Interview with Linda Esten

Transcription

1 Interview with Linda Esten Interviewer: Amy Stevens Interviewee: Linda Esten February 22nd, 2006 Brewer Mill Project AS: Could I just have you say your name or hello? LE: Hello, this is Linda Esten. AS: Ok, and where were you born Linda? LE: I was born in Bangor; raised in Orrington, just out of Brewer. AS: Ok, and what s your date of birth? LE: 3/21/1945. AS: So we just had our little test run but I just want to say this is Amy Stevens and it s February 22nd, 2006 and we are at the home of Linda Esten in Newport, Maine and thank you for talking with us, Linda. She s going to tell us a little bit about her family s history at Eastern Fine Paper Mill. LE: You re welcome. My father first of all bought a little house on Eastern property. I don t know if you realized that Eastern had property across the line from South Brewer into Orrington. AS: Oh wow. LE: and this little house was lost by a man that couldn t afford to keep it. My father bought that and rebuilt it. He also, as he worked at the mill, would buy strips of land that were 100 feet by 37 and a half feet. AS: That s an interesting dimension. LE: and I realized this after my parents had passed away and I sold the house in one piece of property; right in the middle of the property, we couldn t find the deed for. So we went through about a year of trying to research that to see if a Mr. Hurlahy, I believe was the man s name that had lost the property, if he had any ancestors. So that was interesting to know that, that property was owned originally by the Eastern. AS: Yes, now what was your father s name? LE: Percy Elliot. AS: Percy Elliot, ok. LE: and he had nicknames where ever we would go AS: Oh really.

2 LE: there would be somebody that we would run into that worked at the Eastern and he was Pursey Two-check and he got the name Two-check because he spent a lot of hours at the Eastern. In fact, even after he got called home sometimes in the middle of the night, he d get called back in so that was a joke that he must have gotten two checks. AS: That s great. LE: It was always around four o clock that we ate supper. My mother had it planned when he would get out and get home that we would have supper ready and he often walked to work, so walked back home. I also had an Uncle George that lived across the street from us, George Elliot. He worked at the gate house and he would get out and sometimes he would appear walking up the street before my father would; and this is something you might want to check on, is you re seeing some of the pictures, my father got quite dirty. And I don t remember him coming home quite so dirty and I also have memories that, this is a little foggy that there may have been a washing machine there and shower because I don t remember my mother doing clothes quite as dirty as what you see in the pictures. AS: That is interesting. LE: My uncle George also was the union president and I don t know how many years he was at the gatehouse. Back to how my father started there, he worked on the wood piles, pulp piles and of course you probably heard some of the stories when they fell down over the piles AS: Oh, did that ever happen to your father. LE: It did. He was injured. AS: Oh wow. LE: In fact, almost lost his life. One of the men went back and pulled him out. He had broken his shoulder. His leg was completely twisted around back and from then he had back problems and he couldn t raise his arm higher than shoulder height. AS: Really? Now when was that? LE: That was probably in the 30 s when he started working there. AS: Was he a young man at that time? LE: Yes. In fact he was just waiting for his age so that he could start working at the mill, I guess they were quite strict with people working at the mill, you know at a young age. [End Track 1, Begin Track 2] LE: so I don t know particularly what his age was, before that he had worked for Mr. Little that had a farm in the area so AS: Now did they raise any funds or was there any sort of compensation after that injury, do you know of? LE: I don t know. I don t know. I will say that before my father retired, one year before he retired, the mill did go down for one of the first times it was shut down completely I believe for a year and I don t know if you ve heard that they raised funds in South Brewer; people that had worked there and people that were interested probably I don t know, maybe Mr. Epstein where he had such an interest and people doing business with him and they raised enough money to bring the mill back up again. My father was one of the first ones back in. AS: Oh really? LE: Because he did work in the power plant with the turbines and the roller repair and so forth. He was one of the last ones out too when they did close it down. Just looking at my notes here, sometimes he did work seven days a week. AS: Really.

3 LE: and he taught himself. As I say, he started on the pulp piles and worked his way into the mill so that he did work on the boiler repair and on his lunch hours he would read and taught himself about these. One of his mentors was Dane Littlefield. He s one of the real old ones way back and my father respected him and I think learned a lot from him also and as Manly Debeck mentioned I think they learned from one another and I know my father taught a few of them to do his job and I think you can see in the picture of this man that s standing behind him, he was quite interested in learning what he could from my father and also Mr. Osgood; it was mentioned at one of the meetings that he would be called in, in the middle of the night and he and my father worked together. AS: Oh did they? LE: It wasn t always that there was a problem with the boiler or turbines, sometimes it would be I would hear him say, he would have to go in to fix number three. We worked on number three machine, paper machine today so they did different jobs. There were some electricians. I think it was Mr. Mooney, Pepper Mooney was one of the names that I remember my father saying. I think he was an electrician so they all kind of worked together and helped one another. I know they would shut machines down sometimes to work on them. I don t know if it was just to clean them or probably repair them too and I can give you some of the names that are familiar to me and they were like a family. They were all friends and my father s fishing buddy, he was George Mullet. AS: Mullet? LE: Mullet. AS: Ok. LE: and they would go I know up into the iron works, I believe it was up past Old Town, maybe Millinocket, I m not quite sure where that area is and it was mentioned at one of the, at that meeting that the Eastern had an area where they had fish and I don t know if they fished there or not. AS: Yes, it s that Madagascal Stream. We found quite a lot of information about that dam and then another fishing area that seemed to be kind of a sporting camp, weekend place so LE: That may be where they went fishing too. AS: Yes. LE: But I can tell you about the dam that was on Mill Stream too. I ll go back to the names, Ray Dunn worked there and now I can remember seeing some of these men come to the house too. Of course my Uncle George Elliot, another man that worked with my father closely was Bragg. His last name was Bragg and I don t remember if it was Norman Bragg AS: Ok. LE: Mr. Osgood of course and he s still living; Raymond Collins from Orrington; Don Adams from Orrington; Ray Grendle was close with my father and he has a son that lives in Orrington now. AS: Oh really [End Track 2, Begin Track 3] LE: that you might be able to interview him a little bit too. Of course I mentioned Pepper Mooney, the last name was Foxx. That was a South Brewer name. Mr. Kidder, Pearly Buchanan, and he just passed away. He was an uncle to my first husband so there s all kinds of close relationships in you know that drive from the mill. I believe one of the bosses was Fred Lindsey, you would have to check on that name. Mr. Atwood s who was my father s direct boss. Frank Knight, he was the big boss and my father wasn t afraid to tell him what he believed would work. Another friend was George Phillips or Red Phillips and another friend was Mr. Doyle. My father was a carpenter of sorts and as I mentioned he rebuilt the little house that we lived in, built it all over as a matter of fact. And because he had these friendships, he helped build a house for George Mullet. He had him working with him. He also built my Uncle s house across the street from us on the Kinley Street and Mr. Doyle s house in Orrington, I believe that was

4 on the Mill Stream Road that leads into the center of East Orrington. So they were close. My father was a hard worker. When he d come home, he had a garden. One year he decided he d raise turkey s. He decided about 10 or 12 turkeys and some of his friends caught wind of it, could we have a turkey for Thanksgiving, could you save us one for Christmas. The next year, he had 100 turkeys. LE: Word caught on at the mill how great they were and my father being raised on a farm in Aroostook County knew how to slaughter and he did it in a humane way and we had an assembly line. One of my Uncle s would help him and he set this right up in our garage and he would bring them into the house, my grandmother, my mother and I would pick the pin feathers because he would pull out all of their outer feathers and he learned how to do that. And we had a sun porch my father had built, unheated but enclosed so this was where the turkeys were put around thanksgiving time until the men could pick them up from the mill after work or that evening. AS: Wow, so the whole family was part of that. LE: Right. Yes that was kind of fun. AS: It didn t bother you as a little girl? LE: Well I didn t see the slaughtering part of it. The only part that would bother me is if the, because he knew how to, this is kind of gross, stick them in the gullet so that they would bleed and that way I guess it was a, you know better meat, more tender and so forth and once in awhile he would, stuck them in the gullet so it got their green sack and that would stink and if he brought that into the house, I can remember running into my bedroom not wanting anything to do with that one AS: Yes. LE: You can see in the retirement picture all the men had their suits on back in those days when that was a special time; they always wore suits. My father didn t very often wear a suit. It was usually blue work clothes or green work clothes that you d see him in and a cap. I did mention the dam and that was, I was on the Kinley Street where I grew up and that did run an avenue around to Roosevelt Avenue and Garfield Avenue and when you went to the end of Garfield Avenue, you could look down over the hill and see the dam that was controlled the water that went into the mill. We had a good neighborhood with [End Track 3, Begin Track 4] LE: kids all around my age within a couple of years and we all played together and we were told never to go near the dam and I never told my mother that I did go to the dam and I was about 36 years old when I told her and I got the devil for it, even at that age that I had gone down put my life in jeopardy because I guess there were times that it was quite dangerous to be down around there. They did have a gate there and she was told by my father that it was dangerous to be down there because if they had any high waters, once in awhile he was called to go down there. That was one of the odd jobs that they did, go down there and adjust the gates for the water that was coming into the mill; that I thought that might be of interest to you. AS: Now what would you do down in the dam? Just LE: I would just walk across it and you know just see what we could get down, walk across and look down over and it was quite deep. Another one of the things we were warned about was the oil tankers docking and they docked, I believe that there was an area just off the railroad track that ran across down beyond the mill going towards Orrington at the bottom of what they called Wheeler Hill. We were only, we were probably just about a mile from the mill when you could hear the oil tankers coming in. They d toot their whistles and we were to never walk down to the tracks anyway but especially when the oil tankers came in and I know my father had something to do with unloading some of the oil too, either hookups. I can remember my mother saying Jay, did you have to walk across that icy, I guess it was like a cat walk and I know she was worried about him doing that. In fact, this is what Mr. Osgood told me for a story; it was a very foggy night and he and another, my father and another man which Mr. Osgood can t recall who it was, went down to the area. I guess where they were going to hook up the oil tankers and it was so foggy that the man that was driving down couldn t see and he said to my father, can you see it? Can you see? What is

5 it over there you know, what s happening and it was some big joke that where this man couldn t see it, he thought my father could see it because a lot of them looked up to my father for answers. Along that story, I guess there was some partnership or relationship with the mill that was in Bucksport too because I know my father had to go some evenings once in a great while down to hook the oil tankers up in Bucksport, at the Bucksport mill too. AS: That s interesting. LE: Yes. The oil tankers that came in, of course as I mentioned the kids in the neighborhood weren t suppose to be in that area. A couple of the boys that were older than me snuck down, cut one of the big ropes off and brought it back, hooked it up to one of the trees over my friend s grandmothers property; there was a big gully where we used to slide and they hooked it up to the tree and we d swing out over the gully AS: Oh my goodness. LE: and now I am afraid of heights. I don t know how I ever dared to do it but I did. I will say that I believe most of the families in South Brewer, Irish and French, a lot of the families worked at the mill and I m sure you probably heard that, you know they would walk to work and before my time there was a trolley that would come to the bottom of Wheeler Hill and then the bus also had that route and we never had a car so, until I believe I was five or six when we had a car so there was no need, my father would walk to work. My uncle walked to work. If we needed to go to Bangor for appointments, or my mother was a beautician. She worked in Bangor AS: Ok. LE: could take the trolley or the bus when the bus route started but a lot of business depended on the mill. [End Track 4, Begin Track 5] LE: Because I think a lot of the families had connection to the mill. Mr. Lindsey, he had a daughter that moved to the Brewer area and was my high school teacher. AS: Oh really LE: So and I believe that s the connection there. Now did you know there was a post office in South Brewer? AS: I did not know that. LE: That was right outside the gates at the mill. There s a restaurant there now but South Brewer had this special post office and probably because of the mill population. AS: That s interesting. LE: Back to my fathers job, he did have some loss of hearing because of the machinery and you can see I believe in one of these pictures that this is a turbine, turbine that has general electric insignia on it and they would have inspectors come from New York to inspect the turbines and my father had several offers to go to New York to work with them as I say he taught himself and I m quite proud of the fact that he learned to work on these turbines and that he had been offered to go to New York but he would not leave. He wouldn t leave the mill. The boiler repair part of it, you can see he is a big man and I believe he was even bigger in that, at one time and the hose that they had to go inside the boilers were quite small and every one was amazed that my father could get into an area like that to clean the inside. I think I would have been claustrophobic and think I couldn t get back out. AS: Oh I know. I was thinking the same thing. LE I m trying to think of some of the things here that, oh the sulfur, some people mentioned the sulfur and I can remember as a kid, I ve had allergies and I wonder if that might have contributed to it but I can remember going back inside the house and not even being able to play outside because the sulfur sometimes was so strong. It was never blamed on the Eastern. My father would blame it on the mill from Old Town. AS: Oh really.

6 LE: What weather it was and you know he didn t want, he was protecting the mill in that way, however it actually was coming down the river from Old Town. AS: Now would it actually affect your breathing or was it more that it just smells very bad? LE: It smelled bad, yes. It smelled really bad. AS: I know some folks have said that they had asthma as children and just the smell would almost make them more congested. LE: Yes. It may have added to my allergies. They never diagnosed me with asthma but I did have allergies. Thursday night would be pay night, the men would get out. We always headed to the store that was Thursday night and I can remember you know you were talking about the businesses in the area, of course Capt Morrills, another one was Southworths was the original name I believe and I can remember my father picking us up. We would go to the A&P for grocery shopping. My big thing was to get a record when I was junior high, high school for about a dollar 45, speed record and as we would go by the beer parlors my father would name the names of the cars, or the men that would be in there and he d say, see how lucky you are. I m not going there to spend my money. We re going to get groceries. AS: That s funny. LE: Another one of the owners of a business was the barber shop, Joes barber shop. Has anyone mentioned that? AS: No, where was that located? LE: That was just on the other side of Epstein store AS: Oh ok. LE: and his name was Joe Arsenal and my father would go there, usually Saturday mornings, I think that was the busy time but I imagine there was men that went after work and so Mr. Arsenal probably had quite a business from the mill. I m trying to think of some of the other businesses. AS: Now was Capt Morrills a store or was it more of a [End Track 5, Begin Track 6] AS: like a bar or just a fish market or LE: All of those I believe but I know on Thursday night my father pointed out it was a beer parlor. I can t remember, I m sorry AS: Oh I was just going to say where was the A&P located? LE: That was more in North Brewer. AS: It was, ok. LE: Across from, on Center Street that was more the, what used to be the tin bridge, the iron bridge which is now the last bridge that they did put in. AS: Right. LE: I haven t mentioned my mother s father. Now he worked at the eastern I believe probably in the teens, or so. He was a family from Boston, went to Boston College. He was deaf but he had been on the football team and after college, he was in Vaudeville. AS: Really.

7 LE: I don t know how they happened to end up in the Brewer area other than maybe one of the relatives I believe came from Surrey, Ellsworth area and as a matter of fact I think he was born in Ellsworth but somehow the family was associated with Boston too. But when he was in Vaudeville he was a strong man and the story goes that the train cars that came into the mill had to be moved and they knew that he had been a strong man and he had had a bet placed on that he could push one of the railroad cars and I guess he finally ended up pushing two at a time. What was his name? LE: Rubin Kenny AS: Rubin Kenny. Wow. LE: I don t know how many years that he did work there but he was well known in the area as a strong man. AS: Now how did your parents end up meeting? They obviously both lived in the area. LE: Yes, I don t know if it was after my father worked at the Eastern, it might have been before. My mother grew up on Holyoake street and she was a beautician and she told me about seeing my father before she actually met him; standing on a street corner with a bunch of men whistling at the girls. AS: So this would have been in the 20 s, 30 s? LE: This would have been early 30 s, early 30s. They were married in 1933 and one of their friends had set up a date with her, a blind date and so she said I can remember this man. She said I thought he was quite handsome and I didn t know if I liked the way he was you know whistling and hollering at the girls with the other men and I guess it was a couple of days later, her blind date arrived and it was the man standing on the corner. That was my father. AS: Was she happy about that? LE: Oh yes, yes. They were married just short of 50 years. LE: My father died about 2 months before their 50th anniversary. AS: Oh, now when did he pass away? LE: AS: 83. LE: Yes. LE: Their big enjoyment was to go to the coast to have lobster so you know I felt bad that here they were suppose to have their 50th anniversary and I said, Mom, we re going to have lobster anyway so... AS: Yeah. LE: But as I mentioned I think where ever we would go, it was always Hi Pursey or hi Two-check. There was always someone that we knew. Speaking about going after lobsters, I can remember we were on the island that, Thompson Island I believe that it was, that had a bridge that would rise up for any boats that would go through and then you would go into Bar Harbor area so we were heading back one afternoon, a lot of cars and the bridge got stuck and so we were stuck on Thompson Island with a lot of other families and my father got out of the car to go up to see you know what was going on. All of a sudden people started hollering [End Track 6, Begin Track 7]

8 LE: and one was Pearly Buchanan- Hi Purse, whatcha doing? I guess we can t go to work tomorrow. But he was well known and well liked and I was very proud of him. He wasn t very emotional but he was behind anything he believed in. He had strong feelings about certain things and you would find out about it and I never did tell him how proud I was of him; wished I had. AS: Yes. Now was he involved in the union also? You said your Uncle was. LE: No he wasn t. AS: Oh he wasn t ok. LE: No, he wasn t. AS: Was that by choice or because he was a salary worker as opposed to a? LE: I almost think it was by choice and he was very true to the mill. He was, that was his life really. I didn t mention that he was on the baseball team. AS: Oh he was? LE: There was a baseball team and that park I believe was right where they had, the children s park down by Saint Teresa s Church. Also they had the guest house. I don t know if they still had that guest house the last few years or not, but I believe he even worked there, as you know painting or helping with plumbing or something. I can remember slightly that he had to go to work there. AS: Do you know where that was located? LE: That was the street that was right beside Saint Teresa s AS: Ok. LE: up at the, you go up and I believe it was at the end of that street; I don t remember the name of that street and the park was right on the other side. AS: So he typically worked until 4 you said around 4 then you would have dinner LE: Yes AS: What time would he go in? LE: I believe he would leave about 6:30 and a lot of the times he would walk. Of course in the later years, he would take his car but he usually walked with his dinner pail; a black dinner pail. I remember that well and it was a treat sometimes if he had a day off, he would cook breakfast because he had been a cookee, what they called a cookee in the woods when he was a young man. AS: Really? LE: with the men that lumbered. LE: So he always had a good breakfast of potatoes, sometimes beans, eggs, a big breakfast but that was a treat for him to cook. That was his meal that he cooked. AS: Now did he grow up in Brewer or somewhere else? LE: He spent part of his life in Brewer. His probably teen years, most of those were spent in Orrington on his, I believe his mother s cousins farm, the Richardson Farm and there is a track down there on Kings hill, Kings mountain

9 called the Richardson Track and there was a farm. There s no buildings standing there anymore but my father s family came from Aroostook County. There was a big potato farm and his father was struck by lightening and killed. AS: Oh my gosh. LE: in the house. He had come inside and was lying on the couch and a ball of lightening came off the phone, rolled across the floor and killed my grandfather. LE: My father saw it happen. AS: When he was quite young. LE: Yes, well he was, I m trying to think how old, probably ten, twelve, something like that and that was kind of the end of his school career. He had to go to work along with another brother and my grandmother was expecting her seventh child. AS: Wow LE: And she tried to keep the farm going for awhile and first they had to get rid of a hired hand. The boys tried to help out. There were six boys and one girl and it must have been hard you know especially with a new baby being born afterwards and it was my uncle George that worked at the Eastern. AS: So they were the Richardson s? LE: No this was my fathers mothers cousin was a Richardson. AS: Ok. LE: The Elliot name was the man that owned the farm in Aroostook and then she remarried a man that worked with the railroad and that s how she came to South Brewer. AS: Oh I see. LE: He worked on the railroad and his last name was Marion [End Track 7, Begin Track 8] LE: and she had two daughters by him so there were nine children plus he had I believe two other children previous to that LE: So his older son and my father kind of you know helped out with the family to get enough money in but I know that he lived with the Richardson s on Kings Mountain and worked on that farm when he was quite young. AS: That s interesting. My mom just built a log cabin on Richardson Road on Kings Mountain so LE: Really, really oh wow. AS: Small world. LE: It sure is. AS: So he was up in Aroostook and that s where he worked in a lumbar camp LE: Right. AS: as quite a young man.

10 LE: Right LE: In fact he had to go up to bring, I think it was my great grandmother down by horse and buggy across the Hainsville woods, they talk about. I guess it was a day trip. They were even there during the night on that wagon I believe and another part of my fathers travel history was learning to drive a Model T Ford and he was so young that they couldn t see him over the dash board. AS: oh my goodness. LE: They thought it was a runaway vehicle. It was my father driving. LE: Those days were different. You didn t have to go through all the driving tests. In fact when he did have to take a drivers test he hadn t studied his book and of course he had to quit school at a young age so he didn t read all that well and it took him awhile so he just thought he could pass the test without reading and he didn t pass it and I don t know what age they had to test him, probably in his 20 s and he didn t pass it and the man made him go back, you know come back for another drivers test and he had read the book all the way through and he says, went back for the test and the man said you ve got it. He said well you haven t even asked me any of the questions and he said I know you read it and you certainly can drive. AS: Now did you have any siblings that worked at the mill? LE: No, I m an only child. As a matter of fact they were married for twelve years before I was born. AS: Really. LE: Yes, I lost you know them before a lot of my friends had lost their parents so. My mother was a beautician on Main Street in Bangor and after I was born she stayed at home but did beautician work for relatives and neighbors. AS: and there were plenty of neighbors I bet. LE: Yes. Right. It was almost like Orrington was more a part of South Brewer because they still had the street names. They had McKinley Street and Cleveland and Garfield, all of those streets. In fact Roosevelt Street was split down the middle. Orrington was on one side and Brewer, South Brewer was on the other side. AS: So did you, you went to Brewer schools? LE: I went to Orrington in grade school except for the year kindergarten my mother would walk me down to kindergarten in South Brewer, the big school that was across from the mill. And I can remember coming out of school one day and down over the steps and I had a stomach ache and I thought oh I ve got to walk home, you know thinking to myself and I thought my father works over there but I can t go bother him. AS: Well I was going to ask you that. Did you ever get to go inside the mill when you were young? LE: I don t remember; as a matter of fact, I can remember my father had to go in one night and it was dark; one of the trips, just a little short thing evidently they had called him to say can you come and check this or that, something they wanted questioning about and he said do you want to ride down with me? And I did but I was quite shy and I almost think that I sat in the car and waited for him. It was kind of hazy but I can remember that it was dark and that he wasn t going to be in there very long. So I don t remember that I ever stepped foot in but you know there was a lot of description about the mill and the men that worked there and we would hear the stories. [End Track 8, Begin Track 9] AS: Now did he ever describe any accidents or anything other than his own when he was a young man?

11 LE: I don t remember of it. It didn t stand out with me that he did. AS: and he was primarily in the power plant? LE: Yes. AS: But would do other jobs all around? LE: Yes. Like I say, Pepper Mooney was one of the ones that he worked with that I believe he was an electrician and he does have some relatives in Eddington or did have because one of the girls I worked with at Metropolitan Life; after I got out of high school, worked at Metropolitan Life in Bangor and Pepper Mooney was her uncle. You d keep running into people that you know had some connection with the mill. No I don t remember of him you know describing any other accidents. AS: Now you said he retired in 1970 LE: Yes. AS: So was he working there when they had the power plant fire in the late 60 s? LE: He must have then. AS: Yes. LE: I don t remember of it though. AS: ok. I think it was We have a big portfolio of photographs. I wonder if he might be in some of those. LE: Yes, well that doesn t stand out with me because that I moved to Newport in I was married and moved to Newport in 66 and that s one of the things that I guess I didn t even realize or I may have you know heard of it but it really didn t stand out with me. I had a daughter born in 1967 so that was the importance in my life but I can remember him talking about the chimneys there and I believe they even had to go up there and work on chimneys. AS: Really LE: Those tall chimneys. AS: Wow, would they get filled up with stuff or what did he do for work LE: I don t know whether it was just to repair them. I don t recall what it was to why he was up there. But he was in some precarious places. I know that my mother was concerned about. AS: Yes, crawling inside boilers LE: Yes. AS: wow, I think I m going to stop and flip the tape over just to make sure we have enough time. Maine Folklife Center 5773 South Stevens, Room 112B Orono, ME (207) folklife@umit.maine.edu Maintained by 3rd Millennium Encoding University of Maine logo University of Maine Otherwise, all text, images, and forms on this web site MFC The Maine Folklife Center is a proud member of Table of Contents

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