Wartime
Wednesday: Lumberjills of New Hampshire
The hurricane of 1938 was devastating. In September of
that year, the storm was forecasted to turn out to sea, but instead moved
directly north into New England. The storm surge that occurred ahead of the
storm caused south facing bays such as Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts and
Providence, Rhode Island to experience overwhelming flooding and loss of life.
In New Hampshire, Maine, and Nova Scotia high winds (with gusts above 180 mph) flattened
entire forests. Electricity was out for days, homes were destroyed, and 2.6
million board feet of timber had been blown down—enough to frame more than
170,000 homes.
More logs ended up in Concord, NH’s Turkey Pond (12
million board feet) than anywhere else after the U.S. Forest Service harvested
the tangled mess of trees and brought them to sawmills in the North East. The
wood was processed, but by 1942 most of the lumbermen were gone overseas into
combat and the mills couldn’t keep up with the work.
As with other industries, the women stepped up to fill
the jobs vacated by the men, and Turkey Pond became the first sawmill to be
operated by women. And by all accounts, including a November 19, 1942 U.S.
Forest Service newsletter that reported, “the experiment being conducted in
Concord was going along nicely.”
The publication went on to say, “It is most surprising
and gratifying to see the way those gals take hold of the job. In addition to
the jobs we anticipated women could handle, we have found them capable of
rolling logs on the deck, running the edge, and for ‘show purposes’ even
running the head saw. May it will be possible to actually man a mill 100
percent with women sometime in the future.”
Recruiters initially contacting local farming families
to find people who were “rugged and reliable.” However, other women who worked as
waitresses, seamstresses, and housekeepers left their jobs to earn the same
$4.50 per day as the men (double their normal pay). The oldest woman at Turkey
Pond was in her 50s and went by the nickname of “Gram.” The youngest was 18.
David Story remembers his mom coming home at the end
of each day at the mill to cook a full meal for her family. Says David, “I know
she was always really proud that she did that {work at the mill}. They always
talked about that and how they always tried to beat the mean—because there was
a man’s sawmill across the lake—and the big deal was to see if they could
out-saw them, which they did, a lot.”
Logs were dumped into ponds throughout New England to
protect them from insects and decay. In New Hampshire the federal government
used 128 lakes and 110 fields to collect and store logs from the surrounding
woodlands. Operating from 1939 through the end of 1943, an estimated 600
million board feet of timber was salvaged in New Hampshire—an amount equivalent
to 60,000 tractor-trailer loads of lumber.
Will you ever look at a tree the same way again?
____________________________
With most U.S. boys fighting for Uncle Sam in far off
countries, Rochelle Addams has given up hope for a wedding in her future. Then
she receives an intriguing offer from a distant relative to consider a marriage
of convenience.
Conscientious objector Irwin Terrell is looking
forward to his assignment at Shady Hills Mental hospital to minister to the
less fortunate in lieu of bearing arms. At the arrival of the potential bride
his father has selected for him, Irwin’s well-ordered life is turned upside
down. And after being left at the altar two years ago, he has no interest in
risking romance again.
Despite his best efforts to remain aloof to Rochelle,
Irwin is drawn to the enigmatic and beautiful young woman, but will time run
out before his wounded heart can find room for her?
Inspired by the biblical love story of Rebekkah and
Isaac, Love’s Allegiance explores the
struggles and sacrifices of those whose beliefs were at odds with a world at
war.
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