Historical Vignettes
The Ingenious: From Miniature to "Larger Than Life"
The mill was then raised and placed on wheels so that a team of horses could transport it to various parts of the province, from Connors to Fredericton and even Gaspé, Quebec, to saw lumber. Therefore, in 1940, Mr. Lord was the first portable sawmill owner of the region, but also the first to have handcrafted one.4
He would travel around and saw for farmers because there weren't any mills around at that time, and it was easier to move the mill than it was to move timber. He had his own business and he even sawed many summers for the Fraser Company at Camp Baisley. Then, in 1967, he decided to install his mill at the entrance of Saint-Basile. (...) As the years went by, he fine-tuned it; he loved to fabricate his own machinery and then operate it. He sawed until he was 85 years old.5
Contrarily to lumberjacks and log drivers, who respectively worked during wintertime and springtime (see historical vignette # 3), Albert Lord moved his mill around with the help of horses, and sawed lumber in the summer. "He spent the summer sawing near lumber camps such as Camp Baisley. He also worked a few winters as a millwright during the expansion of the Fraser mill in 1967 (see historical vignettes # 1, 2 and 4)."6