Goose Eye No. 2 (2022)
From the Archives
Rumford Citizen, January 16, 1908
SIXTY WOODSMEN QUIT CAMP SATURDAY
Because Supper Was Not Served At Five-Fifteen
They Came To The Falls From Whence They Go To Other Camps
Although, as several articles in this issue have observed, no major unions were formed by Maine woodsmen in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, there were nonetheless occasional spontaneous outbreaks of collective action. The amusing story which follows comes from the Rumford Citizen, a newspaper dedicated to covering the mill town, but published in Bethel at the Bethel News plant by News proprietor E. C. Bowler. Bowler intended the paper to serve as an alternative to the more established Rumford Falls Times, which was seen as beholden to the interests of the mill ownership. Although it lasted only two years, from 1906-1908, the Rumford Citizen is an important source for its unique perspective on events in Rumford.
Those interested in learning more about the Rumford Citizen should see Randall H. Bennett’s article, “Bowler versus Chisholm, and the Ill-fated Bethel-Rumford Electric Railway,” originally published in 2006 in our newsletter The Courier and now available online.
Last Saturday and Monday, sixty men left Carter’s camp at Wildwood, and all of them came to Rumford Falls, some on foot Sunday, but most of them on the train Monday.
In an interview with Mr. Henry Conlon, an intelligent and able woodsman, the CITIZEN learned the circumstances underlying the wholesale exodus of the men from camp.
Said Mr. Conlon: “The trouble all arose over the matter of waiting for supper. A little matter it may seem; but we work two miles away and quit at 4 o’clock and it takes about an hour to reach camp. We have been in the habit of having supper served at a quarter past five, and this is what we want. After working in the woods and walking two miles we are a hungry crowd and when Saturday night we were told that supper would not be ready before six, there was a general protest among the boys. I presume I said more than the rest as I was spokesman for the crowd.
“In the midst of the talk, in walks the boss, T. H. Schools, and he said, ‘If there is any (here were injected a string of cuss words that would make the CITIZEN parrot of the state were they reproduced) son-of-a-gun among you that don’t like the arrangement he can pack up and get out as quick as he pleases.’”
“The result was that all but a few teamsters and one or two camp men asked for their time right on the spot, and some of us on the train this morning.”
Mr. Mark Steinfeld with whom many of the men hired for his camp says he will be able to place most of them at once. The appearance of so many woodsmen on the street, at once and in the midst of the season, gave rise to the report that owing to a lack of snow they had been discharged. There was a foot of snow at that place last week, and operations were going on well.