The Franco-American Collection maintains a wide variety of oral history interviews conducted with members of the local Franco-American community. Interview dates range between the 1970s and the present. Subjects include: childhood, music, religion, wartime, labor, business, sports, language and more.
Also included in this section are lectures given at the Franco-American Collection about Franco-American scholarship and identity.
These audio and video recordings are provided for research and educational purposes only. No copying of recordings or transcripts is allowed. Permission is required for publication and dissemination purposes.
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Ida Levesque Interview
Elaine Hackett
Ida Levesque, the thirteenth of twenty-one children, came to the United States as a child. Her father, a woodsman, died relatively young, of cancer, and to make ends meet, Ida had to go to leave school at seven - at first to look after her siblings, and later to earn money in the factories.
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Marcel Cloutier Interview
Rosa Hamilton and Julie Hardacker
Marcel Cloutier was born (1939) and raised in Brunswick, Maine. Three generations of his family occupied the same house and his parents and grandparents all worked in the Cabot Mill in Brunswick. When that closed in 1954, the family relocated to Thomaston, Mass. Despite his father's wishes, Marcel left school at fifteen and went to work in a textile mill there. After numerous positions in Massacusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Marcel returned to Maine. At the time of the interview, in 1994, he was employed as a supervisor at the Bates Mill, in Lewiston, during the last decade of the Bates Manufacturing Company's operations in Lewiston.
This intervew, recorded by Rosa Hamilton and Julie Hardacker, April 8, 1994, described Cloutier's work history, his reflections on the changing nature of the textile industry, and his attitude towards labor unions.
Also included: transcript.
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Lucien Rancourt Interview
Julie Hardacker and Rose Hamilton
Lucien Rancourt was born in Lewiston in 1904. At 14, he left school at the end of seventh grade, following the death of his father and facing the prospect of going back to sixth grade. Over the following sixty-plus years he worked in many different shoe shops, primarily in Auburn. He was present for the great shoe shop strike of 1937. In this interview he talks about his work and the unions.
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Emile Lacasse Interview
Carroll McIntire
Emile Lacasse (b. 1924, St. Rose de Waterford, QC) immigrated with his family as a child to Jackman, Maine. After graduating high school, he moved to Lewiston and worked building Liberty Ships during World War 2 (probably at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard or Bath Iron Works). In 1945, he opened a lunch counter at 2 Chestnut Street, in the heart of the Little Canada neighborhood of Lewiston. "Emile's Diner" would become "Lacasse's Bakery", which would operate for 59 years, until 2004. The bakery was well-known in the Franco-American community, particularly for its traditional toutières (meat pies). In this interview with Carroll McIntire, conducted May 12, 1994, Lacasse talks about his work at the shipyard and the bakery.
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Antonio Pomerleau Interview
Ralph Roy
Antonio Pomerleau (b. 1907, Saint-Méthode, QC) left Canada when he was three years old and travelled with his family to Lewiston, Maine. Although his father had been recruited to work in the Bates textile mill, he didn't like the work, and became a woodsman instead. After the fourth grade, Antonio followed his father into the logging trade, but took a job at the Bates mill himself at age 16. He would continue to work in the industry at different Maine textile mills until his retirement. Antonio began work as a sweeper, earning $13.82 for a fifty-four hour work week. With the advent of the Great Depression, however, wages had plummeted to $7.00 for the legally-mandated forty-hour work week. In 1936, Antonio helped organize the union at the Bates Mill. In this interview with Ralph Roy, conducted April 22, 1994, Antonio talks about his working conditions, relationship with the union and his attitude to work.
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Interview with Jean Roy
The Franco-American Collection
Interview with Jean Roy, plant manager of Morin Brick.
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Germaine Herbert Interview
Sharon Halperin
Germaine (Hamel) Martel Herbert was born in Lewiston January 7, 1902 to Napoleon Hamel and Angeline Marquis. When her mother died the same year, she lived in Warwick, QC, with her father's parents. She returned to Lewiston aged 15 and went on to work in the office of the mayor, where her father was City Clerk. She was secretary to Mayor Louis Brann , who later became governor of Maine (1932-1926), and to Robert Wiseman, the city's first Franco-American mayor (1914-5 and 1926-29). She was married to Louis J Martel, nephew to Doctor Louis Martel, a Franco-American civic leader. In this interview with Sharon Halperin, she talks about her work for mayors Brann and Wiseman, about her husband's family and other prominent Franco-American families of early 20th century Lewiston. She also discusses her life history.
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Interview with Leon LeBlanc
The Franco-American Collection
Leon Leblanc describing the traditional funeral processes among Franco-Canadians. Date of interview is unknown and estimated to be the late 1970's.
Also included: Transcript of the interview.
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Alexina Goyette St Denis Interview
Suzanne Roy
Alexina Goyette St Denis was born in St Herméngilde, Québec, c.1890. Her mother, Sophie Carrignan, married her father in Canada, but had already worked in Auburn, Maine, as a young woman - a very unusual circumstance for an unmarried woman in that time. Her father, Abraham Goyette, already had five children from a previous marriage, and together they raised eight more. The couple moved to the United States and raised the family in Lewiston. In this interview, Alexina St Denis describes her childhood and notions of family, identity and citizenship.
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Amedée Fournier Interview
Suzanne Roy
Amedée Fournier was born in Saint-Justine, Québec, in 1888; his father was a river-boat captain (matelot) on between Montréal and Ottawa. He immigrated to the US at the age of 6, and became a plumber at the New York Trade School. After graduating, he returned to Lewiston, and met a number of notable local Francos, including Dr. Wiseman, the first Franco-American mayor, and F.X. Marcotte, local entrepreneur.
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Anaïse Parent Interview
Suzanne Roy
Anaïse Parent (b. 1877) left Canada with when he was 15 years old to earn a living in Lewiston's textile industry. In this interview he recounts traditional life in Québec, and the changes he experienced in the States.
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Celestine Lavigne Interview
Suzanne Roy
A first-generation Franco-American immigrant, Celestine Leclair Lavigne (b. circa 1885) speaks to Suzanne Roy about her childhood in St. Eugene de l'Islet, Quebec and Brunswick, Maine. She describes life in Brunswick's Little Canada district and conditions in the mills and housing.
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Marguerite Beaulieu Interview
Suzanne Roy
Marguerite Beaulieu was born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in 1884. She came to the United States at age 13 to the village of Fort Fairfield, Maine in order to work, before moving to Lewiston to work in the Bates Mill. In this 1977 interview, she describes her new life in America and life in the early 20th century.
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Victoria Fournier LeClair Interview
Suzanne Roy
Victoria Fournier LeClair was born in St. Mathieu, Rimouski, Québec in 1881, one of nine children born on the family farm. With her parents, she immigrated to the United States via New Hampshire, Augusta and Brunswick, Maine, before arriving in Lewiston. In this interview she talks about her work in Lewiston's manufacturing industry and social life among the Franco-American community.
