woodsawyers

"But the Oregonians, and these emigrants thither,—pure democrats all, and independent as woodsawyers—are pre-eminent for equality and love of liberty." (Scenes Beyond the Western Border, September 1852)

Melville on Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850):

 "two jobs which I have done for money—being forced to it as other men are to sawing wood."

From  "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!" (1853):

At last, one morning there came to me a certain singular man, who had sawed and split my wood in March—some five-and-thirty cords of it—and now he came for his pay. He was a singular man, I say. He was tall and spare, with a long saddish face, yet somehow a latently joyous eye, which offered the strangest contrast. His air seemed staid, but undepressed. He wore a long, gray, shabby coat, and a big battered hat. This man had sawed my wood at so much a cord. He would stand and saw all day in a driving snow-storm, and never wink at it. He never spoke unless spoken to. He only sawed. Saw, saw, saw—snow, snow, snow. The saw and the snow went together like two natural things....

His name was Merrymusk.  (Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!)

Melville on meeting President Lincoln:

"Old Abe is much better looking than I expected & younger looking. He shook hands like a good fellow—working hard at it like a man sawing wood at so much per cord."