In a preceding chapter Mr. WARDWELL has treated
in a thorough manner the general marble industry of the county, leaving
us the task in the various town histories of merely detailing the formation,
growth and present condition of the several companies and firms that are
now engaged in its production. The real beginning of the marble industry
in this town dates farther back than is commonly supposed, though it did
not attain prominence until about the middle of the century. The venerable
Artemas WARD, of West Rutland, who has lived in the town eighty-five years,
says he quarried marble there more than fifty years ago for grave stones,
while the father of William F. BARNES (whose name was also William)
and Gardner TRIPP dug out flat pieces of marble as early as 1820; these
pieces were split and hewed into tolerable shape for grave stones, and
William DENISON, a shoemaker and general mechanic, cut them into still
more presentable form and inscribed on them the virtues of the departed.
These stones were taken out near West Rutland village, where the great
quarries of today resound with the blows of steam-driven quarrying machines,
and also in Whipple Hollow. Many of the older stones in the ancient burying
ground at West Rutland were thus obtained years before work began in the
quarries for commercial purposes. Here and there a man whose circumstances
would admit of it, quarried enough marble in rough blocks to make a foundation
for his house; others used better pieces for fire-place jambs, generally
in the rough, but now and then polished. We are speaking now of a period
immediately succeeding 1820. With the efforts of Messrs. HUMPHREY and ORMSBEE
in one locality and William F. BARNES in another, the marble industry may
be said to have really begun, in a commercial sense.
Of the quarries and mills now in operation at West Rutland, those
of SHELDON & Sons are the largest. This firm is composed of Charles
SHELDON and his sons, John A., Charles H. and William K., and is the legitimate
successor of the firm that was formed in 1850 by Charles SHELDON, Lorenzo
SHELDON, David MORGAN and Charles H. SLASON. There was but one quarry opened
then on the property purchased by them, its opening dating from 1844. The
marble was all hauled to Whitehall by teams and the business was necessarily
limited by that fact. In the spring of 1841 the firm built an eight-gang
mill and with the opening of the railroad in 1851 a wonderful impetus was
given to the business. The old mill ran at first only about nine months
of the year and during the day-time only. In 1851 the old mill burned and
on its site was erected a mill with eighteen gangs of saws. In 1857 the
firm became Charles SHELDON, Lorenzo SHELDON, Henry A. SHELDON and Charles
H. SLASON, Mr. MORGAN retiring. In 1865 another change occurred, Lorenzo
and Henry A. SHELDON retiring, and the firm becoming Charles SHELDON, Charles
H. SLASON, John A. SHELDON and Charles H. SHELDON. In 1866 their mill again
burned, and one of twenty-four gangs was erected; and in 1875 a second
one of the same capacity was added. In the meantime two other quarries
were opened, one in 1859 and the other in 1864. These comprise the three
extensive quarries now in process of working by the firm. On the first
of October, 1881, Mr. SLASON retired from the firm, leaving the members
Charles SHELDON, John A. SHELDON, Charles H. SHELDON and William K. SHELDON.
In the same year a twenty-gang mill was added, with capacity for forty-eight.
All of these mills are now commonly run night and day. Their finishing
department was added in 1879-80, employing at times one hundred and twenty
men in making stock for the trade; eight turning lathes are in use, six
polishing lathes and three rubbing beds. During the past year the average
number of men employed was four hundred and fifty. The product comprises
the different varieties of the Rutland marbles, statuary, the lower grades
of white, and all varieties of blue. The annual product is valued at about
$450,000. The store near the quarries was built by the firm in 1865, and
at the present time H. H. BROWN, a former clerk, and the head of the firm
of H. H. BROWN & Company, is in charge of the trade; the walls of all
the principal buildings belonging to these works are of marble; numerous
derricks rise against the sky; teams of oxen and horses haul enormous blocks
of marble about the grounds; the unceasing sound of the saws is heard,
and the whole presents a scene of business activity that is welcome to
the practical eye.
THE
VERMONT MARBLE COMPANY
The Vermont Marble Company now owns and operates the following quarries
at Proctor: The "old quarry," so called, which has been operated for fifty
years; the Adams quarry, quarried about twenty years; the Mountain Dark,
a mile and a half north, opened five years ago; the Changreau quarry, opened
one year ago; all opened by this company or its predecessors. It has also
a very large amount of quarry property undeveloped and some quarries partly
developed but which they are not now working. At West Rutland the company
owns nearly one-half mile in length on the marble belt, on which there
are seven quarries open. Three or four of them are operated at a time by
turns as they can be worked to the best advantage. The company also owns
a large amount of quarry property in Clarendon, south of Clarendon Springs,
recently purchased and not fully developed. At Proctor they own the "old
mill," so called, of sixteen gangs, and the several new mills, built at
different times within ten years but attached to each other, and having,
with the old mill, seventy-four gangs at Proctor. At Center Rutland there
are two mills, one at the north side of the river known as the Continental
mill, with twelve gangs, and one at the south side known as the Clement
mill, with twenty-six gangs. At West Rutland there is a steam mill with
sixteen gangs. Four gangs of the old mill at Proctor were put in fifty
years ago. Three additions have been made to it since, one of six gangs
by the Sutherland Falls Company in 1869. The first section of the last
mill was built by DORR & MYERS in 1868 and contained eight gangs. The
next one of twelve gangs was built by the Sutherland Falls Marble Company
in 1876. The next one of thirty gangs was built by the Sutherland Falls
Marble Company in 1879 and '80, and the last one of eight gangs has been
recently built. The mills at Center Rutland were originally built by Charles
CLEMENT, but a new one of fourteen gangs was built by the Vermont Marble
Company in 1882. The mill at West Rutland was built by the Rutland Marble
Company about 1870. The Vermont Marble Company was formed by the consolidation
of the Sutherland Falls Marble Company and the Rutland Marble Company,
and was organized October 1, 1880, with its present officers. The annual
value of its product is about $800,000 and from nine hundred to one thousand
men are employed. It produces the white and blue marbles from the West
Rutland deposit, the veined marble at Sutherland Falls and the dark marble
from the Mountain Dark and Changreau quarries, embracing all the standard
varieties from pure white to nearly black. It is a member of the Producers'
Marble Company, having a percentage of 54.72 of the sales of that company.
GILSON
& WOODFIN
Just north of and almost adjoining the quarries and mills of the
SHELDONS are those of Gilson & Woodfin (E. P. GILSON and John N.
WOODFIN). These quarries were opened in 1845 by Joseph ADAMS and Ira
C. ALLEN, of Fairhaven, for whom William F. BARNES worked by contract until
1849, when they took a lease. The product was then taken to Fairhaven to
be sawed by water-power. There was for more than thirty-five years but
one opening made. In 1869 the quarry was sold to Charles CLEMENT, Farrand
PARKER and Edwin P. GILSON, who constituted the firm of Clement, Parker
& Gilson. This firm put up an eight-gang mill and otherwise increased
the works until 1874, when the firm was changed to Gilson, Clement &
Woodfin, composed of E. P. GILSON, Walter P. CLEMENT and John N. WOODFIN.
In 1878 Mr. CLEMENT retired and the firm assumed its present style. Since
1878 the works have been increased three different times; five gangs of
saws were first added and later eight more, while large additions were
made to their buildings. They now operate twenty-one gangs of saws, have
erected a finishing shop, coping shop and tenement houses, and employ about
one hundred and fifty men. The product comprises the white and blue Rutland
marbles, and amounts to about $150,000 annually. The product is all sold
now by the Producers' Marble Company.
RIPLEY
SONS
The marble works now carried on under the above firm name are among
the oldest in the county. The late William RIPLEY removed to Center Rutland
from Middlebury, where had been engaged in business, about the year 1835.
There he had his attention called to the marble industry by William F.
BARNES, who was just beginning the long series of operations towards the
development of the quarries. Mr. RIPLEY foresaw the importance of the industry
and the two men bought the valuable water-power at Center Rutland where
their mills are now situated, and erected an old-fashioned pendulum mill
of eight gangs of saws; this building is still standing. The slow but gradual
development of the business continued until 1850, when the partnership
was dissolved and a contract entered into by which Mr. RIPLEY or his assigns
should be supplied with marble from the quarry delivered free of charge
on his switch, for a time without limit, he to saw and market the same
and divide the profits with Mr. BARNES. This arrangement continued until
the year 1865, when William Y. RIPLEY retired from the business and his
sons, William Y. W. RIPLEY and E. H. RIPLEY, assumed control and still
retain it; the same contract is in force with the Vermont Marble Company,
which has come into possession of the property. The quarry from which this
supply comes is known as the old FOSTER opening, and is north of the GILSON
& WOODFIN quarries. William Y. RIPLEY built another mill of eight gangs
in the early history of the business, and the two were operated until 1881,
when a twenty-gang mill was erected. In 1877 one of the old mills was changed
to a finishing shop and turning shop. In 1882 a new contract, supplementary
to the one alluded to, was entered into with the Vermont Company, by which
Ripley Sons receive a supply of blue marble from West Rutland and Sutherland's
Falls marble of the dark variegated variety. Seventy-five men are employed
by the firm and the annual product has a value of about $100,000. The stock
of the company is sold by the Producers' Marble Company. W. T. RIPLEY,
son of William Y. W. RIPLEY, constituting this firm, is inventor of the
Ripley sand feed, an improvement of great utility, which was patented in
1884; its object is to give a more uniform and economical feed of sand
to the saws, and it seems to accomplish it successfully. It is in use in
many of the mills.
COLUMBIAN
MARBLE COMPANY
The quarries of this company are those opened by Moses P. HUMPHREY
and Edgar L. ORMSBEE, about one and a half miles south of Sutherland Falls.
The first mill at Sutherland Falls was built to saw this marble in 1837-38.
The hard times of that period and other causes involved the company to
some extent and it gave up the work. Work was again begun on these quarries
in 1868 by the "North Rutland Marble Company." In the year 1871 the Columbian
Marble Company, with nearly the same stockholders, purchased the former
company's property and rights. The first officers were Dr. Timothy GORDON,
president; Rockwood BARRETT, clerk and treasurer. The present officers
are: Samuel J. GORDON, president; Rockwood BARRETT, clerk, treasurer and
general manager. The mills of the present company are located in Rutland
village near the railroad track, and contain thirteen gangs of saws, which
are run night and day. Marble is also turned largely in this mill, and
to Dr. BARRETT is due to a great extent the credit of first employing fixed
tools in turning marble; the turning done previous to 1876 was done by
hand and in a small way. About one hundred and fifty men are employed by
the company. The product of their quarries embraces light clouded marble
of various grades, and the dark variegated varieties; they also handle
the Bardillo Marble Company's goods, of Brandon, consisting of blue marble
and a variety resembling Italian bardillo.
THE
VALIDO MARBLE COMPANY
The Valido Marble Company's quarry is located at West Rutland adjoining;
that of the Esperanza Marble Company. The mills and shops are at Fairhaven
and were opened in 1884 by the company. The capital stock is $300,000,
divided into shares of $100 each, and is chiefly owned by J. B. and G.
H. REYNOLDS and W. H. JOHNSON. The marble produced at the company's quarry
is, as its name (Val-e-do) implies, exceedingly beautiful and in
soundness is far superior to that of any quarry that has as yet been developed
in the State. The company employs from seventy-five to one hundred men
at the quarry and in the mills. The mills and finishing shops are run by
water power.
THE
TRUE BLUE MARBLE COMPANY
This company was organized May 26, 1884, with the following officers:
J. W. CRAMTON, president; J. N. BAXTER, treasurer; George B. ROYCE, secretary.
These officers remain the same, except that E. D. KEYES is now treasurer
and manager. The mill and quarry are at West Rutland, with offices both
there and at Rutland village. The capital of the company is $200,000. Before
the organization of this company Mr. ROYCE, associated with nine others,
who comprise the present principal stockholders, prospected about a year
with the view of opening the business of manufacturing and selling blue
marble, now the most fashionable variety. Upon the strength of their investigations
the company was formed and four farms were bought, the one upon which the
quarry is situated having been purchased of John O'ROURKE for $10,000;
it was secured by O'ROURKE of Mr. DWYRE, who obtained of the CHATTERTON
estate. The company's mill has eight gangs of saws running night and day,
and the product is sold as fast as produced. The product embraces the finest
grades of dark, extra dark veined and mottled blue marble, in block, sawed
and finished stock. The marbles of this quarry it is claimed now command
the highest average price of any Vermont marble, a fact resting largely
upon the prevailing taste and fashion.
THE
DORSET MARBLE COMPANY
The Dorset Marble Company has its offices in Rutland. It was organized
under special act of the Legislature in 1881, with a capital of $300,000,
and the following officers, who still retain their respective positions:
President, E. J. HAWLEY, of Manchester; treasurer and clerk, J. H. GOULDING.
The company purchased two quarries and a mill property at East Dorset of
J. B. HOLLISTER, who had previously worked them, and subsequently a quarry
and mill at West Rutland, of Carlos S. SHERMAN, and a mill at Hydeville,
in the town of Castleton. The West Rutland quarry had been worked before
by Mr. SHERMAN. The product of the East Dorset quarries is Italian or monumental
marble, and of the West Rutland quarry both white and blue marble. The
company have thirty-two gangs of saws running and employ about one hundred
hands. The sales of the company are about $125,000 annually. The product
of this company is taken and sold by the Producers' Marble Company.
THE
ESPERANZA MARBLE COMPANY
This company was organized in January, 1883, with the following
officers: H. C. DE RIVERA, president and treasurer; George F. BREED, secretary;
W. O. SARGENT, superintendent. The quarry, which is in Whipple Hollow about
one and one-half miles north of those of SHELDON & Sons, was opened
in November, 1882, the product being a fine quality of blue marble, fine
in grain, and susceptible of a brilliant polish. Previous to the present
year (1885) the product of the quarries was sold to the trade in blocks;
but in the year named an eight-gang mill was erected and started in June.
In September of the same year the management of the quarry and mill was
placed in the hands of Andrew J. DUNTON, who was with the Columbian Company
for thirteen years. The company have offices in New York and Boston, and
the officers at the present time are P. S. J. TALBOT, president; Henry
C. DE RIVERA, treasurer and secretary; Andrew J. DUNTON, general manager;
W. O. SARGENT, superintendent.
CENTER
RUTLAND MARBLE COMPANY
In the year 1880 Colonel Benjamin P. BAKER, then residing in New
York city, purchased what is known as the "old GRIGGS farm" (the birth-place
of his wife), and discovered thereon a valuable deposit of marble. After
finding a vein of beautiful variegated dark marble, he opened a quarry
and in 1881 organized the "Center Rutland Marble Company," with several
of his New York friends, Horace K. THURBER, S. V. WHITE, Edward A. SECCOMB,
and others, associated with him. The company energetically continued the
work of quarrying, Colonel BAKER having removed from New York and taken
up his permanent residence on the farm, personally superintending the work.
The samples obtained from the quarry and adjoining points on the farm proved
eminently satisfactory, and after two years the company erected an eight-gang
mill adjacent to the track of the Central Vermont Railroad and convenient
to their quarry. This, though not one of the largest, is one of the best
and most convenient mills in the State. Although the beauty and variety
of the product was all that could be desired, the heavy percentage of unsoundness
in the blocks led to the abandonment of the original quarry. Colonel BAKER
tendered the company (just before his death in November, 1884) an interest
in another opening on his private portion of the farm, called the "North
Star" quarry; this, with blocks purchased elsewhere, has enabled the company
to continue the business, which, with the liberal backing of its members,
has steadily grown to the present time. About fifty men are employed, and
with an increased capacity to twenty gangs acquired by them through the
recent possession of the property near by known as the "Albion Mill," they
are enabled to turn out a large quantity of work. A new railroad station
was opened in connection with the office and mill of the company in 1884,
to which a Colonel BAKER gave the name of "Rutland Valley"; this title
is now associated with the neighborhood formerly known as "Double Road
Crossing." The present officers of the company are Edward A. SECCOMB, of
BROWN & SECCOMB, New York, president; Albert H. SMITH, of Wells, ROBESON
& SMITH, New York, vice-president; Horace K. THURBER, of THURBER, WHYLAND
& Company, New York, treasurer; Charles E. BAKER, Rutland Valley, manager;
J. D. SLEEPER, Rutland Valley, superintendent.
WEST
RUTLAND MARBLE COMPANY
The quarry operated by this company was opened about the year 1865
by David MORGAN. The product is what comes under the descriptive title
of West Rutland marble, similar in its finishing qualities to the Italian
product and of fine texture. The company now operating the works was chartered
in the fall of 1881, its first officers being E. M. NELSON, president;
William P. Manley, secretary and treasurer. The capital stock was placed
at $250,000 and is largely held by Massachusetts men. In April, 1883, William
W. CLARK succeeded Mr. MANLEY as secretary and treasurer. The company has
mills at West Rutland and at Salem, N. Y., the capacity of which is about
250,000 feet per annum from the twelve gangs of saws running. About fifty
men are employed by the company, and the business in all of its general
features is constantly growing.
STANDARD
MARBLE COMPANY
The quarry operated by this company is located at West Rutland and
was opened in September, 1883. Organization as the "Standard Marble Company"
was perfected in October, 1883, with N. W. BACHELDER as president; J. E.
MANLEY, clerk, and J. D. ROGERS, treasurer. Mr. BATCHELDER is now the president,
and Mr. MANLEY manager. The product of the quarry at the present time is
blue and variegated marble; but the deposit is said to include white marble
also. The mill used by the company is part of the property known as the
"American Marble Company," and is owned by a gentleman of Glens Falls.
THE
PRODUCERS' MARBLE COMPANY
The intelligent reader of the few preceding pages may naturally
have arrived at the conclusion that in a business of the immense magnitude
of the Rutland marble industry, where several large and powerful corporations
are engaged, competition and opposition would be likely to spring up which
would tend to render the business of little profit to those engaged in
it, and of little benefit to the community at large. To avoid a possibility
of such results, as well as to equalize prices of marble for the benefit
of workers throughout the country, the "Producers' Marble Company" was
organized on the 1st of January, 1883. This company handles the entire
product of five of the largest marble producing companies in the world,
viz.: The Vermont Marble Company, Sheldon & Sons, the Dorset Marble
Company, Ripley Sons and Gilson & Woodfin. The entire product of these
companies is put into a pool upon a basis that gives each an equitable
share in the business, and sold at uniform prices in Rutland and at their
branch offices in New York, Boston and Chicago. In short, so enormous is
the amount of marble handled by the company that it practically controls
prices throughout the world. The kinds of marble handled by the company
embrace all the best varieties -- the Rutland, Sutherland Falls, East Dorset,
Italian and what is termed Mountain Dark. The shipments of the company
in the year 1884 reached the enormous quantity of about 6,000 carloads,
and their goods are penetrating into all of the civilized countries of
the world, shipments now being made into Australia and South America.
The present officers of the company are Redfield PROCTOR, president;
John A. SHELDON, vice-president; E. P. GILSON, secretary and treasurer;
general manager, D. K. HALL.
EARLY
MARBLE INDUSTRY AT SUTHERLAND FALLS
At the risk of some minor repetitions of statements already given
in a preceding chapter on the general marble industry of the county, we
here append a brief review of the important business at this point, as
furnished in some manuscript notes left by the late R. S. HUMPHREY. He
states, upon the authority of Samuel BUTLER, that the first marble taken
from what was first known as the Humphrey Quarry, afterward owned by the
Columbian Marble Company and now by the Vermont Marble Company, was in
the fall of the year 1836, and that the first saw started at the falls
for sawing marble was on Monday, the 26th day of September, 1837.
In the summer of 1836 Willard and Moses HUMPHREY became convinced
that the quarrying and sawing of marble could be made profitable. They
had little capital; there were no railroads; there was no post-office nearer
than Pittsford and West Rutland, and they were entirely lacking in practical
knowledge of the work they resolved to undertake. The first work was done
in the Columbian Quarry by blasting out the blocks with gunpowder, hauling
them with ropes, pulleys and rollers up an inclined plane to a wagon or
sled, and thence to the falls with oxen. Several small openings were made
in prospecting for marble, one of which was about thirty rods north of
the first or Colombian opening; one on the Capron Farm, and one west of
the Capron House, near the Back Road. But they did not begin work on what
was afterwards distinguished as the Sutherland Falls Quarry until the summer
of 1838. The building of the first mill, with four gangs of saws, was begun
in the winter of 1836-37, previous to which date they had associated with
themselves E. L. ORMSBEE, of Rutland, under the firm name OF HUMPHREYS
& ORMSBEE. On the 26th day of September, 1837, the first saws began
to swing. Up to this time not more than five or six men had ever been employed
by the firm at one time. The mill was a substantial stone building, part
of the walls of which helped to form the north wall of the "lower mill."
The financial crisis of 1837-38 crushed all business at this point,
and after a struggle of about a year from the time when sawing began, the
firm yielded to the pressure, gave up everything to their creditors and
assigned to Francis SLASON, of West Rutland. Under his direction the business
was carried on three or four years, with Moses HUMPHREY as superintendent;
the HUMPHREY brothers soon gave up all interest in the business and removed
from the place. Mr. ORMSBEE retained some hold upon the property and associated
himself with his brother, T. J. ORMSBEE, who carried on the business two
years longer. Their principal business was sawing marble that was drawn
there from West Rutland, the local trade taking most of the sawed stock,
and a small part of it finding its way via Whitehall to points farther
west. Between 1845 and 1854 the marble business at Sutherland Falls was
substantially at a stand-still, quarries having in the mean time been opened
at West and Center Rutland, and larger mills erected. The wood-work in
the old mill fell into decay; the quarry openings became frog ponds, and
the entire enterprise seemed to have drooped into permanent stagnation.
For a few years before his death in 1848 Joseph HUMPHREY, jr., had
carried on a business of considerable importance for the time in finishing
grave-stones in a shop built by himself. A part of the period he was associated
with Hills TAYLOR, under the firm style of Humphrey & Taylor, and their
work attained a favorable local reputation.
In the year 1854 the North River Mining Company, which had been
prospecting for marble in the town of Sudbury, undertook the resuscitation
of the Sutherland Falls business. The railroad was now in operation, supplying
means of transportation, and circumstances seemed more favorable for the
business. But the quarries at West Rutland had been largely worked, as
we have before shown, and there was a large quantity of the marble in the
market; it was of a finer grain than that taken out at the falls and easier
worked; this labor being then nearly all done by hand labor, it was for
the interest of marble-workers throughout the country to favor the sale
of the West Rutland product. These facts, with the active competition inspired
by the energetic men who had engaged in the business, made it difficult
to market the Sutherland Falls marble in large quantities. The old mill
had been rebuilt and started, however, and some of the Sudbury marble sawed;
a small business was started and it gradually grew, one of the favorable
conditions being the excellence of the marble of this locality for out-door
uses. But the slow growth of the trade and other causes told heavily upon
the resources of the company, and in 1857, after a three years' struggle,
the company failed; all business was again suspended.
The management of the works during this company's regime was in
the hands of Francis A. FISHER, who resided at the falls until 1866, when
he removed to Rutland, and lived there until his death, which occurred
in 1878.
In 1857 a reorganization was effected and the "Sutherland Falls
Marble Company" was formed. It contained as its leading spirits such men
as George MADDEN, of Middletown, N. Y.; Emerson BRYANT, of Boston; ex-Governor
John B. PAGE, and Judge John PROUT, of Rutland; H. P. ROBERTS assumed the
position of superintendent and manager. The business now began to grow;
a few more houses for workmen were erected and six gangs of saws were added
to the mill; but still the workers of marble preferred the softer stone
from West Rutland, the sales of which were being pushed with energy. Equal
enterprise at the falls, with the real merits and beauties of the marble,
however, combined to foster the steady growth of the business at this point
and it prospered accordingly.
Mr. ROBERTS, the manager, lived at the falls five or six years and
was succeeded by J. S. HUGHES, of Middletown, N. Y. Both of these men became
engaged in railroad contracting after leaving this place. A. C. WICKER,
of Fairhaven, was bookkeeper and clerk for a short period, and after his
departure Warren DECKER assumed the position. Between 1860 and 1864 J.
E. CORWIN was clerk for about two years. He became in later years a bank
president in Indiana. Mr. HUMPHREY mentions among those whose faces were
familiar at the time of which we are writing, either in connection with
the marble industry or otherwise about the place, A. F. MANLEY, who was
foreman for years on the quarry; Hills TAYLOR, who worked many years in
the coping-shop; William MAYNARD, Henry and G. J. CADY, James and Daniel
ROGERS, J. C. and A. C. POWERS, William and D. B. HUMPHREY, N. S. WARNER,
Leverett CHATTERTON and others.
In the year 1864 J. B. REYNOLDS became general superintendent and
manager of the marble business at the falls. Under his administration the
industry made material advancement. The mill was increased to twelve gangs;
tenement houses erected, etc. It is claimed, also, that some of the investments,
particularly for the "crane shed," with machinery for handling and storing
marble, that cost about $40,000, and the project of carrying water in a
penstock from Beaver Pond for propelling the hoisting machinery and pumping
the quarry, with other extensive operations, were unwise and resulted in
heavy loss. Harvey REYNOLDS, a brother of the superintendent, was interested
in the business for a time, and in connection with A. F. MANLEY had a contract
for quarrying marble by the foot.
J.B. REYNOLDS finally made a contract with S. M. DORR and J. J.
MYERS by which they were to carry on the business of sawing and selling
the marble under a lease. While this arrangement was in force the two men
purchased of T. J. ORMSBEE the land and water privileges where the present
large mill stands and in 1867-68 they erected the first eight-gang mill
on the site; it was their enterprise, also, that first conveyed the motive
power from the water-way at the level of the old mill in the hollow, up
to the level of the railroad track, where the bulk of the great business
is now done. The business as conducted by DORR & MYERS, through some
complications and differences which need not be detailed, was finally placed
in the hands of a receiver, in the person of Redfield PROCTOR. He assumed
the management of the interest in the fall of 1868 and removed to Sutherland
Falls at that time.
History
of Rutland County Vermont with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches
of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers
Edited
by H. Y. Smith & W. S. Rann
Syracuse,
N. Y.
D.
Mason & Co., Publishers 1886
History
of the Town of Rutland
Chapter
XIX.
(pages
422-432)
Transcribed
by Karima, 2002
|