The person you want to talk to is David Miller. Three outstanding CDs he's released are "Minnesota Lumberjack Songs", "The Falling of the Pine" and "The Lost Forty". The verse you quote is close to one in "Mickey Free" on the first-named CD:

I have been at stopping places, when travelling on my way,
Where greybacks big as June bugs were thick as flowers in May
And I worked with old man Greeley up upon the St. Croix drive
Where mosquitoes big as hummingbirds would eat any man alive.

Miller refers to Maggie Orr O'Neill in the attached notes.

A "cookee" was an assistant to the cook - peeling vegetables, etc. and sometimes acting as waiter. The word is very common on our west coast.

Contact Brian at http://www.evergreentrad.com/

Jon Bartlett