Very little has been known about the early evolution of Alfred Wickett as a canoe builder before he started working for the Indian Old Town Canoe company in 1900. It has been speculated that he may have started building canoes at George Gray's hardware store in 1898 although no documents had been found previously to confirm or refute that assumption. All of this is well before the Indian Old Town Canoe company transitioned into the Robertson and Old Town Canoe company and then to simply the Old Town Canoe company as shown at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/42379/ in 1903. A document appeared on eBay today that may help solve some of this mystery as shown below.
This is a letterhead from the I. W. Bussell Boat and Canoe Company that lists A. E. Wickett as the manager from January, 1899. The company was only listed in the Maine Register and three other business publications during 1899 and 1900. The document identifies them as being the "successors to Rollins & Bussell" whose 1898 letterhead at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/41468/ has no mention of Wickett. The previous reference to Wickett's employment as a canoe builder was in December, 1895 at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/32006/ where he was said to be "engaged for the winter by Mr. E. M. White at his canoe building establishment at Pushaw." Alfred's marriage record as shown below from 1894 lists "Carpenter" as his occupation so he was probably not building canoes before that.
There are still some big holes in the information available but the puzzle is starting to come together. Please let me know if you have more information to add or any questions. Thanks,
Benson
This is a letterhead from the I. W. Bussell Boat and Canoe Company that lists A. E. Wickett as the manager from January, 1899. The company was only listed in the Maine Register and three other business publications during 1899 and 1900. The document identifies them as being the "successors to Rollins & Bussell" whose 1898 letterhead at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/41468/ has no mention of Wickett. The previous reference to Wickett's employment as a canoe builder was in December, 1895 at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/32006/ where he was said to be "engaged for the winter by Mr. E. M. White at his canoe building establishment at Pushaw." Alfred's marriage record as shown below from 1894 lists "Carpenter" as his occupation so he was probably not building canoes before that.
There are still some big holes in the information available but the puzzle is starting to come together. Please let me know if you have more information to add or any questions. Thanks,
Benson
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