These may be of interest.

Is THIS the place you are talking about? Maybe one of us could e-mail them as a research fan and ask about the music! Also, the EVENTS OF THE DECADE page there gives some clues about what the music might have been about.

Best might be, contact Jay Edmunds & Karen Taylor of the band FLAPJACK. (E-mail Karen Taylor and tell her Susan in PA, from Clarion Folk College and e-mails since then, said hi.) You can also see them perform in September at The 2002 Turtle Hill Folk Festival in NY state.

See Canadian Lumberjack Songs. Look for information about: Fowke, Edith. "Songs of the Northern Shantyboys." Forest History 14 (January 1971): 22-28. On nineteenth century Canadian lumberjack songs.

Apparently PUMP ORGANs were popular, see the notes with this one...

There are some resources referenced at History, British North America.

In the US, see the popular songs of the day HERE and HERE. These are American Civil War songs and period music, many of which would have been familiar to people all round the world by the end of the 1860s.

How Authentic Should Period Music Be?

Not right on topic, but it looks like a great sitethat explores the Celtic culture on which the survival of the traditional Cape Breton music depends: Traditional Cape Breton.

~Susan