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...
Dot McAtee works for the Maine Heritage Weavers today after working for Bates Mill for about 20 years. Dot worked first in the shoe industry at the age of 16 working part-time with her mother who worked making heels. Starting in 78′, she worked at the Bates Mill...
Ray Croteau grew up in a very different Lewiston then today. Born in 1933, his parents worked through the Great Depression with his father as a post-man, the weekly check making sure they didn’t suffer. His mother worked in the Bates Mill from a young age,...
