In the election of 1936, Roosevelt defeated his Republican opponent, Alf Landon, in a landslide and carried every state but Maine and Vermont. The election confirmed that many Americans accepted and supported the “New Deal”. Small town New England recovered slowly from the great depression and blue-collar jobs abounded. While the rest of the country was embracing FDR’s new vision of America, the working class people in Dexter often followed their fathers into the same blue-collar jobs they were familiar with.

At Fay Scott, the shop was divided between the machine shop and the foundry.

According to my Uncle JimmyWintle who worked at Fay Scott along with his father Freddie in the thirties and forties:

“ We came in through the machine shop (about middle of machine shop) took a sharp right into the foundry.”

“The Foundry & machine shop had a brick firewall separating them from each other.”

The foundry was on the north side of Fay Scott connected by a series of related functions of production. The foundry blast furnace was located along the midst of the eastern wall parallel to Spring Street about midway of the foundry. The furnace stood on long legs about 5 feet off the dirt floor. The furnace roared white hot, 6 to 8 feet in diameter looming 10' to 12' high. The blast furnace stack poked through the ceiling and on through the roof venting gases. The lower portion of the furnace, called the bosh, was equipped with several tubular openings through which the air blast was forced super heating the melted metal.

Tons of raw materials sat in great piles along the rear of the building. The furnace was filled through hoppers from the top with a mixture of pig iron, limestone and coke. Huge streams of forced air blown through the fiery coals brought the mix up to over 1700 degrees Fahrenheit liquefying the mixture that settled in the bottom of the furnace where it was drawn off into clay lined chutes that filled metal ladles. A long metal pole was used to start the molten metal out of the stack and a long wooden pole with a lump of clay on the end of it would shut off the molten metal. The metal ran down a clay-lined trough and into a large clay-lined pot.

“The 'stack ' boss (KO Stevens) would yell to everyone to move out as he was going to “dump the stack”...everyone got out of the way...a good distance.” Uncle Jimmy

Note: Earl Bridges preceded K.O as stack boss.

The foundry workers soot faced, clothes singed, holes burned in woolen long sleeved shirts poured molten metal out of clay lined ladles into their skillfully shaped molds.

Jimmy again: “After a pour off, the air in the foundry was so thick with dust, gas and smoke that you could just about make out an object or person a few feet away. One time a guy got killed from being too close to the open furnace. I don’t recall his name.”

Functions on the sand covered work floor were divided between the bench molders who were responsible for the smaller castings and the floor molders who poured the larger pieces. Molds were formed from wood and the finished product was sand blasted after they cooled.

A buzzer signaled the beginning & ending of the workday. The day shift started at 7:00 A.M. with a mid morning 15 minute break. Lunch break from 12 noon ‘til 1:00, with the day ending at 4:00. Night shift crew came in at 3:00 P.M. to help with the daily pour-off, function. The second shift left at 12:00 mid-night.

The typical day had the men making molds for 6 hours than pouring the last two hours of an eight-hour day. Larger molds were poured from ladles weighing over 1200 pounds. Even the smaller pours meant that one man would have to pour molten metal out of a clay-lined bucket weighing 75 pounds. While leather gloves were worn, hot liquid iron inevitably dropped down boot tops searing flesh and evoking colorful language.After pouring off some of the workers could take a shower to cool off.

Uncle Jimmy said:

“The liquid metal hissed, it sounded like gunshots if there was any water on the floor.”

The work was hot, dusty, dirty, and rugged. In the late thirties and on through into the forties the foundry employed 50 to 60 men.

Pay was a raucous 15 cents an hour. While the pay was pretty much the same at the working level, some jobs were more glamorous than others. Foundry work was the least glamorous, but it was honest work and honest men worked hard at making many of the machine parts that won the war.

During World War ll the days lengthened to meet the approaching war in Germany, the crews worked 12 hours a day with the routine much the same.

“At different times during the war we were given a 'pep' talk by the "Big Brass".

Jim

Many may recognize names including: Harold Russell, Paul Johnson, Raymond Stevens, Jim Kern, Jimmy Labree, “Tiny” Maycomber, Pearly Jones, and Richard Gudreau. During the war years Walter Burrill was the head foreman of the foundry. He had a camp on Wassookeag to cool off in the summer. The less fortunate swam in the same lake at well-known swimming holes like “The Birches” or “Soft Rock.”

More names: Bench molders: Rex Slater, Thomas Smith, Tim Swan, Cliff Hardy, Jim Wintle, Fred Wintle, Ray Mills, Phil Ronco, Fred Murray, Lawrence Hartford, Lawrence Howell, Ardel "Pud" Howard, Les Johnson and Gus Engstrom.

Floor Molders: Elbridge Atwater, Alonzo Stevens, George Cookson, Harold Bryer, Jim Cookson, Dustin "Dud" Farnham, Charlie Farnham, Jim Leighton, Gideon Ronco, Clatus Ronco, Warren Ronco, Manford “Page-oh” Page, Raymond Stevens, Orie White, Gerald Stevens and Reid Stevens.

Core Room: Fred "Chepic" Clukey, Wilfred Engstrom, Arthur Huff, Alan McCourt, Omar Larrabee, Elmer Sands, Don Swan, Eddie Stevens, Willie Burrell and foreman-Carl "Red" Sands.

Chipping Room: Foreman-Roy York, Nathan "Itchie" Downs, and Grover Huff.

Night Crew: Foreman-Bill Elderkin, Herb Groleau, Perley Dyer, and John Johnson.

General work: Jasper Higgins, "Shike" Ganeau (robbed and killed in the hollow) Paul Johnson, Gardiner Smith, Perley Jones,

Others... maybe molders, pouring-off crew: Ted Murphy, Leo Murphy,

Foreman-Charlie Wade, Al Zegra, Ray Mills, Earl Savage.

Blast Furnace: Clifford "KO" Stevens, Ray Poulin, and Earl Bridges.

I love nicknames and many will recall these names with fond memories. I know I do.
Fred