The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-04-11
EARLY HISTORY OF THE
GRANITE INDUSTRY
Major L. A. Abbott Supplements Late
A. M. Jackman's Story With Fur
ther Facts of The Days When
Industry Was in It's Infancy.

April s, 1905.
Editor Times: / was much interested
to note an article in your bright paper
of April 3, by the late A. NJ. Jackman,
an old and valued friend for over sixty
odd years, as to who supplied the gran
lite for the Vermont State capitol build
ing ut Montpelier. The statement is
mainly correct, but there are some
points unknown to Mr. Jackman which
it may be well to clear up for historical
reasons before it is too late.
Colonies Sherman and Joseph d. Har-
rington were associated pecuniarily with
Il. +. Abbott only, he supplying the
granite for the State House, as neither
of the other contractors were granite
manufacturers. AT that time the stone
wall running northerly on the right of
the road about 800 yards west Of the
Abbott house where the old cellar hole
now is, divided the Abbott and Harring-
ton farms north while south of the road
they were separated by a Virginia rail
fence running southerly half mile or
more as far as the top of the mountain
built on prolongation of the before
mentioned wall, The long narrow string
of quarries which had changed but little
in fifty years or more in 1903, to the
west of this rail fence which has since
been removed, on the north side OF the
mountain, belonged to the Harrington,
and those on the east to the Abbott
estate before its division among the
heirs of Abijah Abbott, my grandfather,
the latter covering fully three times
as much quarry ground as the Harring-
ton
Neither Sherman or William Brad
ford the latter of whom delivered the
granite at Montpelier quarries
nor were they manufacturers, but both
have been wrongly credited with having
supplied the State House granite; and
the general belief in late years by the
public has been that it was all supplied
from the Little Cobble Hill or Hewett-
Wheaton quarry, when as matter of
fact it was by Abbott from the Abbott
Harrington qrarries, the latter Of which
Abbott leased for several years. The
quarries which joined each other on
these two estates were the first opened
on what was then known as Stallion but
now as Milestone HILL As customary
in that day and later within the know
ledge of the writer, an occasional stone
required on hurry order may have
been taken by Abbott from the Little
Cobble Hill quarry, as owners Of quar-
ries were very obliging in such re-
spect.
Col, sherman became interested in
the contract from the fact that his son,
Hon. a. s. Sherman, at that time (1s33)
married one OF Abbott's sisters, but
Abbott was the moving spirit in the
State House contract as he was in most
others Of that day pertaining to the
granite industry. The writer fully reeol-
lects Col. Harrington as well-to-do
genial farmer. always a staunch friend
of Abbott's but was never granite
manufacturer The long stone-shed
shown in an illustration in work by
the writer Of some 200 pages or more
now being printed, which will be sent
to the Barre library when DONE was
built by Col. Harrington for my father,
who learned the formers son, Ira, the
granite manufacturers trade about that
time, which shows that Col, Harrington
was never a manufacturer, and at any
rate never within the remembrance of
the writer Colonies Harrington and
Sherman shared in the profits of the
State House contract, but my father
supplied the granite, the pecuniary re-
sponsibility for that or any other day
for many decades of such large con-
tract being too great for anyone locally
to assume alone.
Yours truly,
1. A. ABBOTT.
Hotel Regent,
Washington, D. G.