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| Alcide Gauthier (front row, first on left with arms folded. Winchendon, MA, Sept 1911. By Lewis Hine |
Group of workers going to work at 6:45 A.M. In Spring Village Mill.
In this group are Mamie La Barge, Elizabeth and Lumina Demarais, Als de Gauthier, Erena La Prise. Location: Winchendon, Massachusetts,
September 1911, Lewis Hine.
When Joseph Alcide Gauthier was photographed three times in 1911, in front
of a textile mill in Winchendon Springs, Massachusetts, his father, August, had recently married for the second time. His
first wife had died and left him with at least seven living children. By 1930, he had at least 10 living children by his second
wife. According to family lore, he had a total of 26 children, 10 by his first wife, and 16 by his second wife. Alcide, as
he was called when he was growing up, was the third, born on July 18, 1898, according to his WWI draft registration. According to census and town records, and his newspaper obituary, August Gauthier
was born in Canada on November 19, 1872, the son of Gideon Gauthier and Clarice Thibeault. He entered the United States about
1886, and moved to Winchendon about 1890. He married Emma LaPierre in about 1893. After she died in Winchendon on August 13,
1906, August and three of his children, including Alcide, moved in with his brother, Joseph, who lived at 43 Pine Street,
in Winchendon. August was a weaver at the Springs Mill. On
April 30, 1910, he married Emeline Dargy. In the 1920 census, August, Emeline, Alcide and 10 other children are listed as
living in the White Valley section of Barre, Massachusetts, about 30 miles south of Winchendon. August was a loom fixer, and
Alcide a card hand, likely at the Barre Wool Company. Eventually, August returned to Winchendon with his family. He retired
from the Springs Mill in 1937, and died on October, 15, 1950, at the age of 77. He was living at 17 Mill Circle, next to the
mill. Sometime before 1930, Alcide moved to Clinton, Massachusetts
(35 miles from Winchendon), marrying Margaret Kerrigan in 1928. They had two daughters, Mary (in 1932) and Dorothy (1933).
Alcide, by that time known as Joseph, continued working in factories. He died on October 6, 1964, at the age of 66. His wife
died in 1986, at the age of 83.
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| Alcide's first home in Clinton, Mass., at 110 Summit Street, 2009. |
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| House at 17 Oak Ct, in Clinton, Mass. where Alcide raised his family, 2009. |
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