WILLOW CREEK — Ezra Homan, the sixteen-year-old eldest son of Elias Homan, has started work at the Willow Creek Hardwood Flooring Company. His assignment is the green chain, the lowest position in the mill, where green lumber is sorted and stacked as it comes from the saw. His wage: ten cents an hour.
His beginning at the mill is significant for what it represents. The son of the man who sued the Thorne family for water rights and won is now employed at the very industry that replaced Thorne & Sons Shipworks.
“I do not think much about the history,” Ezra Homan said. “My father won the lawsuit. The mill was built. Now I work here. That is all.”
The mill’s growth has been steady since its 1903 opening. Employment has risen from eighty-five to over one hundred men, and the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad now runs a daily freight train to the mill’s loading dock. In the days of the Thorne yard, vessels were launched only when the spring freshet was high enough. The railroad runs every day, regardless of the season.
Ezra Thorne II was informed of young Homan’s hiring. He offered no comment. Young Homan, for his part, seems unconcerned with history. “The pay is fair and the work is honest,” he said, wiping sawdust from his face. “That is enough for me.”