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...
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,...
Nicole worked in the textile mills, mainly in the fringe department. She discusses how she balanced being a mother with working and her various jobs in Lewiston. She also discusses the generational differences in her family and her experiences in Lewiston.
In his interview, Charles Poliquin, describes growing up in a big family in Lewiston and the changes in the community. He shares his experience working in the Lown and Falcon shoe shop and trying to support his family after dropping out of school at 15. Poliquin...
Germain Letourneau was a worker at the Hill and Bates Mill. He initially discusses his family and then his jobs as a supervisor at the mills, including a strike he helped organize. He also describes the step-by-step process of making yarn.
