- In 1938, Asel Trueblood
recorded the story of his life on the Lakes.
*
- My father went to the War when I was two months old,
and he was killed in '64 in the Siege of Atlanta.
He never come back.
And my mother got married then, you see, to another fisherman.
We moved into St. Martin's Island on Green Bay,
and we fished there.
I went with him in the sailboat when I was ten years old,
and he learned me how to steer the boat.
Well, then I stayed with him 'til I was 15 years old,
and I thought, "Now, if I've got to serve my life
"around this shore here with these little sailboats,
"I'm going to ship onto some bigger vessels
where I'll learn something."
So I left him and I went on to the bigger vessels.
And the name of the boat was the Mary Gregory.
Then I went into the schooner Merchant with Billy Olmstead,
Captain Billy Olmstead.
He sailed these fish traders, you know.
Buying fish along the north shore
around the islands,
Green Bay islands, Green Bay shore, you know.
And then, after I left him, I went into bigger vessels.
And they was grainers,
and they was iron ore vessels, see, and grainers.
I sailed in a grainer from Chicago to Buffalo
three straight seasons in one vessel.
And her name was the Guido Pfister,
a big three-mast schooner.
She carried 67,000 bushels of grain.
And from that time 'til I was 53 years old,
I followed the lake.
[serious music]