The records of the Western Massachusetts locals and district councils of the UBCJA documents the rise of unionization among carpenters in the Connecticut River Valley since the 1880s. This collection represents a merger of separate accessions for the District Councils in Springfield (MS 110), the Pioneer Valley (MS 231), and Holyoke (MS 108), along with post-merger records for Local 108. In general, each has been maintained as a distinct series.
Oral history with parish priest of Notre Dame du Bon Conseil in Easthampton. Morissette had been priest at the church for seven years after having been an administrator there for eight. Morissette grew up in Chicopee, a child of immigrant parents, speaking only French at home. Studied at Assumption College and then (1941) to seminary in Montreal. Classes at St. Georges parochial school in Chicopee were half in English, half French; regimented nature of study at Assumption, taught mostly by members of the Assumptionist community from Belgium and France. Current generation is unwilling to accept the rigors of education he received.
Collection includes statutes and by-laws, minutes, administrative records, correspondence, financial records and receipts, scholarship records, publications, records of programs and events, and artifacts and ephemera.
1669 Faye Jordan, interviewed by Marcella Sorg and Steffan Duplessis, February 18, 1981, Auburn, Maine. Tape: 1 1/2 hrs. w/ partial trans. Jordan talks about her life as a Franco-American; celebrating Christmas in Canada with her grandparents; running away to marry a "swamp yankee;" jobs she worked; being bilingual and speaking "true French;" sewing, making clothes for her daughter; crochet work. No notes taken from side 2. Text: 7 pp. partial transcript. Recording: T 1788, CD 2089 1-1/2 hours.
20-page handwritten report on interviews with Fred Morneault, Llewellyn Despres, and Modeste Despres of Eagle Lake, Maine. Topics include, pig butchery, Eagle Lake "monster", blood and fire stopping, lutins and other folklore. Submitted for a course at the University of Maine at Fort Kent in Spring 1974.