Shortly after the energetic Arthur Hill Gillmor arrived in the St. George area in 1776 from Machias, his son Daniel built a watermill at Second Falls, a beautiful cascade that tumbles over a perpendicular rock in the Magaguadavic area.
Successive generations of Gillmors' maintained mills on both sides of the river at Second Falls and at Linton Stream, the outlet of Digdeguash Lake. Two ships registered in Daniel Gillmor's name , the Ben Bolt and the Eldorade, carried their lumber to New England and Ireland.
Other families besides the Gillmor's established mills in the same area. Andrew and William John Maxwell built one at Linton Stream that was always known as the John Maxwell mill, while Robert Johnson had one for many years at Second Falls.
With so many logs being cut by different firms, each group made sure its registered pond markings were placed on each of its logs.
Daniel K. Gillmor's mark was a K within a diamond; Arthur H. Gillmor's was an open rectangle ; Arthur S and Roswell Gillmor chose a double'v', one placed above the other, as theirs.
Yet another Second Falls firm was Brockway Brothers. All these companies had their timber stream-driven to a common boom just above Second Falls Bridge, where logs were separated according to individual markings.
Many logs had their marks obliterated or mutilated by chafing on rocks. These were placed in a side-boom called a 'price-boom' and were periodically sold at auction to the highest bidder. The auction proceeds were used to defray the expenses of the boom-master and his helper.
Allison Craig's great grandfather, John S. Craig was an official boom-master all his working life and he was succeeded in turn by his son Albert.
From the Second Falls boom, the logs were rafted down river to Ludgate's Landing or to a fresh water point, where two-wheeled carts drawn by oxen transported them to the wharves.Red Rock runs eastward from the river road at Second Falls, eight miles north of St. George. The road crossed the Magaguadavic by a covered bridge and goes on to Red Rock Lake and McDougall Lake.
Like many other pioneers, people in this area worked on their farms and as well cut lumber for the mills and took part in the annual river drives. The lumber camps along the river each had about 35 men and about 50 horses. Good axe-men were plentiful and took pride in their work and in their animals. Their teams were usually nicely matched and there was much rivalry as to which driver could haul the most logs and still have the fattest team come spring. The highest pay went to experienced rivermen who could run logs through white water.
The story is told of a contractor, Hamden Lee, who had a large operation throughout the late 1800s and into this century. when a young man asked Lee for work, he gave him the job of building a new camp. After a day or so, the young fellow complained to Lee that there were no windows for the camp.
"It will not make any difference," said Lee. "You won't see daylight at the camp anyway."
The average pay for lumbermen in these years was $5 per 1000 feet.
Written by permission of the Saint Croix Courier. Found in the November 30 1983 edition. Transcribed by Charlene Beney
St. George Historical Data