Ellwood City Tobacco Pickers

    We were recently asked if we knew anything about the local teenage boys that would travel to Maine to pick tobacco each summer in the 40′s & 50′s. We had never heard about this tradition so we posted a little blurb under history’s mysteries and received a lot of feedback. Apparently this was an annual tradition, but no one else had ever heard about teenage boys going on the trip as everyone who emailed us had only heard about teenage girls going on this trip.
    First of all, we were told the workforce was shipped to Maine but actually the young women traveled to the tobacco fields of Westfield, Massachusetts close to Connecticut. The girls from Ellwood City area would meet at the Municipal building to meet the Trailways bus that also picked up girls from Beaver Falls and New Castle. Janice Sodergren recalled a different mode of travel. She recalled that the girls were taken by train, by way of New York Central Station, to the depot in either Connecticut or Massachusetts where a bus picked them up and took them to a camp near the tobacco farm. The train began picking up in the New Castle area and picked up girls at every station along the way with Rochester being the last stop before heading to New York.
    The workers were paid either an hourly wage or by piece work (depending on the job). The cost of room and board was deducted from the wage at the end of the week. One contributor recalled clearing about $20 to $25 dollars a week. The length of the job was debated as one person recalled working the entire summer, one recalled the job lasting about 7 weeks, and yet another thought it was six weeks.
    The summer wasn’t all work as weekends were free. A bus to church was provided to those that desired, tours were offered, and swimming was permitted in a nearby lake at the end of the day and on week-ends.
    The camp the Ellwood City girls stayed at was a girls-only camp, although young Spanish speaking boys from Puerto Rico were on the job site. The girls did not stay on the work site but were bussed daily from the camp to the tobacco fields. A sack lunch was provided each morning.
    The movie Parish with Troy Donahue was filmed at the tobacco field the girls worked.
    If you recall these summer work trips or I left something out, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

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