missed. The thing chance.

then we began to see moose Then a good at a di stance. out for a second I fi re d and assured me I would get another to do wa s to have some lunch.

we set After the guide took my fieldglasses In awhile he said he saw on a ro ck and looked. Re pOinted to something white one, a good one. It was antlers that moved a little once in awhile. on a moose that was lying down about I, 000 yard s away. I

I

We left our pack ba sket, slickers, etc. and made a stalk within' 200 yards of the moose. I f we went any closer, we would have to cross a stream and be out of sight of the moose too long.

-

When I ready to shoot , the guide gave a yell and the moose jumped to his feet. I fired three times before he fell. It was a good moose. We dressed it out and the next day, two men and three ox went 0 u t, we cut it up and bro ugh t i t hom e . The y have big pack sacks they put on these oxen and the y can car ry a big loa d . It was the 0 the r fellows turn to get their moose and they did this in about three days. We each brought home about 300 Ibs. of meat, after we had frozen it. I had never seen so many moose in so short a time. We stood one morning in the guides door yard and saw three men from a nearby village shoot three moose on the side of a big hill. There is one more moose hunt I must tell about. This happened about 25 years ago. I was living in New Jersey at the time. With George Dilts, Mike Gravik, Fred Ike and I, we all wrote to a guide and outfitter at St. Michaele in Quebec. St. Michaele was at the end of the line. When we went north from there, it was nothing but woods and lakes. We had to arrange things so that when we arrived there our guide would have canoes, tents provisions, etc. and be at the hunting ground. It would take us just a short time to fly in and it

would

take

the

guides

three

days

to

go

in

by

canoe.

It was a small plane and had to make two trips for the four of us and our duffle. Everything went according to schedule and when we see the smoke from their campfire we came down. The ten t s we r e a 11 up, tab 1 e s ha d bee n set u p and they were getting the dinner ready. We put the names of the four guides in a hat and picked out the name of the man who would be our guide. T he next morning with a guide apiece we set out in four different directions. My guide and me went a way by canoe and then we carried into another lake. We crossed this and with our sleeping bags went back into the woods a little way and made ready for the night. After supper we went back to the lake and I called. My guide had never called a moose. We did not get an answer that night, but we did hear something in the night that we thought might be a moose. The next morning after breakfast, we went down to the lake and we see on the other side of the lake what we took to be a moose in the water. We jumped in the canoe and paddled as fast as we could. When we neared the moose, I stopped paddling but the guide did not and we kept right on. Then we see a second moose standing on the s h are. I t h ink one had ch_a 11 eng e d t he at her, and they did not seem to see us or mind us. The one in the water seemed to have the best head so I gave my attention to him. I fired once, breaking his lower jaw and then I thought i f I killed him in the water we would have a job getting him out. So I waited until he had his four feet on dry ground, then I took careful aim and down he went. The guide took over then and with the help of the other guides brought the meat into camp and smoked it. George Dilts shot a moose and a bear on this trip. Fred and his guide see seven wolves, but they didn't get anything. I never see a deer track here. I guess the wolves has them all drove out. All of us with the moose meat and bear went out by canoe. It took us three days of paddling and carrying.

I lived in Florida a few years, and the only hunting I did there was for ducks and quail. I did go after turkeys once, but did not connect. I helped a man build a camp near the mouth of the Chasawisca River in a regular jungle. My son Bobby, and I made a trip by canoe of 100 mil e s 0 r m 0 r e up the S wane e ·.R i v e r . We a 1 s o t 0 0 k trip s up the Wiftacoo chee River. My brother, Rol, and I went through the big Cypre s s Swamp s. I had killed some big snakes in Florida but never hunted them there, but I had hunted snakes in T exa s during Wor Id War I. Hunting now isn't what it used to be. Now with so many gOing hunting with the back country opened up with roads and airplanes and outboard motors, jeeps and modern arms it cannot be. I think this hunting business was sort of born in me. I am 69 years old now and because of my age maybe I am not so blood thirsty. I have always enjoyed being in the woods, and I don't blame the Indians for fighting to hold this land as it used to be. Around the campfires on my trips into the woods I have heard lots of tall stories. I will tell a few now _ A dee r s tory, a f ish s tory, a bear story, and moose story_ A fisherman was telling of the time he was fishing in a winding trout stream. After almost giving up he hooked one - a big one - he stopped talking for a moment and someone asked him did you get it; he said, nope. That fish had his tail caught in the bend in the stream. A deerhunter, on hi s way into camp saw two dee r . 0 n e jus t i n b ac k 0 f the 0 the r . The 0 n e in fro nt a buck, the one in back a doe. When he fired, the buck in two jumps was out of sight, but the doe s to 0 d per f e c t 1 Y s till . Hen 0 tic e d now something hanging from the doe's mouth, and as he approached her he saw that it was the buck's tail, and he had shot i t off. The doe was blind and the buck wa s guiding her around by hi s tail,

so this hunter just took hold of the buck's and led the doe right into his camp.

tail

A group of men went hunting every fall in Northern Maine. They had built a shack way back in the woods. One of the men in this group they called Pantywaist, because he was often los t or was afraid of getting lost, so when he was alone he didn't go very far from camp. One day it rained and the men stayed in camp, played cards. Pantywaist, getting tired of this said, "I'll show you fellows sho's a Pantywaist. 1'm going way back into the woods." So off he went by himself, although he had made up hi s mind not to go any further than just out of sight of camp. He figured then, that he could make up a story to tell the boys when he got back to camp. Well, after sitting in the woods for an hour or so, he got up to go and there a bear, not 50 feet away, stood looking at him. Pantywaist could run and the bear ran after him.

-

Now as they neared the shack, Pantywaist could see that the door was open and he was hoping he could make it, but just before reaching the door, he fell flat. But the bear was coming on so fa:; t t hat he couldn't stop and went sliding right into the cabin. Pantywaist jumped to his feet, pushed the door shut and yelled, "Boys, skin that one out, while I go get YOll another." A guide told me this one, he said he got it from a city slicker. A city slicker had a moose head over his fireplace and for years would not tell anyone where he got it. He used to say if I told you, you might not even believe me. B ut the longer this went on, the more determined his friends were to find out just where he got it. After his friends had given him a big party, he finally broke down and this is his story. He said he had been fly casting for trout in some northern stream, and while casting the hook got caught in something in back of him. He turned around and there stood a moose with a pained expression on his face. The trout hook was sunk into the rear

end of the moose. He had to do something so he got out hi s bottle of all cure and sneaked around and got around in back of the moose and pulled out the hook and put on a dab. Well it made that moose itch, for he backed up against a big pine tree and began to rub. Well he rubbed and he ru b bed. I wa t c h e dun til the r e was not hi n 9 left but the head, and there it is boy s.

CHAPTER

FOUR

We arrived in Maine in the early spring, David, Ruth, Bobbie and Hetzel and I I Mary dog. Jessie was to join us soon from nurse's training school in New York.

our

The cabin had only been used for summer vacations and had no running water or electric and not enough sleeping rooms. So one of my first jobs was to blast a trench 300 feet in solid ledge, dig a well, and pipe water to the cabin; and the n h a u 1 fill dirt and fill the t r en c h s o t he· pipe would not freeze in the winter. And then blast a trench and a big hole on the other side of the cabin for the septic tank. It was not easy for I had to blast a little at a time right under the cabin. I had a man to help and built a 3 room addition on one side of the cabin. We put in a bathroom and enclosed the porch, put some insulation on the ceiling in the living room and corked the log s with ookem. We then built a barn and got a cow. Abo u t t his tim e Ed and Lo u w ro t e tom e saying they had an offer for the place in Florida. I told them to sell and they did and I took a loss of about $2000. Jessie

went

to

work

in

Bath.

The bay here was full of cohogs at thi s time and I had i n min d t 0 d rag fa r the m. s 0 I bought a good rugged 36 by 10 ft. boat. Clyde Kincade and I went to Road Island to see how this dragging of cohogs was done there. I bought a drag, a hoist. and other equipment and we soon began installing it in the boat. At fir.st things did not work out so good. But with trial and error, it proved successful.

For about a year, I made real good. And then the men who were hand digging cohogs got together and went before the Sea and Shore Commi-

ssary,

the

Commissioner of fisheries.

They

complained I was taking away their livelihood. And I was forbidden to drag anymore. La t e r it pro v e d I d i d a lot 0 f goo d by d rag gin g . I had just taken the old large cohogs and had spread the seed over a large area. For years the niggers never had it so good.

-

I took the dragging rigging out of the boat and fitted it up for lobstering. On the real big tides, I would be lobstering. The rest of the time, I would be lobstering. The hand digging of cohog s become so profitable that the women and kids around the neighborhood were out there digging and then some of the dealers started shipping seed out of the state. I believe that was the beginning of the end. T he digging got poorer and poorer, until now there are very few to be found. I bought a· sane then, and in the fall of the year, I would sane smelts. It took me the first fall t olea r n how t o n e t the s e f ish . Aft e r t hat, I did all right. It was a night job, and it took at least two people to se t and handle the net. We would go down in the bay with the big boat, a row boat and a doarie, an outboard motor and a bunch of butter tubs, an extra change of clothes and plenty to eat. The smelts would make up into the coves of the islands and we would surround them with this 300 ft. net, pocket them and bail them into the row boat. Along toward morning we would put them in tubs, bring· them home. ice them, and a truck would pick them up, and take them to B os ton. Sometimes, I would take them in myself. About 3 n i g h t s a w e e k w ere a lIon e c 0 u 1 d t a k e 0 f t hi s .

During the day, the net would have to be dried and mended, and things made ready for the next trip. And sometimes the fog would come in s o t h i c k, dow n i nth e bay t hat i two ul d bed iff i c u 1 t to find our way home, even with a compass. I

The twins never took to this smelting business. One night when they were with me, i t started to blow a gale, and we put the boat into a big cove to get out of the wind. As we pulled well into the cove, I a sked David to get up on the bow and get ready to throw the anchor. When I said let i t go David, I heard two splashes. It was too dark for me to see the front of the boat, but I knew instantly that David was overboard. I was about ready to run up and pull the anchor, when he stuck his head up over the side of the boat. When he threw the anchor, one of the flukes of the anchor had caught in his clothing and pulled him overboard. When I heard the 2 splashes, I sensed what had happened. Jessie, Mary, the Twins and I went smelting one night. We left Bunganuk a couple of hours before dark and anchored off Appletree Cove. Jessie and Mary prepared the supper, and after we ate and sat around wahile to wait until it got good and dark. T he black of the night with no moon showing, the better were our chances. I went ashore alone a couple of times to take a look see, and then w e a 11 got i nth e row boa t a n d the d 0 a r i e and we r e soon setting the sane acros s the mouth of the cove. After making one end fast to the shore, we then waited for about an hour for the tide to fall some. And then we began to drag the other end in a big circle. We finally got the smelts into a pocket and bailed them into the rowboat. We just made the one set that night. We were home in Bunganuk by 10:30. I loaded the min t o t h e s t at ion wag 0 n . I had the min B os ton by daylight. It wa s a good catch, and it brought over $200 bucks. I continued to sane smelts each fall for 6 years.

After getting David deferred from army dL.:.y twice, he was drafted into the army. Donald was deferred one year and was not drafted, and continued to work with me. Mary was in nurse's school and Jessie was working as a nurse in Bath. And she quit her job and enlisted in the army nurses corp. and was soon overseas. Ruth

was

in

shcool

and

so

was

Bobbie.

Lo b s t e r pot s toe k was h a r d tog e t . 8 0 I put up a building and equipped it with a balder, a lath machine, a stipper and so on, and with Donald's h e I p mad e lob s t e r po t s toe k . Wed i d t his m 0 s tl y in the winter when we could not lobster. I bought oak standing in the woods, cut it and hauled i t to the mill. I sold all the lobster pot stock we could put out. On the long winter evenings, I knit lobster pot heads from my 200 traps. We kept very busy, and then the war ended and Jessie and David came home.

and

J e s s i e mar r i e d G 0 r don Le i t n e r made her home in Wisconsin.

s0

0

n

a ft e r

t his

I made a trip to Florida for 2 weeks and while there, I made an offer of $ 5 000 for two lot s on Treasure Island. Florida was booming and I wanted to get in on it. I wa s over 50 and hard work was beginning to tell. I was looking for a soft job. On the way home I made plans what I was going to do if my offer of $5000 was accepted. When I got home, a letter was there saying I had bought thoses 2 lots. While in 'Florida, I found out lumber was very high in price and nails were very hard to get. They delt them out 10 lots to a time if you bought lumber. 80 as soon as I got home, I broke the news we were going to Flori-da.

We got busy taking our barn down and our lob s t e r po t mill dow nan d I t o 0 k a 11 the n ail sou t of the lumber and had the boards all planed down to 3/4 of an inch so as to pay as little freight for 1000 ft as possible on the train. I scouted around and got together 2 kegs of nails and one of spikes. I loaded all the lumber we had on the big freight car and fini shed filling it with little lumber. I had 26, 000 feet all told. I shipped it off to St. Petersburg. I sold the machines I had in the mill, the lobster pots, nets, doarie, and fishing gear, and put the gib boat up for sale, which I sold very soon, and then Donald and I took off for Florida. We got there before the f rei g h t car wit h 1 urn b e r a n d w ewe n t tow 0 r k clearing the trees and bushes and burning the same off the lot. When we had i t cleared I wa s offered double what I paid for it.

-

The l'lmber arrived and started to build 3 cottages. breakwater and a dock.

I

had 2 men and we We also put in a

It was hot and I drank water every few minutes out 0 f tho s e n e w pip e s t hat we r e jus t put in. I have an idea i t may have caused the bl adder trouble I had later on. We finished the 3 cottages and I bought fur nit u rea n d fur. n ish Ln g s, put u p b 1 i n d s, d rap e s and so on, rented one and gave the keys to the 3 to my niece Dorothy. She agreed to take care of them on a commission until I returned. Then Donald and I took off for Maine. I brought the family back about 6 weeks later. We rented a house out of town and I started the renting and started to build another 2 bedroom cottage. About tions from house and under way land. The to get him

this time I received some good instrucmy sister Mary in making beds and cleaning so on. We had this forth cottage well when we found out it was not on our surveyor had made a mistake. I tried to pay me damages, but everything he

had was in his wife's not to sue him.

name,

and I

was

advised

The cottages rented very good and as soon as we finished the forth we started the fifth and then the sixth. And then I built a little office While the family was in Maine and a garage. one summer, I lived in the office, cooked, ate and slept there. There were two vacant lots across from our cottages on the gulf. I bought them and started 2 more cottages. We bought rowboat s, a shuffle board court, umbrella s, out side umbrella s chairs and planted lots of shrubs and trees. I

-

And then the family and I all took off for M a i n eon e sum mer and Lo u and E dan d Mar y and Le 0 had the i r t urn s a t r e n tin g the cot tag e s . The y rented so good it was sort of fun. But it was nice for one to get away for awhile. And then I built the ninth cottages. For these cottages on the gulf in the winter season, I have received as much as $125 a week. B e for e b u i 1 din g the 1 a s t 3 cot La g e s, I beg a n to urinate blood. I went to a urologist doctor in St. Pete and after examination he said I had cancer and tha t I didn't have more than a 50-50 chance to live. So I see Leo right away and with Leo and Mary's help, made out a will. And Leo went with me to the V.A. Hospital at Big Pines. I was very sick from the examination I went through. They let me rest for a couple of days and then cut 0 r bur ned 0 u t tho s e 4 tum 0 r s i n m y b 1 ad d e r . I was in the hospital in and out for about 3 months. Jessie came down from Wisconsin to help with the cottages and I had very good care from all my folks.

I was sent to Memphis Tennessee to see if I needed deep x-ray. They took out another tumor the rea n d the n I h a d com pl i c a ti 0 n s . I g a i ned fa s t though and wa s soon at work again. I'd had a cla;e shave. Things wee: along very good then for a year or two I and then we had a huricane, almost. washing the cottages into the gulf. I decided to sell the place at the first opportunity. I put it up for sale with several realtors, after of course repairing the storm damage. A man and his wife from New Jersey fell in love with our place. The man had a business with his father, but wanted to break away. Against his father's wi she s, he made a down payment on our place of $5000 through a real estate agent. His father went on so, that before the time had come for him to pay more money, and take over he was talked out of the deal and his father paid him the $5000. I got half of this and the real estate man got half. This deal held up the selling of the deal for 6 months. J

And then one afternoon, a real e state man I didn't know came in and offered $65,000 for the place for a client of hi s. He talked and talked, saying there would be no commission for me to pay and I better take the check he had for a down payment. I refused, never expecting to see him again. But in an hour, he was back with his last offer, he said, of $75,000. I had been asking $95,000 and then I would h a v e t 0 pay a com m iss ion. He sa i d he c ou 1 d not t a k e 0 v e r the pIa c e for 2 m 0 nth s. and I co u 1 d k e e p a 11 I co u 1 d rna k e till the n.. I r e f use d a g a i n a n d made him a price of $ 85, 000. He went off again. It's needless to say, I was hoping he would come back again. He did with a contract for $ 85 , 000 and a check for $10,000 downpayment. Ruth was in school and I would have to stay in Florida for 2 1/2 months anyway until she got out of school. Business was good and in those 2 r.:onths, I made $2500. With the $2500 I received

from

the

other

deal I

was

glad to

get

out.

When this new man took over, we rented a cottage for a couple of weeks till Ruth got out of school, and then we headed for Maine. It was good to get back where it was cool. Mary was married and living in Kansas and the next fall we met at Jessie's in Wisconsin. Lo u i s h a d g 0 n e 0 v e r sea s, s 0 Mar y, S h a ron, and Ruth in one car and Hetzel, Bobbie and I in another went from there to Florida for the winter. I had always wanted a service station and now that the boys were grown and settled, I thought now was the time. I bought a piece of land 150 by 150 on Pasadena Ave. for $20,000 and made arrangements with the Shell Oil Co. to build a station. They also had a house built there. The whole works cost about $ 45, 000. What I did not know about a service station was plenty, and the boys did not get along together. So along towards spring, I leased the whole works and went back to Maine. David and Donald had trailers and stayed in Florida. I had been paying in on Cocial Security, self employed for a few years, but I needed 6 more quarters to make it, so I began to cut off our wood lot and then I returned to Florida for a few m 0 nth s t o r un the s e r vic e s t.a t ion a g a in. The t win s were married then and Bobby and I and two other men I hired did pretty good. But I didliked the whole thing, and at the end of 8 months I leased the s:ation to Shell Oil Company and rented the house to someone else. We returned to Maine and I co ntinued cutting logs and pulp and raised and sold things from the garden. I was over 60 now, but I had enough quarters for my Social Security. Two years ago I sold the station and house in Florida for less than what I paid for them, although the land value there had about doubled. I wa s glad to rid of them.

F 0 u rye a r sag 0 I had had a k i.d n e y 0 per a t ion that took a lot of pep out of me, and last fall I was operated on for gaul bladder trouble. Outside of having diabetes and cateracts, I am hail and h a rdy . I p l.a y 9 0 1 f, go hun tin g, h a v e a gar den, take care of the place here, go to Florida, and think of all the thing s I should have done.

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