LumberJack Cookies......I wonder if my great grandfather ate them

As I have been cleaning and reorganizing my office I found a cookbook called "Favorite New England Recipes" I have been enjoying reading about the recipes and the stories behind them. One recipe was for "Lumberjack Cookies".   It made me wonder if my Great Grandfather Luther Boyd ever ate them.

Here is a photo of my Great Grandfather Luther Boyd.  I've noticed that in every photo of him he has this hat on.  I never met him, he passed away before I was born.  His family moved back and forth between Massachusetts and Vermont.  Most of the men in the family worked in the Vermont logging camps.

Here he is with his team of horses.

Here is a photo of him with his brothers and sister. 
The cook book had a little description about what life was like for the Lumberjack...
" Lumbering is a unique occupation and projects a day-to day life unlike any other. In the upper reaches of the rivers, when spring freshets deepen the water enough to float the logs, men of a particularly courageous breed shepherd the raw wood down the rivers, sometimes for hundreds of miles, to the sawmills.  They spend many days on the logs and on a raft with a shanty on it that brings up the rear.  In the shanty is a man at whom the others characteristically jeer but deeply value - the cook.  ..... When the logs were being floated down the river to the mills, there was always a cook shanty on a raft following the log drive.  It was a great treat for children to have a meal with the lumberjacks on this river raft. They cold look forward to fried salt pork, boiled potatoes, boiled beans, hot breads, Lumberjack cookies, and strong black coffee....."
I wonder if my Great Grandfather rode on the log rafts, and what other things he might have done.  It seems like really hard work to me. 
Today I woke up and felt the need to bake....and so I made some Lumberjack Cookies.

 You mix molasses, Crisco, and eggs together, then add cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda and salt to the mix, and 4 cups of flour.  This is what the cookie dough looks like.

Then you put some sugar in a bowl.  The recipe I had said one cup, but you do not need one cup.  Dip your fingers in the sugar, then make a ball of dough, then roll the dough ball in the sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Here they are all ready to go into the oven, the oven temp is 350 and cook them for about 13 minutes.

Cookies fresh from the oven.......

The recipe makes a lot of cookies.  I'm not so sure I like them, they taste a little like gingerbread cookies.... Hope my husband and kids like them.  Tonight we will learn about Great Grandfather Boyd and Lumberjack cookies.
I've decided to study up on some of these old recipes and write about them and my ancestors.  Hope you enjoy.
G.G.
Lumberjack cookie recipe