“Boney” Quillan was a Civil War veteran of Irish birth known mostly as a trickster, prankster, and songwriting rafter in the Catskills of New York State. His stories and pranks are still told, though often exaggerated, in many villages and towns along the Delaware River. In the mountain country of this area, most trickster tales in general are told with Quillan as the main character. Stories about him often are linked to the lumber industry, New York State, and other old lumbering areas like Michigan. Songs and ditties attributed to Quillan include “McCloskey,” “Close Your Valve,” and “Shove Around the Grog” (also called “Shore Around the Grog”).
His origins as a legendary figure are sometimes identified with Port Jervis, a small town on the Delaware River and Hudson Canal, located in the southwestern corner of the Catskill region. This area was a part of the direct route to Trenton and Philadelphia for the lumber industry and was a turnaround point for many Catskill lumberjacks and rafters, many of whom sang songs and ditties to pass the time. One popular song, attributed to Quillan as the ditty “Shove Around the Grog,” playfully described a rafting accident. The rafters profess they feared no danger until one day they came to a place called Sawmill Rift, where they “went plum against the pier.” One verse describes a man named Big Mose who saved the rafters’ clothes during the incident, and another brags that the singers still “fear no noise,” although they are far from their homes (Thompson 1979, 280).
Lumbering and rafting were closely associated, since the only way to move huge numbers of logs out of the Catskills was by floating them down the Delaware River to cities like Trenton and Philadelphia. Although some timber was sent to local furniture factories or other industries, the reality was that most of it was sent longer distances. Rafting consisted of rolling, dragging, or chuting the logs into rivers and streams, so that the timber could reach more distant cities. Lumberjacks were responsible for cutting down the timber, but men still had to accompany the lumber to its various locations, which was the responsibility of rafters. By 1860, New York was the second largest timber-producing state in the country, which was indicated by the large number of lumberjacks and raftsmen employed in the trade.
The booming industry attracted an influx of migrants from New England and Canada, many of Irish descent. In their jobs as lumberjacks and raftsmen, these migrants were known for singing unaccompanied ballads, sometimes playing tricks, and overall inventing a new vocabulary in folk songs. Quillan was the most widely known of these figures, and his legacy has been the most enduring for his ability to compose and sing popular rafting ballads like “Shove Around the Grog.” More importantly, he was known for his trickster skills in getting free drinks and train rides at the end of the workday.
Some believe that Quillan is the original inspiration for American countryside trickster tales, and his classic stories were recounted in 1934 by Leslie Wood in the book Rafting on the Delaware River. Many stories focus on the travels of rafters like Quillan at the end of their workdays, where after reaching a drop-off point for their lumber, they had to make the long journey back home. In one story, Quillan was homebound to a town called Fish’s Eddy after a day’s work of delivering a raft. Unfortunately, he had no money to purchase a railroad ticket. A bit drunk and full of spirit, he chatted briefly with some people on a train platform and casually boarded the train. He wore an old hat upon which was stuck a piece of paper that looked like a ticket. As the conductor approached his seat, Quillan stuck his head out of the window and appeared to be so engrossed in the view that the conductor had to call him twice. He then jerked his head inside, but in doing so caught the brim on the edge of the window, losing the “ticket.” Crying out that his ticket had just flown away and that he had no more money to get home, he demanded that the conductor stop the train by pulling the emergency bell-rope. The conductor told him that he could not pull the rope because it might wreck the train. Putting up a fight, Quillan screamed that the conductor had to stop the train. The conductor finally relented and told him to forget the ticket, letting him ride the train to the inn at Fish’s Eddy. The other rafters on the train supposedly were amused, since they knew of Quillan and his tricks. It is possible that the conductor had even recognized him but still allowed the known trickster to ride the train home.
Quillan had many friends in the rafting business, and in some tales two other famous rafters, “Rit” Appley and “Add” Van Loan, accompanied him in his mischief. In another story, the three men had finished another trip down the Delaware River and were anxious to get home. They were stranded in a small depot on the Erie Railway, as the last train had already departed earlier in the afternoon. Informed that the next train did not arrive until the following day, the men resorted to other methods to catch a train home. Approaching the ticket window, “Rit” said to the station attendant, “We want a train out of here mighty quick” (Thompson 1979, 279). He then stuck his axe deep into the floor, damaging the wood. Similarly, “Add” started to bore holds into the same floor with his large augur. At the same time, Quillan walked outside the depot and started to break off shrubbery. Seeing the damage the trio was doing, the station attendant and telegraph operator instantly called for a train, and an engine pulled into the depot in nearly no time at all, carrying a single empty coach to deliver the rafters home safely.
A third story tells of an unnamed rafter, possibly Quillan, who stopped at a restaurant for lunch on his long trip home. He put his carpetbag in the seat across from him at a table, and after he ate the waiter charged him for two lunches. The waiter explained that his bag had taken up a place at the table, and therefore the rafter had to pay for two meals. The rafter was said to have looked at his axe thoughtfully, but then hesitantly paid the double charge. After he paid, he stuffed his carpetbag with as much food as he could, saying to the inanimate bag, “Eat, durn you … I’ve paid for yuh—eat!” (Thompson 1979, 279). Finally, he swung the axe in the air and then left the restaurant to board his train.
Emily Ann Francisco
See also Ballad; Barbara Allen; Fink, Mike; Lumberjack Tales
Further Reading
Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht, and Norman Studer. 1982. Folk Songs of the Catskills. Albany: State University of New York.
Roberts, Warren E., Richard, M. Dorson, and Herbert Halpert. 1957. “The Folktale: A Symposium.” Journal of American Folklore 70 (275): 49–65.
Thompson, Harold William. 1979. Body, Boots, & Britches: Folktales, Ballads, and Speech from Country New York. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Williams, William H. A. 1996. ’Twas Only an Irishman’s Dream: The Image of Ireland and the Irish in American Popular Song Lyrics, 1800–1920. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Wood, Leslie C. 1934. Rafting on the Delaware River. Livingston Manor, NY: Livingston Manor Times.