Good luck on your quest, Mary. If you check the   DT Study,, you will ind that this song probably originated in Lowell, and later moved to Maine.

The biggest difficulty in finding such songs lies in the fact that nobody ever tried to collect them when they were most current. Collectors, following the lead of Child and Sharpe, were mainly seeking ballads and ballad remnants. No one imagined that working class folk could produce songs of any value. I do have a friwnd here in NH who is attempting to collect what industrial songs she can, but I have no idea how she's progressing.

Your best approach might be to look at whatever journals, letters, diaries and newspapers the museum(s) have, and look for verses that might be songs. But if you find any from Lewiston, there's a good chance that they'll be in French.

But do keep us apprised of your progress - Tom