Lorraine Brown has been making shoes for a long time. She was born and raised in Lewiston/Auburn, getting started in shoe-making at the age of 15 when she wanted to raise money for roller skates at the Beacon. She worked at the Bleachery and Libby Mill for a time, but...
Emile Frechette has worked as a weaver for a very long time. Born in 1915, he grew up in Lewiston and was working in the Libby Mill during the start of World War Two until he was drafted during 1944-45. Afterwards, he began to work at the Bates Mill which he did for...
Phyllis Rand worked in the mills for two years. As a Black woman, she speaks about her experiences and the working conditions in the mills, as well as raising children in Lewiston and finding community within the place she calls home.
Ray St. Pierre worked for the Bates Mill in accounting, sharing a lot of internal information about how the accounting side of Bates operated as well as how it changed as the years went on. He worked there as the mill was closing down, talking about how the mill...
Moving as a family across Maine, Mary Jane Gervais and her family were looking for work from Houlton down through Biddeford, eventually setting in Lewiston at the age of 12. She had started working at the Bates mill at the age of 16, and has been working on-and-off at...
