Historic Hallowell

Dani Sweet, Tylor Dubois, Ryan Sinclair, and Josh Berberich

Hallowell's logging industry on the Kenebec River includes the Steam and Boom Company, the tools that were used for logging, and the prices of tools. Logging was very important because citizens relied on wood to heat their homes, cook food, build houses, and build ships.

Ryan Sinclair's Interview with Captain Arthur Moore  

The Steam and Boom Company, incorporated on March 29, 1836 in Hallowell along the Kennebec River, was used for logging. The Steam and Boom Company was where all the logs got delivered and collected and also contained floating logs timbered from nearby forests. On each log was an identity mark, so the pickers and sorters could identify the logs that were supposed to be made into rafts to go to other mills. There were about 300-400 men who worked there. On a regular work day for them, they would wear pants and long sleeved shirts for the cold weather. The paper industry relied on the logging industry because they used trees to make paper.

Nowadays, logs aren’t shipped down the Kennebec River anymore, for trucks are used instead as transportation. The process of logging has changed throughout the years because there are newer and safer ways to cut down and transform trees into logs and logs into boards.

The first lombard log hauler was located in Eustis, Maine in 1901. The lombard log hauler was used to carry logs in a train-like form. The lombard log hauler would carry forty thousand logs to one hundred thousand logs. It had a ski in the front for snow, two tracks in the back for movement which was powered buy the steam engine, and also about four to ten sleds to carry the logs.

One last thing is that it took four men to operate this machine: an engineer, firman, steersman, and conductor. Another tool was the Peavy stick. The Peavy stick was a tool that logging people used while they were on the logs. It had a hook on the end with a handle and was used to turn the logs and bring them down the river.

The trees from northern Maine that were normally shipped down the Kennebec River were mainly pines. When they got shipped down the Kennebec, they went to the Steam and Boom Company in Hallowell. The Steam and Boom Company collected all the logs and put them through a saw mill. The saw mill would make the logs in different shapes and sizes, so they could sell the logs to citizens who were in need of lumber. People used logs to make houses,build ships, create fires, heat their homes, and cook food.

It was in the early 1900s when they logged and worked very hard along the Kennebec River. The shoes that loggers wore had spikes on them to keep them balanced on the logs. Also, loggers used an axe called the double bit axe that was very dangerous because of its two axe blades on both sides. One double bit axe cost $15, but to make it, it would be cheaper at $5. Back then, they used to make some of their own tools, instead of buying them, just to save money.

A typical tool of that time period cost around $10. Another type of logger’s tool was called a peavy which had two spikes on the end and was used to lead logs and direct them to where they needed to go. Loggers depended on those tools to get the job done.

Logging tools were very expensive, so people chose to make their own tools out of wood and metal. Wood wasnʼt expensive at all, for it was natural and was in major production, but metal, on the other hand,was hard to find and was not in major production. Therefore, the metal was a lot more expensive than the wood.

An axe would be a lot harder to make than a hammer. A axe would take about two full weeks to make while a hammer would take at least four days to a week to make. The toolmaking was a long process because first a blacksmith had to bend and form an axe or a hammer head to put on the handle. Making the handle was time-consuming to slowly shave off the wood until forming a handle. A final step was to make the tool slip resistant, so it didnʼt slip when hammering or chopping wood.