South Portland has a long tradition of being a working-class city. Our historical society is excited to share a collection of tools from some of the city’s historic trades and industries. These objects have never been shared with the public before. We’ll talk about this topic at a lecture next Wednesday and we’ll feature historic tools in our upcoming exhibit at the museum. Let’s take a look at some of these fascinating tools and the industries that employed them.

We are thrilled to have South Portland-based Brant & Cochran as our sponsor for this year’s exhibit. Brant & Cochran manufactures axes. Although the axes themselves are new, they are made in historic designs specific to Maine. Their most popular ax is the “Allagash Cruiser.” The Cruiser is produced in the pattern of a historic Maine wedge ax. This type of ax was known as a single-bitted ax or a pole ax. Lumberjacks took good care of their axes and kept them razor sharp with an oilstone. Each ax was “hung” by its owner, which means each ax head had its handle inserted at just the right angle to fit the body and chopping style of its owner. Cross-cut saws were not used in the Maine lumber industry to fell trees until the turn of the 20th century.

One of the most intriguing tools in the museum’s collection is a peavey. The peavey, also known as a cant dog or a cant hook, was a tool designed to lift logs onto sleds and for log drives on Maine’s rivers. The tool was an improvement on a previous implement that had a swivel hook at the end of it. In the book “Tall Trees, Tough Men,” Robert E. Pike tells us more: “In 1858 Joseph Peavey, a blacksmith at Stillwater, Maine, was watching, through the cracks of a wooden bridge, the rivermen working beneath him and swearing at their refractory hooks. Right then and there Joseph had an idea that revolutionized the logging industry. Returning to his blacksmith shop he made a rigid clasp to encircle the cant dog handle, with lips on one side. These lips were drilled to take a bolt that would hold the hook, or dog, in place, allowing it to move up or down, but not sideways. It was a marvelous invention and it rolled billions of feet of logs into American rivers, but Joe got drunk on his way to get the thing patented and a friend stole the patent from him.”

Not to worry – despite losing his patent, Peavey still produced thousands of his namesake tools and made a good living selling them.

Many of the tools that will be on display are from the 19th-century wooden shipbuilding industry. At this time, there were many shipyards along the southern shore of the Fore River. These yards produced a wide variety of wooden vessels including four clipper ships. The clippers are considered to be the pinnacle of wooden shipbuilding. Built with narrow hulls, sharp bows and tall masts that accommodated an impressive amount of sail, the clippers were the fastest sailing ships ever crafted. They took fortune seekers from the East Coast to the California gold fields, brought fresh tea from China to New York and sailed other routes where speed equaled profit.

Several of the tools that will be displayed are for caulking. This is a process where oakum, tarred fibers of rope, are driven into the seams between a ship’s planks to keep water out. This was done by teams of specialized workers using caulking irons driven by caulking mallets.

Ice was another big business in South Portland for many years. The industry was first pioneered by Frederick Tudor, who began harvesting ice in Massachusetts in the early 19th century. Before electric refrigeration became widely available in the 1920s, many homes had ice boxes to keep food cold. An ice box had a compartment for a block of ice that kept food cool as the ice melted. Ice was delivered much in the same way that milk was distributed to households and businesses. The ice man would use large metal tongs to transport a block of ice from their wagon or truck to the customer’s ice box. The season and the weather would determine the size of the ice block that a given customer would purchase. A customer would place a sign in their window requesting the weight of ice to be delivered. The warmer the weather, the larger a block of ice a customer would require to keep their food cold. Like many industries in our city, the ice trade required specialized tools. In addition to ice tongs, there were specifically designed ice cutting saws and pry bars for separating ice blocks as they were harvested from ponds, rivers and lakes. Ice in South Portland was harvested at Clark’s and Hinckley ponds, among other locations.

Seth Goldstein is the development director of the South Portland Historical Society and also serves as the director of the society’s Cushing’s Point Museum.

Goldstein will introduce the South Portland Historical Society’s upcoming exhibit, “Tools and Industry in South Portland,” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in the Casco Bay Room at the South Portland Community Center. The lecture is free for historical society members or $20 for non-members. Annual family memberships will be available for $25 at the lecture; please arrive early if you wish to join or renew your membership at the door. The exhibit and lecture are brought to you with the generous financial support of Brant & Cochran, Axes from Maine.

The society is always enthused to learn more about local history. If you have information related to this topic, please contact the society at sphistory04106@gmail.com or 207-767-7299.

 

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