Goose Eye No. 2 (2022)
Editorial
It is hard to believe that a year has already passed since the release of the first issue of Goose Eye. Thank you to all of those who read and enjoyed the first one and especially to those who sent encouraging messages or joined the Society as new members. Even more so than the first, this issue was something of a test of whether or not a publication such as this could be viable for a regional museum of relatively modest size. Thus, it is with great pleasure, and no small amount of relief, that I am sending this off to the printer on schedule.
Goose Eye No. 2 also has special significance for me as the son of a lifelong Maine woodsman (and new Goose Eye contributor), and as a scholar of labor history. Our theme, “More Wood!” is taken from the exclamation of a logger my dad knew who sought to prove his mettle during his first day on a new crew. This issue both celebrates this proud tradition of hard work in all phases of the production process and attempts to critically examine some of the realities of the forest products industry.
Tony Chapman opens with a first-hand account describing the antics of some of the local “characters” he has known throughout his more than six decades-long career logging in the Maine woods.
An earlier generation of Maine woodsmen were the raw material which Stanley Foss Bartlett worked into short fiction, poems, and articles. In my contribution to this issue, I seek to place these works into context through an examination of Bartlett’s life and times. Stanley’s writings, while often outlandish, remain an important resource for historians today who seek to understand life within Maine woods camps.
As Sam Norton points out, however, there is a danger in over-romanticizing the life of the mighty lumberjack. Few would deny that for the men doing the physical labor, woods work was difficult, dangerous, and seldom very remunerative. Norton argues that the lumberjack mythos, embodied in the real-life personage of Albert “Jigger” Johnson, contributed to a culture of individualism that may have deterred the men who performed these jobs from organizing collectively for better conditions.
Taking us further along in the production process, Peter Stowell offers a fascinating account of the early history of the Bethel Steam Mill. Its origin story is both richer and more complex than what has often been presented.
“More Wood!” can also sum up the driving force behind the story of manufacturing in nearby Locke’s Mills, as told by local historian Blaine Mills. Many hardships have befallen those who sought to operate Greenwood’s principal mill—and consequently the men and women whom they employed—including four major fires. Yet each time the mills were rebuilt, and, for nearly 200 years, they continued to play a key role in the local economy.
Our themed content concludes with our regular features, “From the Archives,” and “Collection Spotlight.” This year, we reprint an entertaining article from the Rumford Citizen, a short-lived but important local newspaper printed here in Bethel. Then, we showcase a unique wooden model of a large load of wood. Based on an actual event (complete with photographic documentation), the story behind the model gives some insight into how pulp wood was brought out of the forest during the early 20th century.
In new book news, David R. Jones uses Dr. Richard J. Kahn’s recently published, Diseases in the District of Maine, 1772-1820, together with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s classic A Midwife’s Tale, to draw some inferences about what early medical practices might have looked like in our corner of northern New England.
We hope that this issue of Goose Eye makes a valuable contribution to the literature on the forest products industry in Maine, and also manages to entertain a broad range of audiences. As always, thank you for your continued patronage of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, and if you enjoy this issue, please help spread the word. MBHS has a lot of upcoming plans, both with Goose Eye and our other activities. Your support helps us keep pressing ever onward. More wood! More wood!
William F. Chapman
March 2022