Bridget Nolan
 | |
| Bridget Nolan | |
| Born | 1826, County Cork, Ireland |
|---|---|
| Died | 1891, Briarmont |
| Worked for | Hartwell Timber Co. |
| Occupation | Camp cook, then boarding-house keeper |
Bridget Nolan cooked for the company's camp from 1858, the season its crew grew past the first eight men, until the camp became a town in 1866. She came from County Cork and was already a widow when she was hired. Nothing on file says where or how she was widowed, and her husband's name does not survive.
Breakfast went on the table at four, so the fallers could be up the hill by first light, and supper waited for whoever came down last. She baked the bread, salted the pork and argued with the company over the flour it sent up.
In 1866 she left the cookhouse and opened a boarding house, one of a good many in a place with more of them than churches. Several of the company's men moved in with her, Amos Tuttle among them, and began paying her directly for meals they had been eating on the company's account. Nolan's charged more than most of the other houses and was seldom short of boarders. It also allowed no liquor in the rooms.
She died in 1891, at sixty-five. The house kept her name after her, and Amos Tuttle lived there until his death in 1912.