Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-02-11
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Peoples Forum
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dustry, its development and possibili-
ties. AS an introduction, l will give
you short sketch of my experience
in the granite industry of the east.
| have had over fifty years of practi-
cal experience in this industry, and
know whereof l speak. In the years
1874 and 1876 l was employed in the
largest granite establishment in Ver-
mont, the St.. Johnsburg Granite
Company, located at st. Johnsburg,
VT At that time they were using a
granite known by the commercial
name of Blue Mountain granite. 1t
was quarried on Blue Mountain, near
Ryegate, a small village situated on
the line of the Montpelier & Wells
River Railroad. This line connected
with the Passumpsic & Massawippi
Valley Railroad, now known as the
Boston & Maine, running from Bos-
ton into Canada. At that time the
Barre granite was only known locally,
not having as wide a reputation as
our Beaver granite, that we have
brought to light since our advent in
your midst.
l shall ask you to go back with me
for short visit into the past before
our nation was born. We will now
go back to the New England colonies
for a short time. The working of
stone is older than many other in
dustries of this country and has
grown to enormous proportions.
Very little of its history is recorded.
The GRANTEES near Boston were
among the first of all the stones to
be used for structural purposes on
this continent. The early settlers of
Boston and vicinity got their stone
for building purposes by splitting up
the boulders that were scattered on
the surface of the ground. So gen.
eral was the use made of this ma
terial that anxiety was felt lest the
supply should be exhausted. AS
early as 1715 a town meeting in
Braintree voted that no person
should dig or carry any stone from
the common without permission from
a committee, under penalty of fine
Kings chapel in Boston was built ol
granite taken from boulders. These
were split by building fires on them
and then dropping heavy iron balls
on them until they cracked.
The cutting of granite was intro.
duced by company of German emf
grants brought out by Brigadier Gen,
eral Waldo, who settled at a place
then called Germantown, but nov
Quincy. 1t had then become known
that there were abundant ledges oi
granite, but these were not worked
because of the difficulty of breakine
the stone loose. According to a state
ment made by Governor Robbins Of
Milton, he noticed about the yeal
1898 some granite that had beeI
split by small drill holes. Makine
inquiries, he found that this wa!
done by using wedges, the process
being discovered by a man named
TarboX, living in Danvers. Governor
Robbins induced Tarbox to go t
Quincy and teach the granite worker!
his method, thereby greatly reducing
the cost of cutting.
Today with all our inventions ant
improvements for the development o.
granite, it would fill volumes to give
a detailed account of 1t.
In order to show you the possibili
ties of our granite, l will now take
you to the Green Mountain state
where we shall find a small hamlet il
the early seventies, composed of {
few Yankee farmers. but now a pros
porous city of 10000 or 5000 in
habitants.. We are now in the gran
ite city of Vermont, the city o
Barrie, known the world over for itI
famous granite. In 1881, according
to the statistics of the Vermont Reg
ister, the population of the entir,
town was 400. At that time onl!
fifty granite cutters were employed
by half a dozen firms. In 1910 tn,
: population was about $4,000 o
$1,000. Such a growth in population
may not be very remarkable, as com
, pared with Ashland's $4,000 in fiv
years, through the development o
! our famous mineral springs. How
ever, this instance, where it is found
, ed upon one single industry, and tha
t the rock of ages (the granite),
4 significant, to say the least.
r will quote the figures of the pro
: duction of granite in Oregon an,
r Vermont for the year 1911. Oregon
|, produced $50S,97S worth of granite
/ a good portion of which was crushe,
: rock. Vermont produced in the sam
y year $2,730,719 worth of granite TO
building and monumental purposes
but mostly for monumental work.
would like to say in connection witt