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THE

MARBLE BORDER

——~ OF ——

WESTERN NEW ENGLAND.

ITS GEOLOGY AND MARBLE DEVELOPMENT
IN THE PRESENT CENTURY.

PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE

MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Vout. I. Parr II.

P. 2224.

 

MIDDLEBURY, VT.:
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
1885.
CONTENTS.

. Page
MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
INTRODUCTORY, - - : = . - 1

PHILIP BATTELL, Esq.
MAP OF MARBLE BORDER.
PROF, EZRA BRAINERD.

GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT, - - - - 9

Pror, EZRA BRAINERD.
MARBLE FIELDS AND MARBLE INDUSTRY, 23

PRoF HENRY M. SEELY.

APPENDIX, -  .- a ee ee é - 58

Development of Machinery, - 55

Correspondence—Letters from : ;
Rich’d Colles, Esq., Kilkenny, Ireland, 57
Rev. J. Graves, Kilkenny, Ireland, - 58
James Clapp, M. A., London, England, 59
Ralph Buckingham, Esq., Marbledale, Conn., - 60
Chas. J. Taylor, Esq., Great Barrington, Mass., - 61
John Struthers, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa., - - 64

Early Marble Work at Middlebury, - 65

Local Question of Invention, 3 66
Conn Ce waits Ci ny/
hee. an AL:

Le. SteaCL a8 bee AiG,
THE

MARBLE BORDER

OF

WESTERN NEW ENGLAND.

ITS GEOLOGY AND MARBLE DEVELOPMENT
IN THE PRESENT CENTURY.

zy bh obs

Bam
a PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE

IDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

—
-_

Vou. I. Parr II.

 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
1885.

@
Mihi: Leb IE HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
[MIDDLEBURY ) VT

fe | Y 608

Add

‘
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by R. WAINWRIGHT,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

REGISTER COMPANY, PRINTERS,
MIDDLEBURY, VT.
MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

HE MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY was organized

5: November 27, 1843, its members having in view, as aspecialty,
the cultivation of New England and American history, and the pro-
motion of an interest in that department of intelligence in the com-
munity. There were at first but nine gentlemen associated, which
number was very soon increased, by election, to twelve, all residents
of Middlebury, the plan of action being simply that ofa literary club.
Its officers were a president and secretary, the latter also treasurer
and curator of collections. The officers flrst chosen were Hon.
Samuel Swift, president, and Philip Battell, Esq., secretary, who were
continued in office until 1846, when Rev. Benjamin Labaree, D. D.,
was chosen president, and George S. Swift, Esq., secretary. A stand-
ing committee of two members besides the secretary was constituted
for all general purposes not otherwise provided for. New members
were elected from time to time from the town and vicinity, honorary
members in Addison County, and corresponding members out of it.
Meetings were held monthly, or quarterly, as seemed expedient, at
which historical papers were read and discussions held, the former
with some collections of manuscripts and curiosities being preserved.
In February, 1847, a project was adopted to procure the preparation
of town histories of all the towns of Addison County, with a view to
their publication as soon as prepared. A special committee was consti-
tuted for this object, by whom historians were selected in each town,
and commissioned by a circular from the society minutely defining
the comprehensive work to be done. The appointments were ac-
cepted or others made. and an interest in the design was extended in
MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

the towns. Eight or ten of such histories were prepared and report-
ed. Ofthese, four in a complete form and of high merit were pub-
lished, chiefly by the towns interested and by local subscription. The
first was that of Middlebury, with a preliminary historical account of
Addison County, introductory to the series, by Hon. Samuel Swift, in
1859. The History of Salisbury, by John M. Weeks, Esq., followed
in 1860; that of Shoreham, by Rev. Josiah F. Goodhue, in 1861 ;
that of Cornwall, by Rev. Lyman Matthews, in 1862. Histories of
Orwell and Bristol were also prepared, by Hon. Roswell Bottum and
Hon. Harvey Munsill, of which the former was published in 1880.
The society has sustained since 1843 an annual celebration of the
landing of the Pilgrims, regarding the Plymouth colony as the starting
point of New England history and its character as typical of Ameri-
can civilization. The plan of organization of the Society is still main-
tained. In 1843 it was the nineteenth of the historical associations
in the United States, as recognized by the Department of Education
in 1876, when the number had increased to eighty, many of them
representing with distinction their relations to the country and urging
an active emulation upon others in the interests they serve. The pres-
ent officers of the Society are:

HON. JOHN W. STEWART, . . . . . President,
PHILIP BATTELL, Esa, . . . . . . Secretary,
PROF. EZRA BRAINERD,

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, Eso., Shuaahng Conimetier,

x" The insignia of the Society associate it with Middlebury, in a view of its land-
mark hill, Chipman Hill, from the south, painted by C. Rogers in 1845, with an indica-
tion of Vermont—the star that never sets—from the crest of the complete device,
brought within the compass of the seal. The latter was engraved by Weed, Parsons &
Co., of Albany, N. Y.; the map of the border—drawn by Prof, Brainerd—by Charles
Van Benthuysen & Sons of the same city. : :
INTRODUCTORY.

HE attention of the Middlebury Historical Society was called

to the history of the marble industries of New England bya
question which had arisen in the town as to the inventions in the
mechanical arts which might be claimed for its citizens, and be hon-
orably inscribed upon a tablet to be placed as a memorial in the new
Town Hall. The relation of Middlebury to the subject had been
conspicuous among its local industries in all the more active period
of manufactures here, sustained for more thana third part of the pres-
ent century, and a claim had arisen, in circumstances to invite a
degree of popular interest, that its success was to be traced to the in-
digenous invention of its principal processes here, adopted by the
founder of the business at Middlebury, and afterwards diffused and
made effective in universal use. The character of a claim of so high
pretension could not be indifferent to any persons interested in the
honor of the town, nor the proposal to give it a public sanction of the
kind, depending on historical evidence, be indifferent to any whose
attention was habitually attracted to historical questions. The sub-
ject was therefore referred to a member familiar with topics of in-
dustrial interest, Professor H. M. Seely, formerly secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture, for examination. At the next succeeding meet-
ing of the Society, January 26th, 1884, an article was read by Pro-
_fessor Seely, presenting an elaborate review of the subject so far as
historical authorities were immediately accessible, and so far dispos-
ing of the question before the people that the article was committed
- to the standing committee of the Society for publication, in such
form as they should prefer. The publication was made in the
ii INTRODUCTORY.

Middlebury Regéster ; an answer subsequently appeared, to which a
brief rejoinder, first read to the Society, was also published.

In the meantime the society had been struck with the character
and extent of the investigation which had thus incidentally been
opened to it. Whatever the mechanical facts might have been it was
evident that their obscurity had been but little disturbed ; that while
art in marble had struggled along with some beneficent gleams of
usefulness from one generation or people to another, from one era
into another, with gleams of admiration public and private upon it,
art in history which rehabilitates the elements of social progress in
man, if possible with spirit refined, was indifferent to it. The more
comprehensive and special the modern book consulted the deeper
the shade that obscured its inadequacy. The more intelligent the
general student whom a correspondent might consult, the more
startling his confession that the subject was quite new to him, and
except in the case of one most incisive and accurate of investigators
in New England, with the aid accessible to them it seemed likely to
remain so. His research had elasticity enough to look for the
stream if its fountain head were hidden, and trace it to its origin.

From this point, discovered by Professor Dexter of Yale College,
the secret of the course of American marble history was in the rocks,
and the revelation of it followed up the marble belt by the successive
openings through the line. To these the clews in some few instan-
ces were already in hand, for happily the relationships of society
within the western border once so familiar were not entirely obsolete,
and the fellowship of scientific studies, recognized by that of com-
mercial interest in the subject, facilities of inquiry were revived
over mysteries of nature wrought long periods ago. The town
histories disclosed something, amicably in some instances as to par-
ties in the trade, the scientific surveys of the states more liberally to
those in their secret, who had not forgotten the fact. But the living
sympathy of men face to face is the truest interpreter between
them, and by this impressions slowly or partially received were veri-
fied or extended.
INTRODUCTORY. ili

Professors Brainerd and Seely had been particularly interested
in carrying out the investigation, the former representing the
department of applied science in Middlebury College, the latter that
of Chemistry and Mineralogy. The entire route of the principal
localities, at present or formerly operated, was visited by them south
ot Middlebury during their April vacation, and their return signalized
at the regular meeting of that month by a display of specimens ob-
tained in the excursion, and from localities north, all distinctly char-
acteristic, illustrated by their colloquial explanations and a sketch of
the border map prepared by Mr. Brainerd. The completed papers
of these gentlemen were read at the regular meeting June 29th, when
it was voted that the society shall enter upon the design of the pub-
lication of its collections with the timely and interesting articles now
read ; that they be referred to the Standing Committee for publica-
tion, together with the correspondence elicited by the investigation
and other related matter. The official statement, prepared by Pro-
fessor Seely, of the reference of the local question of invention, with
the decision of the Referees chosen is also given in the appendix.

The geographical traits of the New England border have been con-
trolling in its history. As the country inclines upon the Sound it has
its character with that of the tide-water system, along which the first
settlements extended. But soon another jurisdiction was met at the
west and in receding from the coast a profile of boundary correspond-
ing to it. The character of the surface at the east favored the invi
tation of a river country between these lines, and the movement of
population obeyed it. The historian sees it in masses from Stratford
and Milford, townsmen acting municipally upon it, churches and
families separating cordially in the common impnlse for new parishes
and homes in the Woodbury territory and New Milford beyond. The
border is more distinctly defined at the South Massachusetts line in

Berkshire county, which extends northerly across the State, and has
never been without a history or witnesses in the better spheres .of
life to make it known. It rests upon the kindred commonwealth of
iv INTRODUCTORY.

Connecticut along the Housatonic, which in Litchfield county de-
scending three hundred feet or more, enters the river line between
Fairfield and New Haven counties in seeking the coast. But the family
names in the gardens of new settlement between the outer Taconic
line of Berkshire and the wider gneissoid uplift that continues the
Green Mountains from the north, mingling with or passing groups
already planted from the east, were the household words of towns
and hamlets first settled below and have lost nothing of harmony or
fullness in the new scenes they animate, all for industry, not all for
peace.

A souvenir of this period is found in a printed sermon, eloquent
and patriotic, it is said, of the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, the distin-
guished minister of New Milford, delivered by him, as chaplain of
Col. Whiting’s regiment at Crown Point, at the close of the prosperous
campaign of 1759, illustrating the fact that the later French war was to
all New England but a reconnoisance in force in respect to the occu-
pation of the country. The sympathy of energetic men was enlisted
by it, and leadership was stimulated as difficulties arose. The single
New Hampshire charter, alighting upon Bennington in 1749, that
waited so long for summer, was at the peace followed by others that
flew in covies from Portsmouth and gathered nowhere so ‘plenteously
for flight in numbers as along the fresh fields of the border, where the
air rustled with them. Chittenden, the popular civil leader for Ver-
mont, born at Guilford on the Sound, was trained in citizenship till
middle life at Salisbury, in Connecticut, and made his new home in
the Grants in the county which took his name, on the Winooski.
The Warners emigrated from Woodbury in 1766, the Allens joined
them from Salisbury and, including Baker, the military leaders were
at school with the people at Bennington. The Chipman family found
their home at Tinmouth, in Rutland county, while their son, who
earliest was first in his profession in the State, having resigned a
Lieutenancy in the army entered upon from college, looking towards
the Grants was studying his profession at Salisbury. F ollowing the
laity, Rev. Job Swift, first at Richmond, Berkshire county, then at
INTRODUCTORY. v

Amenia, N. Y., as pastor, himself from Kent, his wife a Sedgwick ot
the Cornwall family, when in full maturity became established at Ben-
nington, ennobling his ministry by its usefulness, his more extended
service in the State by his disinterestedness. The name of Hall at
Bennington, coming up from Guilford by Roxbury, venerable now in
‘its third generation, has attested the order of coming of those who
constituted the State.

In September, 1798, Rev. Timothy Dwight, in his fourth year as
President of Yale College, made his first vacation journey of observa-
tion into Western Vermont, his Journey to Vergennes. He passed the
first day twenty-three miles to Waterbury, the next day through its west
parish, now Watertown, to Litchfield. In the next town to Litchfield,
Goshen, its elevation and the view it commands suggest the contrasts of
formation he overlooks and the extent of country north and south they
enclose. He makes a note of limestone not pure, as he descends the
high lands toward the channel of the Housatonic. AtSouth Canaan
he is told by Mr. Farrand, the minister, of an Italian for some time a
resident there, who had found at the foot of a ragged hill at the skirt
of the plain west of the street “marble as fine and beautiful as the
handsome specimens of his own country.” At Stockbridge nothing
is reported to him of the marble he recognizes ata later visit. His
enthusiasm as to the scenery by the way west of the Housatonic be-
tween Canaan falls and Lanesboro, freely expressed perhaps was never
dulled, but in this horseback tour, with a younger associate to dis-
mount, he seems not to have tested with a hammer the rocks they
observed. At Middlebury he speaks of the falls in Otter Creek, just
below the bridge as descending twenty one feet, “ formed by a ledge
of marble.” “Several mills,” he says, “had been erected here in
1798, several stores had been built, a considerable number of me-
chanics and several gentlemen in the liberal professions had chosen
the place as their residence. An Academy was nearly completed, in-
tended as the gerin of a College.”

An. earlier but more assured testimony of the rocks is found in the
life of the statesman and jurist, Nathaniel Chipman, a pupil in col-
vi INTRODUCTORY.

lege of President Dwight and a cotemporary in service in the revo-
lution. Perhaps from a higher field of observation than as an ob-
server merely, he writes to General Philip Schuyler of New York, al-
luding to a conversation had between them the winter before at Phil-
adelphia, and suggesting the resources of Vermont which might con-
tribute to sustain a canal proposed to be built between the Hudson
river and Lake Champlain. ‘There are also,” he says, “in this part
of the country numerous quarries of marble”’—the letter is dated at
Rutland, January 25, 1792—“some of them of superior quality. Ma-
chines may easily be erected for sawing it into slabs by water, and in
that state it might become an important article of commerce.”

The Otter river from Middlebury having worn the marble barrier
away, that once set it back upon its longest and broadest level south,
forces a winding channel of descent as by terraces of similar material,
six miles, to the Weybridge intervale, afterward in a broader stream,
the finest interior river of the State, to the wide triple fall of forty feet
at Vergennes, where it reaches the Champlain level. Dr. Dwight
was attended here by another former pupil, Col. Seth Storrs, the
earliest resident lawyer at Middlebury, and found Judge Enoch Wood-
bridge, first mayor of the city in 1792, from his -circle of friends at
Stockbridge, Mass. He notices the city charter of the place, its
commercial chances, but chiefly the views shown him from the cupola
of the court house, the mountain ‘ranges at either hand so rarely grand
to him ; the lake system having closed off the Taconic line begun so
far to the south, and opened upon the then nameless mountain wilder-
ness of Northern New York, the land border to the north skirting
the “ glass,”’ as he elsewhere calls the lake at Burlington, and widen-
ing as the Green Mountains recede.

P. BATTELL,
E. BRAINERD,

R. WAINWRIGHT,
Standing Committee.
MIDDLEgURY, VT., June 1, 1885.
THE MARBLE BORDER.

ITS GEOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT,
 

 
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OF WESTERN NEW ENGLAND.
THE GEOLOGICAL FEATURES

OF THE

MARBLE BELT,

By PROF. EZRA BRAINERD.

HE marbles of Western New England in variety of color, in
ap fineness of texture and in durability surpass those of any other
region of the United States. They are found chiefly along the west-
ern borders of the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ver-
mont, between the Green Mountain elevation which extends from
the Canada line nearly to Long Island Sound, and the intermittent
Taconic mountains which extend south of Lake Champlain and in
places admit the marble veins within the border of New York. The
rivers which drain this valley are the Housatonic flowing south to the
Sound, the Hoosic and the Battenkill from near its centre to the Hud-
son, and the Otter Creek flowing north to Lake Champlain, the first and
last mentioned wholly within it. The object of this paper is to pre-
sent briefly the geological views which have obtained in respect to
the marble district and to indicate those more recently established.

The pioneer explorer in American geology was Professor Amos Ea-
ton. He was a leader also in other departments of science ; his popular
“Manual of Botany,’”’ Dr. Asa Gray says, “was for a long time the
only general work available for students in this country.” In 1817
Prof. Eaton delivered his first course of public lectures to the students
of Williams College, from which he had himself graduated in 1799.
His success was so great that he determined to continue giving
courses of lectures on the natural sciences. This he did in many
10 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

places—among others to the Medical school at Castleton, Vt., to the
students of Middlebury College in 1824-25, and to the members of
the New York Legislature at Albany. Here he—and science—had the
good fortune to find a munificent patron in Gen. Stephen Van Rens-
selaer, who sustained him for nineteen years in his geological labors,
enabled him to travel more than 17,000 miles in explorations through
New York and neighboring States, published his maps and reports,
and finally established the Rensselaer Institute at Troy, with Mr. Eaton
as its senior professor.

Prof. Eaton’s views in regard to the rocks of Western New England
were for many years the accepted views. In 1820 the science of ge-
ology was in its infancy even in the old world. It was encumbered
by fancies, and the preconceived theories of Werner—in this respect
a characteristic German. The fact, that each formation had its pecu-
liar group of fossils, that marked the, formation the world over, and
distinguished it from every other formation, was not understood. The
only method Prof. Eaton knew of at the outset for determining the
relative age of strata was to trace them separately through a vast
extent of country and to compare their general characters.

According to Mr. Eaton’s books, there are five series of rocks in
the earth’s crust: I. The Primitive; II. The Transition; III. The
Lower Secondary; IV. The Upper Secondary; V. The Tertiary.
Each series is subdivided into three formations: ‘The Carboniferous,
the Quartzose and the Calcareous. The five-fold recurrence of these

’ three formations aids the memory, conduces to system and regularity ;
though it hardly conforms to the complex facts of nature. Only the
two oldest series of rocks were found in our territory,—the Primitive
and the Transition. These were distinguished readily by the fact that
the former was destitute of any organic remains ; the latter contained
shells of molluscs and remains of animals allied to the corals. Prof.
Eaton calls all the rocks of Western New England, Primitive, except-
ing the extreme western border of Vermont and Massachusetts. The
line of separation passes through Middlebury, Rutland and Williams-
town, and from the southwest corner of Massachusetts trends toward
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. II

the west across the Hudson just below Poughkeepsie, and on through
Orange County to New Jersey. It will be seen, then, that all the mar-
ble of ‘Western New England falls into the Primitive series and is, in
fact, the upper formation of that series.

Prof. Eaton supposes that these earlier formations once covered
the whole earth like the concentric layers ofan onion ; but that under
them along six different north and south lines combustibles were
placed at Creation. At the close of the Transition Age, these com-
bustibles were ignited and produced a great explosion, which uplifted
the mountain chains of the world. There have been, subsequently,
several explosions; but it is supposed that now the combustible
materials are too nearly exhausted to produce anything more than
ordinary earthquakes.

There was much to admire in the character of Professor Eaton. His
pupils, among whom we find Emmons and Hall, were warmly attached
to him, and inspired with his own ardent enthusiasm for science. He
possessed an imagination that was bold and vigorous in projecting
theories—no defect in a scientist, if attended with the conviction that
theories must be constantly subjected to verification and modified or
set aside in accordance with newly discovered facts; and such was
Prof. Eaton’s habit of mind. He realized the peculiar uncertainty
attending geological speculations ; confessed that he had been obliged
to abandon numerous errors and to make so many changes in his suc-
cessive books, as to provoke the charge of fickleness. But he claimed
to be ready to abandon any of his views, if further investigation
should decide against them. He understood in how incomplete a
state he was leaving the science of geology; and in one of his last
communications to the “Journal of Science,” in 1839, says, we have
yet seen only ‘‘the dirth, boyhood and green manhood of geological sci-
ence in America.”

He lived, however, to see a wonderful and wide-spread interest
awakened in the science. Geology became the rage. It was
talked on every steamboat and canal-packet, and at every public wat-

_ ering place. Perhaps the fact that Prof. Eaton had had “more than
12 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

seven thousand pupils or auditors,” had something to do with it. At
any rate, at his death, in 1842, every State in the Union, except five,
had authorized geological surveys. | Massachusetts was the first
to publish a report, ably prepared by Edward Hitchcock, after-
wards president of Amherst college. Dr. Percival made careful
explorations in Connecticut; while the survey of New York was
committed to four eminent geologists, Hall, Emmons, Mather and
Vannuxem, and in thoroughness of execution surpassed all others.

Owing to the wide range of formations in that State and their wealth °

of fossils, these reports have long been standard authorities in Ameri-
can geology. The true order of the various formations along Lake
Champlain was determined; their characteristic fossils were de-
scribed ; and Potsdam sandstone followed by Calciferous, Chazy and
Trenton limestones and these by Hudson River slate remain today in
geological science substantially as reported in 1842.

Not so, however, with the rocks lying directly east of the Cham-
plain group. Over these arose a memorable controversy which can-
not even yet be said to have wholly ended. Dr. Emmons, long pro-
fessor at Williamstown, in his volume of the final New York report,
advanced his theory of the “Taconic System.” He claimed that the
range of mountains extending from Addison County in Vermont south
along the western borders of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and
also the limestone and marble on the east of the range, belonged to a
formation older than the Potsdam, but younger than the Primitive
rocks. In this opinion he was opposed by Professors Halland Mather,
his colleagues in the New York survey, and by Prof. Rogers of the
Pennsylvania survey. These regarded the limestones and slate of the
Taconic range as belonging to the Champlain group, only altered by

heat and more intensely disturbed.
Meanwhile the State of Vermont tardily awoke to the importance

of a geological survey of her territory. It was first entrusted to Prof.
Adams of Middlebury College, who. made several annual reports. But
when he left the State, in 1847, the work was left for several years in
an unfinished state. It was at length put into the hands of Pres’t

fads

ge
en
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. 13

Hitchcock, assisted by his two sons and Mr. Albert D. Hager. Their
final report, in two quarto volumes, was published in 1861. It pre-
sented many important facts and statistics, and indicated fully the ge-
ographical distribution of the various kinds of rocks. But little pro-
gress was made toward determining the age of the formations. In-
deed, it is not easy to discover the views of the Vermont geologists in
regard to the much-vexed Taconic question, though they report the
discovery of certain fossils which seemed to make against it.

Up to this time Prof. Emmons had been decidedly worsted in the
Taconic war; but now discoveries were made in Western Vermont
which seemed to turn completely the tide of battle in his favor.
Though the great weight of authority had been against him, he had
only the more stoutly defended his Taconic system in a series of pub-
lications reaching from 1842 to 1856. He extended it to include
rocks from Maine to Georgia; among them, notably, the black slate
on the northwest side of Snake Mountain, just beneath the precipice
of red sandrock, and similar slate in the eastern part of Franklin
County. Now, in 1860, three strange species of trilobites, discovered
in the slates of the town of Georgia by Prof. Zadock Thompson, and
figured and described by Prof. James Hall, came under the notice of
the great European paleontologist, M. Barrande. He unequivocally
pronounced them to be forms characteristic of an age older than the
slates and limestones of the Champlain group and as such vindicat-
ing Prof. Emmons’ views of the Taconic system.

The Canadian geologists now appear on the scene. Other new
fossils of about the same horizon are discovered near Highgate
Springs, and still more just across the State line in Phillipsburgh, and
over a hundred identical or allied species at Point Levis, opposite
Quebec. Logan made a most careful survey of the northwest corner
of Vermont, and after two or three years reported his conclusions.
They were these: (1) That the slates of Georgia, Vt., and the under-
lying red sandstone (including the Winooski marble) belonged to the
same age as the Potsdam sandstone ; (2) that above these formations,
and below the Chazy and Trenton of the Champlain group, there ex-
14 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

isted a formation of great thickness, which he named the Quebec
group ; (3) that a great fault or crack existed in these strata,‘in which
the rocks to the east were uplifted from one to two thousand feet and
thrust up over on to the rocks to the west. This fault passes along
the western face of Snake Mountain, Buck Mountain, Philo Moun-
tain, Lone Rock Point near Burlington, and thence along the west-
ern shores of the lake into Canada. Then, bending more and more
toward the east, it passes through Quebec just north of the fortress
and on down the St. Lawrence to Point Gaspe.

These conclusions have stood the test of subsequent research, and
may be regarded as established facts in American geology. But Sir
William Logan went further. After an examination of the Green
Mountain region,he extended his Quebec group in 1866 so as to cover
the whole territory. In fact, he pushed his conquest onward through
Southeastern New York into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and also
eastward into Maine and New Hampshire. This was ‘indeed only a
milder form of the Taconic theory, the only difference being that it
came in just aove the Potsdam and calciferous formations, instead of
just deow. It was a broad generalization, just as sweeping and almost
as arbitrary as that of Dr. Emmons. But fora while there was no one
bold enough or sufficiently equipped with facts to dispute the views of
so high an authority as Sir William Logan.

To overthrow them was the task of a modest, obscure Vermonter,
the Rev. Augustus Wing. He was a graduate of Amherst College of
the class of 1835. Although not a geologist by profession, he was an
enthusiastic student of the science, and a large part of his time for
many years was spent in the study of the rocks of Vermont. He
rendered substantial service to the corps of Vermont geologists. The
later part of his life he gave up the regular work of the ministry, and,
being without a family, used to teach school in the winter to earn the
means for support during his “geological tramps” in the summer.
Many of the older farmers in Addison and Rutland counties will tell
you of “old Mr. Wing, who used to be picking around over the ledges”
from dawn till dark on week days, but was ready on Sundays to preach
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. 15.

gratis in the school house or the abandoned country church. In 1865
he laid down for himself the.task of determining the age of the marble
formation in Western Vermont. “ Knowing,” says Prof. Dana, “that
fossils were the only sure criterion of geological age, he searched and

’

he found them, and thus reached safe conclusions.” ‘He accom-
plished vastly more for the elucidation of the age of Vermont rocks
than had been done’ by the Vermont Geological Survey.” “His dis-
coveries shed light not on these rocks alone, but also on the general
geology of New England and Eastern North America.”

But while all enthusiasm in the field, he was slow in making known
his discoveries. His excessive diffidence and aversion to writing had
tauch to do with this; his desire to get further facts and to make his
work complete and exhaustive perhaps had more. It was only by a
letter from Mr. Billings of Montreal, to whom Mr. Wing had sent fos-
sils for identification, that Prof. Dana first learned in 1872 of the im-
portance of these discoveries. He wrote Mr. Wing for a “ fuller ac-
count of the fossils of West Rutland.” Mr. Wing wrote sixty-two
pages in reply, but never finished the letter nor sent it. Prof. Dana
visited him in August, 1875, and obtained from him a promise to send
for the “Journal of Science’ an account of his discoveries. But
the article was never sent, and Mr. Wing died the following January.

His note-books and unfinished letters were afterward sent to Prof.
Dana, who compiled an account of his discoveries for the “Journal
of Science” in 1877 (pp. 332 and 405, vol. xiii). “While we are left
in ignorance of many important details and of the precise location of
many of his fossils, his general conclusion is established beyond all
doubt. It is that the limestone formation of Western New England
containing the marble is the same as the Calciferous, Chazy and
Trenton of the Champlain group, and that the slates of the Taconic
range overlie the limestone and belong to the Hudson River and the
Utica formations of the New York Reports. The Georgia slates of
Franklin County are zof identical with the slates of Rutland and Ben-
nington Counties, Vt., and of Berkshire County, Mass., as Prof. Em-
mons maintained and as the Vermont Report represents. The ‘Ta-
16 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

conic system of Emmons finally disappears from American geology ;
while the Quebec of Logan is reduced to a subordinate member of
the limestone group, if its existence is to be recognized at all in West-
ern New England.

It only remains to notice the confirmations that Mr. Wing’s con-
clusions have since received. Trenton, Chazy and Calciferous fossils
have within the last five years been discovered in the southeastern por-
tion of the Green Mountain area, in the supposed Taconic slates and
limestones ; and this in many localities by Profs. Dana, Dwight and
Whitfield. Prof. Dana has furthermore spent much time during the
past seven years in a thorough and detailed examination of the rocks
of Western Connecticut and Massachusetts and of Southern Vermont.
Though these rocks are much disturbed and metamorphosed, so as
to be destitute of fossils, Prof. Dana’s labored researches place be-
yond all question the age of the limestone formation in those regions,
and tend to show that the whole Green Mountain range belongs to
the same age as the fossiliferous rocks along the borders of Lake
Champlain. Patches of older, or “Archean,” rocks are believed to occur
here and there—reefs and islands in the ancient Silurian sea. Great dif-
ficulty attends the detailed elucidation of the central range of the Green
Mountains, but we trust Prof. Dana will live to complete his labors.
At any rate the age of the marble and the slate has been settled for-

ever.

A brief summary of the present theory of geologists in regard to
the origin and history of the marble region will help, perhaps, to a
better understanding of the character and relations of this invaluable
deposit. It isa well-established belief that all the various rocks of
this region have resulted from sedimentary deposits in sea water.
The sandflats of shallow seas, when hardened by great pressure and
heat, become sandstone or glassy quartz-rock. The accumulated
remains of shell fish and corals are by the same process changed into
limestone or marble, while the fine mud or clay deposited in deeper
and more quiet water is hardened into shale, into roofing slate, into
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. 17

mica slate or into gneiss, according to the degree of heat to which
it is subjected.

It is believed, then, that once in the remote past the whole Green
Mountain area from the Lower St. Lawrence to the present site of
New York City was a gulf or arm of the ocean. At first the tides or
currents of the sea were such as to cause extensive deposits of sand
over the greater. part of this gulf. But certain limited regions were fa-
vorable to the growth of shell-fish, where calcareous deposits were made.
The mottled marble of Northwestern Vermont represents such a re-
gion. The quartz of this period is known as the Potsdam sandstone,
one of the best exposures of which is at the Ausable Chasm in Clinton
County, N. Y.

Afterward, from some oscillation in the earth’s crust and some
change in the direction or character of the ocean currents, the waters
became more clear and the conditions were most favorable for the
growth of lime-producing animals. The sea swarmed with various
species of molluscs, crinoids and trilobites, and especially with organ-
isms allied to the corals that are still building continents in the South
seas. The calcareous remains of these animals formed beds over the
entire region of Western New England varying in thickness from 1,000
to 2,000 feet. This may appear incredible ; but it should be remem-
bered that the time was indefinitely long.

This second period was brought to a close and the third initiated by
the waters of the sea becoming for some reason turbid. The ocean
currents may have flowed across a gradually sinking barrier-reef
which existed to the east of the Green Mountain area. The waters
deposited their fine silt or mud over the immense beds of shells,
and the animals that produced them became extinct. The deposi-
tion of fine sand and clay continued for a vast period.

Then came the era of mountain-building. The stages in the for-
mation of the Green Mountains are the same as those of other moun-
tain ranges. The earth’s crust is but a comparatively thin shell (per-
haps 30 to 50 miles thick) over a white-hot, if not molten, interior.
At a depth of 9,000 feet the average heat is enough to boil water; at
18 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

a depth of six and one-half miles, enough to melt lead. The natural
results of the accumulation of sediment several thousand feet deep
along a region where the earth’s crust is at the same time gradually
sinking in the form of a trough 300 miles long by 50 wide, is, that the
interior heat will melt off or soften the underside of the sinking
trough, until the region becomes a comparatively weak line in the
earth’s crust.

At the same time there is a lateral push from the east. For, as the
earth is continually becoming smaller from cooling, the external shell
must contract or wrinkle to fit it. The wrinkles, naturally occur in
the weakest places. By a powerful shove, from the direction of the
ocean, the horizontal sedimentary beds are tilted up at a steep angle,
crumpled together, folded over one another, and thrust high up above
the level of the sea. These movements of the rocks under this enor-
mous strain are a source of heat. The bright light of meteors is
known to result from the friction of these bodies against the air. So
it is proved by exact calculation and experiment that the crushing
and shoving of a rocky stratum may raise its temperature to a red-
heat. But a less temperature combined with enormous pressure and
the agency of super-heated steam would suffice to convert the sedi-
ment into the existing rocks. | Such, if we may believe the geologist,
were the earth-throes by which the Green Mountains were brought
forth.

The events thus far described extended over an exceedingly long
period and about the same amount of time has since elapsed. Dur-
ing this latter period the Green Mountains are supposed to have held
their heads above the waters of the ocean. But even the eternal
hills wear away during the lapse of ages. The rain and the frost, the
erosion of rivers and the grinding of glaciers have removed a large
portion of the original mountains. Wherever the limestone appears
it is certain that the entire slate formation that overlay it has been
carried off; and where the red sandstone comes to the surface, both
the overlying slate and the limestone have disappeared. A glance at
our map, or an acquaintance with the topography of Western New
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. 19

England, shows that the limestone is usually found in the valleys near
the water courses ; while the higher peaks and ridges are invariably
slate, quartz-rock or gneiss. The valleys are, then, valleys of erosion,
by which the underlying limestone has been exposed.

Attention should be called to the fact that the same ‘formation ap-
pears different in different places. Along Lake Champlain, the more
ancient and stable rock of the Adirondack region upheld the sedimen-
tary deposits so that they were less crumpled and less baked by the
shove from the east. These rocks accordingly contain abundant fos-
sils ; while those to the east and south are nearly destitute of fossils.
On the west the slates are clayey and crumbling: but they become
harder and more crystalline as one journeys eastward or southward.
The gray sandstone west of Lake Champlain becomes the chocolate
sandrock of Western Vermont. The purest limestones of the lake re-
gion are gray or black from the carbonaceous remains of the shell-fish.
But on the eastern borders of the limestone area the same beds are
often snowy white, and become more and more coarsely crystalline
to the south. At the higher temperature to which the latter rocks have
been subjected, the black carbon has been burnt out, just as the fire of
the lime-kiln often converts a dark limestone into the whitest of lime.

The process of crystallization, moreover, may be compared to the
analogous process of tempering steel. In both cases by a certain
increase of temperature and subsequent cooling the molecules are
grouped in regular crystals, which can be seen with the microscope
and often in the case of marble with the unaided eye.

At the same time the fact remains to be accounted for that in the
same region but a comparatively small portion of the lime-rock has
been converted into valuable marble. It is not possible to draw
the line sharply between a limestone and a marble. Webster’s
definition of the latter is “‘a fine limestone, fitted, either when polished
or otherwise, for ornamental uses.” The best marble results only
from a happy concurrence of many circumstances. A limestone may
fail to attain the rank of a marble for one or more of the following

reasons :
20 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

1. It may contain impurities which impart a dull or earthy col-
or. The range of allowable color is wide ; but it must be bright and
agreeable to the eye.

2. It may contain minerals that are much harder or softer than
the lime-carbonate. Silicious or slaty matter is found in most of the
lime-rock, rendering it difficnlt to cut and polish. Occasionally great
beauty of color may compensate for this, as in the case of the Wi-
nooski marble, which is quite silicious.

3. The coarseness of the texture may prevent a pure and beauti-
ful limestone from ranking as an ornamental marble. This is gener-
ally the case with the deposits now profitably wrought in Berkshire
and Litchfield Counties of Massachusetts and Connecticut for archi-
tectural purposes. On the other hand, from a /ack of crystalline
structure the stone may not be susceptible to a good polish. Rutland .
and Addison Counties are the region where the crystalline structure
is at about the right mean.

4. The unsoundness of the rock may be a great practical objec-
tion. A jointed structure, or the presence of minute fractures, or
a tendency to fracture, is a frequent cause of failure.

5. Lastly, a stone, otherwise excellent, may fail in durability on ex-
posure to the weather, and so be unsuitable for many of the uses to
which ornamental marble is put. The crystals that compose it are
sometimes but feebly cemented together and the stone crumbles
or furnishes an easy foothold for lichens. Many impurities, not other-
wise objectionable, dissolve away after a while, producing a stain, or,
existing as separate crystals, become detached, leaving a cavity. Or
sometimes the lime-carbonate itself dissolves away faster than the im-
purities and the stone “weathers” to a dull or dingy color.

Of the immense formations of limestone in Western New England
(1000 to 2000 feet in thickness), the lower portion known by geolo-
gists as the Calciferous (300 to 400 feet in thickness), is for the most
part silicious, partaking of the nature of the sand-rock that underlies
it. The upper portion, known as the Trenton (500 to 600 feet in
thickness), is impure from the presence of clayey matter, partaking
THE GEOLOGY OF THE MARBLE BELT. 21

of the nature of the slate formation that overlies it. Only certain
layers of the middle portion seem to have been fitted by their original
constitution for the production of marble. These strata in Rutland
and Addison Counties appear in two parallel lines, about two miles
apart, stretching from the North line of Middlebury to the South line
of Rutland, and are from one to two hundred feet in thickness. This
deposit bids fair to remain in future the chief source of ornamental
marble for the continent.

The accompanying map is compiled from the geological surveys of
the States of Vermont and Massachusetts and from Professor Dana’s
Manual of Geology. ,

Split Rock Mountain on the west shore of Lake Champlain repre-
sents the peculiar rocks of the Adirondack region. A quarry has
been recently opened in this mountain and the stone is known as
“Champlain granite.” But it is not a true granite. It consists chiefly
of black pyroxene and lime-feldspar. The rock belongs to the “Ar-
chean Age,” the oldest recognized in geology. Professor Dana con-
siders the area surrounded by the limestone and sandstone in North-
western Connecticut to be of this Age.

The portion of the map colored red is where the rocks of the Pots-
dam period come to the surface. The blue shading indicates the
outcropping of the limestone and marble of the Canadian and Tren-
ton periods. The uncolored portion of the map, except the vicinity
of Troy, indicates the quartzite, the gneiss and the various slates of
the latter part of the Trenton period.
 

 
THE MARBLE FIELDS

AND

MARBLE INDUSTRY OF WESTERN NEW ENGLAND,

By PROF. HENRY M. SEELY.

HE belt of marble already mapped and sketched, so interesting

on account of its geological character, has still other claims to.

our attention. For nearly a century it has been the seat of an indus-

try, which, in these later years, is becoming one of vast importance ;

and the region is marked by a line of active or suspended quarries
throughout almost its entire extent.

Our hasty run over the field from north to south, a stop at some of
the most important localities, inquiries about others, and additional
information from various sources, have put us in possession of facts
which seem to be worth recording. and to which I now wish to call
your attention.

A rapid glance at the present condition of the industry will prepare
us for further historic and practical details of the work.

Beginning at Middlebury, near the utmost northern limit of the belt
of white marble, in the northeast part of the town will be found a
quarry which, with its mill and finishing shops, has been in operation
the past year. This property, known.as the Cutter Marble quarry,
has passed through many vicissitudes and through many hands. The-
odatus Phelps built the first mill with an undershot water-wheel and a
single gang of saws. David Ralph succeeded him and did a pros-
perous business in the making and sale of thresholds, window caps,
and grave stones. Following Ralph were Ira E. Yale and Abel Spaul-
24 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ding, and then Isaac Gibbs, who also furnished the country about
with building lime burned from the refuse fragments of his quarry.
Then the property passed to Dr. Datus Garlick and Mr. A. J. Sever-
ance, and from them to the possession of a company of Boston gen-
tlemen, Mr. Cutter taking a large financial interest.

The enterprise of making a new opening some distance south of
the old quarry, which has afforded much beautiful architectural and
monumental marble, has been undertaken with fair promise of success.

A little farther north, at Belding's Falls, marble obtained at various
localities is sawn, while openings in the immediate vicinity are now
being pushed with good expectation of success.

A little to the south of the Cutter quarry is that known as the Ad-
dison County quarry, which has a history much like that of the Cut-
ter. This reaches back to the time of Judge Doolittle and Rulof
Lawrence. Work here for the present is suspended, but in the esti-
mation of marble workers of much experience the property is of
great value.

The Foot Street quarry is three-quarters of a mile south, in the
same range of the deposit and of similar quality. Large sums have
been expended in the development of each. They are held as yet by
men able to retain them, but the inducements of accessibility, extent,
unrivalled purity and beauty of the finer layers cannot always be
neglected.

Going south from Middlebury the ledges of gray limestone of Sal-
isbury and the lime-kilns of Leicester keep one informed as to the
character of the rock over which he travels. Brandon and Pittsford
are passed by and reserved for a later personal visit. This, however,
may be mentioned in the passing, that Brandon has at least two quar-
ries in active operation, while the marble interests of Pittsford are
rapidly assuming large proportions.

The southern border of Pittsford joins the town of Rutland, and
its marble beds are one with those of Sutherland Falls, or Proctor, as
this place is to be appropriately known in the future, which is a por-
tion of the town of Rutland.
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 25

To one unacquainted with the working of Vermont marble, the
Sutherland Falls quarry opens like a revelation. Z/zs wonderful sight
occurs, that of a hollow cube cut into a hill with perpendicular walls
on the north and west rising to the height of near one hundred feet,
open to the sky, and with an acre of rock forming its horizontal mar-
ble floor. Over this floor are running channeling machines, cutting
deep, narrow turrows into the solid stone. Long parallel blocks of
stone are thus made; these are cut across into more nearly cubical
forms, loosened from their bed, and lifted from the quarry, to be
wrought up here at the Falls or elsewhere into finished marble.

The mills have great capacity. Sixty-two gangs of saws are in op-
eration night and day, and additional buildings are being erected to
meet the increasing demand for the sawn marble.

Finishing shops are in active operation, putting into final shape both
architectural and monumental stone.

The various departments of labor at the Falls give employment al-
together to about five hundred workmen.

West Rutland, with its many quarries, has given, these later years,
the reputation to Vermont marble that has made it famous. While
the marble of Sutherland Falls is clouded or mottled, much of that
quarried at West Rutland is pure white. The strata here have been
followed at a sharp dip and in one quarry to the depth of two hun-
dred and twenty feet. The abyss made by the huge long slit into the
rocky earth, when filled with ascending smoke and steam from the
engines at work below, seems bottomless. This great opening is part-
ly covered over by the overhanging rock ; in the winter it is sometimes
further protected by a wooden roof.

Intense activity is here exhibited both within and without the quar-
ries. All the appliances for turning out the manufactured marble,
mills, finishing shops and the like, are here seen.

One going south of Rutland on the railroad still follows the line of
marble. The towns of Clarendon, Wallingford and Danby are passed
without any evidence of active quarrying operations. At Dorset,
however, the aspect changes. Dorset Mountain, or Mount Eolus, as
26 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Prof. Hitchcock named it, is a mountain of marble, the top bearing
acap ofslate. Here in different localities are situated seve ral quar-
ries, worked mostly in the summer time. Early in April, as we passed,
the work of the year was not sufficiently advanced for satisfactory
observation, so the locality was reserved for future study.

The remaining towns south, in Bennington county, offer no present
inducement for delay, and we pass over the border of Vermont into
Berkshire County, Mass. North Adams near the Northern line of
Massachusetts was early noted for its beautifu: white marble. The .
quarry near, but at an elevation of 250 feet above the village, is no
longer worked for marble ; the whitest of the coarsely crystalline rock;
however, is selected and ground into marble dust.

Still south on the marble belt are the towns, Lanesborough, Pitts-
field and Lenox, but in these no quarry is in operation. ,

At Lee extensive quarrying for architectural marble is going for-
ward, a force of upwards of sixty men being employed in the work.
A mill with four gangs of saws is in operation, but most of the stone
is shipped to Philadelphia in the block.

The towns, West Stockbridge, Alford and Egremont, are on the
range and at former times have produced marble. None now is
raised. Near the village of Great Barrington a beautiful stone called
blue stone, which is worthy of more than local note, is taken out in
moderate quantities for architectural purposes.

Further south, is the town of Sheffield, which at one time had a
reputation for its immense blocks of marble, which with great labor
were carted across the hills to the Hudson river, whence they were
shipped to Philadelphia. This industry ceased at this point years
ago.

From Sheffield the line of marble holds on its course southward
into Canaan, Litchfield County, Conn. At East Canaan within a few
years large quantities of marble have been taken for the State house
at Hartford. Derricks are still remaining at the pit, but the quarry
is now unused,

Passing through Cornwall and Kent, one reaches New Milford, a
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 27

town rich in historic interest, which is still holding its marble quar-
ries, though they have been abandoned thirty years.

Farther to the South and West the line of Calcareous rocks runs
on into New York, but it is not the present purpose to follow it he-
yond the borders of New England.

Having taken a hasty run over the region and a glance at the pres-
ent condition of the indrstry, it may be proper to return more de-
liberately over the ground and notice on the way some matters in con-
nection with the history and progress of the work, something about
methods, improvements, amounts, and values, and some facts having
relation to the geology of the region.

Historically, Marbledale, in the town of New Milford, Conn., has a
tight to claim first mention. Here near the date 1800 Philo Tomlin-
son was at work quarrying marble and sawing it into slabs. He had
come up the Housatonic valley from Derby in the same State. One
may still find at the spot where he located his first mill the remnants
of machinery and among them the decaying apparatus by which sand
and water were distributed to the saw similar to that for which he re-
ceived a patent.

Orcutt’s history of the town of New Milford fixes the date of early
operation pretty clearly, and the correctness of: this date is further
established by the headstones in the graveyard at New Milford. The
oldest of these are mostly of sandstone from the Connecticut Valley,
made picturesque, but almost illegible, by the covering of lichens.
Those of slate, of nearly the same age, hold their lettering much bet-
ter. The earliest marble headstones were evidently those which had
been separated from the rock in the quarry by hand drilling and
wedging, and then worked down by hand. But those bearing a date
soon after the beginning of the century were cut onone or on both
sides by a saw.

Although future search may carry farther back the date of the in-
vention of the various pieces of machinery useful in working marble,
to Tomlinson of Marbledale must be accorded the credit of combin-
ing these in a serviceable form, and applying them successfully to his
28 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

purpose in sawing marble. He used soft-iron toothless saws, stretched
in a frame forming a gang, the gangs were driven by water-power, and
the saws were fed by sand and water, equally distributed by an auto-
matic arrangement.

The Serra used by marble workers in the time of Pliny and cen-
turies before was a toothless saw fed by sand and water. But the saw
was drawn by hand.

Water-power was used in Germany for sawing stone as early as the
fourth century, but this mode of sawing seems to have fallen into dis-
use and to have been forgotten. Near the year 1730 William Colles
of Kilkenny, Ireland, restored and put into use the process of saw-
ing marble by water power, and here at Kilkenny it has been contin-
uously in use down to the present day.

The Irish chronicler, William Tighe, in 1800-1802, noticing this
industry in Kilkenny, states: ‘The principal work is done at the
marble mill which is on the left bank of the river (Nore) near two
miles from Kilkenny. This mill is admirable for its simplicity.” The
same machinery drove both saws and polishers. An account of this
mill was published in London in the year 1748, in which the writer of a
“Tour of Ireland,” states : “I cannot learn that any one has attempted
to imitate this machinery. It is perpetually at work, by night as well
as by day, and requires but little attendance.”

The saws here used were of soft iron, and were at first and fora

long time after all single blades, not working in a gang.

A knowledge of the process apparently went over to Derbyshire,
England, for in the year the “Tour of Ireland” was published, works
similar to the Irish were established. The English authority, Tom-
linson, in his book on the Useful Arts, says: “The principal marble
manufacture of England is in Derbyshire, along the valley of the Der-
went and the Wye, from below Buxton to’ Derby. The machinery
for sawing and polishing was first established at the village of Ashford,
near Bakewell, in 1748, water being the motive power. About 1810
similar machinery was erected at Bakewell. Both works are situated
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 29

near the quarries.” Here, as elsewhere in England, the machinery
for polishing is similar to that for sawing.

Several saws stretched in a single frame, thus forming a single gang,
was a device which may have been used many years ago. Leonardo
Da Vinci figured such a gang on a small scale, as is shown in Mr.
Clarence Cook’s article on that painter in Scribner’s Monthly, Vol.
XVIL., p. 343.

Yet with the present information it does not seem to have been in
general use until after Philo Tomlinson’s application of it at his mill
at Marbledale.

The industry flourished at Marbledale where it originated. Quarry
after quarry was opened and mill after mill erected on the banks of a
small stream, the (East) Aspetuck. In 1830 as many as fifteen quarries
were actively worked, and a like number or more mills were in oper-
ation within a distance of less than three miles, and the marble went
to all parts of the country.

Soon after this date competition from other localities, especially from
Dover, N. Y., and Rutland Vt., began to causea decline in the profits
of the work. This competition increased, particularly from Vermont,
the work became unremunerative, and near 18 50 the Goodsell quarry,
one of the principal—and last in operation—was abandoned. The
sawing likewise declined until at present a single mill at the village of
New Preston, doing local work, is the only existing representative of
the industry.

Why the work, so well established, was compelled to give way to
competition may not be plain at first view, but the cause will be most-
ly explained on the examination of the rock in place. The strata at
Goodsell’s quarry are at a sharp dip, not quite perpendicular, while
the beds affording the best marble are not thick. Muchunproductive
stone must be removed, rendering quarrying expensive. The rock is
not a pure calcareous marble, but magnesian, and through some por-
tions minerals like tremolite and asbestos are found. The white rocks
not far away from the quarries are breaking down into a white sandy
mass, showing that the material does not weather well. To the char-
30 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

acter of the rock, not yielding massive blocks, and the lack of endur-
ing quality may be largely charged the failure of the industry.

In the northern part of Litchfield County near the “Massachusetts
line is the town of Canaan, and at East Canaan is the quarry that fur-
nished the marble for the new State House at Hartford. The rock
lies in massive beds, near the surface, and is apparently in vast quan-
tity. The rock is white and coarsely crystalline, contains in some
portions of it many crystals of tremolite, and though not suitable for
monumental uses, is fitted for the purpose of building to which it has
been put. Large blocks can be obtained, and one may expect that
the work which has been stopped will be revived. Derricks are still
standing, indicating the recent abandonment of the quarry. The re-
mains of the large steam mill may be seen; the mill itself, however,
has been burnt to the ground. *

The saws used at this mill were peculiar in this, that they were
toothed with diamonds. The carbons were set in pieces of steel or
iron, and these patches were brazed into the blade of the saw. It is
reported that they were wonderfully effective, sawing the blocks of
marble very rapidly.

The conjecture is made that the East Canaan quarry closed work
because the contract for which it was opened being completed, there
arose at that time no farther demand for marble of that quality.

Sheffield, Mass., adjoins Canaan, Conn., and has had several quar-
ries in operation. The quarry in the north part of the town, from
which the large columns for Girard college, Philadelphia, were ob-
tained (1838-1841), was noted for its thick strata, and from these
blocks sometimes fifty feet long were blasted out. The. use of gun-.
powder in removing blocks from the quarry is not often commended,
but with the care exercised in this case its operation seems to have
been quite satisfactory.

The same marble range extends through the eastern part of Egre-
mont and Alford, but the quarries in these towns, like those of Shef-
field, have been abandoned.

A quarry of clouded marble was at one time, 1828, opened in the
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS, 31

town of Great Barrington, but is not now worked. But in two or
three localities near the village there are quarries of the Jdlue stone
previously mentioned, which, if found to weather well, ought to find
favor among architects. It has been used in the construction of a
public building at Pittsfield, with excellent effect. The new church
and rectory in Great Barrington are of this stone, as are other struct-
ures, as the Berkshire Hotel, built years ago. There is a warm and
cheerful look about these buildings, suchas does not characterize those
constructed of white marble. The character is largely a crystalline
magnesian limestone, but it carries with it many grains of quartz and
iron pyrites. The grains of pyrites are mostly microscopic and com-
pact, though in some pieces the quantity is so great as to be notably
evident. This ingredient may interfere with its usefulness, but no
staining nor decay was observed in the strucures which we hastily

examined.
Stockbridge, West Stockbridge and Lee lie north of Great Barring-

ton and are on the range, though the limestone is in some places
overlaid by slate, apparently dividing the rock into various fields,
The quarries at West Stockbridge and Lee are those which are most
worthy of note, the former for its early history, the latter for its pres-
ent products.

A firm, Newell & Cook, as early as 1802 erected a stone saw mill
at the “old quarry” below West Stockbridge village. It is well es-
tablished that the same persons had a mill in the village certainly as
early as 1803, and with great probability a year or two earlier ; so the
industry of sawing marble here, as well as at Marbledale, began at the
beginning of the century.

In November, 1803, Johnson & Stevens concluded a contract for
furnishing the marble for building the front of the New York City
Hall (1803-1811), having early in the year bought a tract of land on
which was opened a quarry, later known as the Fitch quarry, which
by a change of town lines is now in the town of Alford. Under this
contract over 33,000 cubic feet were delivered at a price of $1.06 per
foot. Later, that is, in 1808, the same firm filled another contract of
32 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

2,000 feet at $3.00 a foot, the stone at this time probably coming
from the old quarry.

How valuable the stone was for building is shown by the fact that
after an exposure of more than three-quarters of a century it is prac-
tically without sign of crumbling or decay. The extension of the
capitol at Washington is from marble obtained at West Stockbridge.
The quality and beauty of the marble, useful for monumental as well
as architectural purposes, brought it a most desirable reputation and
orders for it came from all parts of the country, East, South and West.

Berkshire County produced in 1824, according to the estimate of
Prof. Dewey, marble to the value of $40,000. The produce of 1839
Mr. Chas. B. Boynton estimated to be $200,000.

The demand for the West Stockbridge marble was much ahead of

the supply. Under this stimulus the mills were kept running night
and day. Later, steam was tried in sawing, but on account of the

expense, which was asserted to be 28 cents per foot,against 5 cents a
foot by water power, it was abandoned.

Chas. B. Boynton introduced several appliances which at the time
were thought to be very helpful for quarrying and dressing the mar-
ble here. He revived the process invented by Misson, and used
more than a century before in the marble quarries of the Pyrennes, of
cutting the blocks from the rock by saws. Misson used saws over
twenty feet long. Boynton’s saws are not described, but he had the
advantage of his long-time predecessor in having steam at his com-
mand, which he used in driving his saws.

A method similar to that employed at Sheffield for getting out
large blocks was used to some extent by Boynton at his quarry in
West Stockbridge. A trench was cut at each end of the block to be
removed, and also on the under side; drills and long wedges were
then used on the under side,and, with the aid of a light charge of gun-
powder, the whole was loosened. He also invented and used for
years a machine for planing marble, by which not only plain surfaces
could be cut so smooth, that for ordinary purposes, no further polish-
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 33

ing was required, but also straight mouldings and grooves could be
cut with great facility and exactness.

At one time seven sawmills were in active operation in West Stock-
bridge. Fortunes, in those days considered large, were accumulated
in the business.

The rock in its best layers is nearly a pure calcium carbonate.
These layers dip, as do most of the marble strata, to the East. The
old quarry pitches under the West Stockbridge river and has been
worked for some distance under its bed.

Quarrying stopped here near 1855. Freedley’s mill is still stand-
ing. Blocks of marble are piled’ upon each other by the side track of
the railroad, waiting for transportation. But the machinery of the mill
has gone into decay, while the decrepit derrick would break its spine
in attempting to raise a block to a car.

The cause of this stopping of the work was sought for. Major
Robbins (aged 87), who saw the quarry and mill in 1804, who wit-
nessed the rise, growth, maturity, decline and extinction of the indus-
try, (1804-1850), he himself having had a large part in the work,
gave tersely a full answer to our inquiry by saying, “Quarrying stopped
at West Stockbridge because Italian and Vermont marbles were bet-
ter and cheaper.”

The quarry at Lee has escaped the decadence that has fallen upon
those of other towns in Massachusetts. The life of the quarry
is evinced by the stroke of the drill, the puff of the steam en-
gine and the stamp of the channeling machine. The thick strata are
quarried under the open sky from a nearly horizontal floor. Six
channeling machines are at work preparing the rock to be loosened
in blocks. A diamond “gadder” is also used. Steam is used in the
mill for sawing as well as in the quarry for driving the channeling ma-

chines.
The stone is not suitable for mantel or monumental purposes, but is

quarried wholly for buildings. Philadelphia, a city demanding much
marble for its public edifices, furnishes the largest market for the pro-
duct of Lee’s quarry. The large blocks are often pitted with tremo-

,
34 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

lite—dog teeth, in the language of the quarrymen—reminding one of
the stone from East Canaan, Conn.; while the mass is not pure cal-
cium carbonate, but a dolomite. Lime is burned near the quarry, but
the stone is not obtained from the same beds as those furnishing
marble.

The towns of Lenox, Pittsfield, Cheshire, Lanesborough, New Ash-
ford, Adams and Williamstown, all have a share in the marble belt
and some of these early shared in the prosperity of the industry. Par-
ticularly was this the case with Pittsfield, New Ashford and Lanes-
borough. From Lanesborough was obtained the marble used in the
construction of the old capitol building at Albany. The rock is rep-

resented to be of fine grain and good quality. Lack of conveniences
for transportation has been suggested as interfering with the success-
ful working of the beds.

The rock at North Adams, though of good character chemically, is
too coarsely crystalline, as before stated, for a good quality of orna-
mental marble, while the beds are not massive enough to give large
blocks for architectural purposes. The rock is perhaps best econo-
mized by the use:to which it is now put, that of pulverization, by
which a beautiful marble dust is produced.

Including East Canaan quarry close adjoining Berkshire, from
which the handsomest State capitol in New England was construct-
ed at Hartford, 1878, that of Sheffield, furnishing the columns of
Girard College ; Lee*, the material for the extension of the capitol at
Washington, 1867, and for the City Hall now building at Philadel-
phia, West Stockbridge leading all others with the New York City
hall, 1803-11, the most conspicuous public contracts have been sup-
plied from the deposits in Berkshire county, neither of which in any
sense has been: exhausted. Other industries may compete for its.
capital, employing cheaper labor, but science recognizes a debt of
gratitude to its seat of learning, as do art and society to nature in its

valley.

 

* A correction appears here of an error on page 32, crediting West Stockbridge with
the national preference mentioned.
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 35

Approaching the localities at which the business of quarrying mar-
ble has centered these late years we come to Dorset, in Bennington
County, Vermont. The quarries in this town are situated mostly up
the sides of Dorset Mountain or Mount Eolus.

It is stated, with much truth, that this mountain is a mountain of
marble. But it must not be inferred that it stands out as a pure
block of marble and can be cut into anywhere and remuneratively
quarried. Many of the strata are silicious and of too hard texture to

‘be worked, others are slaty and fragile, some are magnesian and
some are ferruginous, while in some places, layers of quartzite and in
others of slate seam through it. Comparatively, but a small part of
the mountain furnishes merchantable stone, and yet this small propor-
tion is in the aggregate immense.

As one ascends the mountain he finds most of the rock obscured
by debris, making it difficult to observe with certainty the real se-
quence of the different strata.

He will pass beds of variable character, reach the compact and
fine-grained marble, higher find the beautiful white and more coarsely
crystalline stone, still higher, the gray interbanding with white, then
the gray carrying many crystals ‘of pyrite and films of hydromica
slate, then he will miss the limestone altogether, which disappears un-
der a debris of comminuted rock, over which have fallen many blocks
of slate. Higher still are masses of slate, seamed in many places with
milky quartz and by this slate the top of the moumtain is covered.

This cap of slate Hitchcock estimates to be 498 feet thick and the
limestone with the marble below 1970, the whole a total of 2468 feet
for this wonderful mountain. The actual junction of the slate with
the limestone, here, as at almost every point throughout the whole
marble range, is obscured. by debris.

The gray lime-rock beneath the slate, impure with crystals of iron
pyrites and grains of quartz, together with intershaded lines of hydro-
mica, calls to mind the blue stone of Great Barrington, though this
rock is more slaty in character. The pyrite and hydromica accom-
panying this stone give favor to the conjecture that to the decompo-
36 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

sition of this rock and the adjoining slates are due the deposits of
iron ore and kaolin, which so generally border the slate belt and at-
tend the deposits of marble.

Lower down, after passing the banded white and gray limestone, is
reached the seamy, easily-quarried marble, coarsely crystalline and
white. Flag-like layers here afford slabs suitable in thickness for
headstones and the early supply of marble here came from such
strata. Deeds for such quarrying property date back before the
present century. From one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet
below the slate the white architectural marbles come in; and near
four hundred feet lower the fine-grained marbles useful for ornamen-
tal and cemetery purposes are quarried. Below this the rocks are
mostly too variable in character to yield valuable marble.

The strata here wrought do not have a high dip to the east, as is
almost always the case in marble quarries along this line, but are hori-
zontal or gently undulating.

The first quarry opened in Dorset—following the authority of Mr.
F. Field in the Vermont Gazetteer, 1861—was by Isaac Underhill, in
the year 1785, on lands then owned by Reuben Bloomer and still held
by the Bloomer family. The quarry was first wrought for fire-jambs,
chimney backs, hearths and lintels for the capacious fireplaces of the
day. People came a hundred miles for these beautiful fire-place
stones and considerable trade in them soon sprung up. Other quar-
ries were soon in operation and from 1785 to 1841 nine quarries
were opened. The first marble gravestone ever finished in Dorset, it
is believed, was the work of Jonas Stewart, in 1790, from a slab taken
from the Bloomer quarry. Active manufacture of marble headstones
seems to date from 1808, when Elijah Sykes opened his quarry and
gave his chief attention to this business. The stock was taken from
the top or outer edgé of the layers where the strata could be readily
split into sheets or flags of a thickness of four inches or so. Thesé—
sheets were then cut down with mallet and chisel to the desired shape.

Marble was first sawn in the town at South Dorset in 1818 by
Field and Booth. When this method of sawing was well established
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 37

the former sources of inferior marble were abandoned and better
stone used. This sawn marble found a market in New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Cleveland and at intermediate points. In 1840, before
the introduction of Italian and Rutland marble, the demand for Dor-
set marble was beyond the supply.

Various quarries are in operation upon the mountain. At’ South
Dorset fine monumental stock is obtained at the quarry of Kent &
Root. Channeling machines and rock drills with a force of perhaps
sixty men are at work. A mill with eight gangs of saws is in opera-
tion.

S. F. Prince & Co. are working a quarry higher up the mountain
with a force of about thirty men. From this a beautiful building
stone, both of white and bluish shades is obtained. A part of this
stone is shipped directly to Philadelphia in blocks, part sawed at the
mill not far away and and another part at their mill at East Dorset.
‘The annual product may be set down at from 30,000 to 50,000 cubic
feet.

Up the mountain at East Dorset, the Dorset Marble Company is
working what is known as the Vermont Italian marble quarry. The
stock here produced is used almost exclusively for monumental and
decorative purposes. Some of the tiers, of which as many as twenty
are recognized, afford very beautiful mottled and clouded marble.
The quarry was worked forty years and more ago. Masses of rock of
immense size are moved or thrown down by a blast and then worked
into manageable blocks by hand or machine drilling. The blocks
are carted down to the mill, where twelve gangs of saws cut the stone
into desired shapes. An annual average of 31,000 cubic feet is pro-
duced.

The Freedley quarry, farther to the north and nearer the slate, has
been worked since 1820 and is still producing an excellent quality of
building stone, white and firm. In color and texture it reminds one
of the North Adams marble, though the rock here at Dorset is not so
coarsely crystalline. On account of the great amount of overlying

rock, tunneling has been done here on a large scale, the quarry being
38. MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

only partly open to the sky. Large columns of undetached rock are
left to support the roof. The excavations indicate that great quanti-
ties of material have been removed. About twenty-five men are em-
ployed at the quarry and half as many more at the steam mill, with
its ten gangs of saws, at the foot of the mountain. The quarry is
near 1150 feet above the base of the mountain, and the blocks, in-
stead of being carted to the mill, are sent down an inclined railroad,
an empty truck being drawn up by the descent ofa loadedone. The
stock, amounting to an annual average of 40,000 cubic feet, when
sawn, goes to Philadelphia.

One may pass from Dorset north along the line of limestone and
marble, which is dotted here and there with unproductive and aban-
doned quarries, and find in the town of Rutland, in the county of the
same name, quarries which have given name and repute to Vermont
marble. These have not the early history of those of Dorset and
Middlebury, but were opened at the time when the tide of remuner-
ative work in Connecticut and Massachusetts was at full flow. The
abundance and excellence of the marble of Rutland brought it into
successful competition with that obtained in the two States farther
south. Twenty years of struggle left the proprietors of these quarries
in possession of the market for the finer varieties of American marble.
A prosperity has been reached which nothing but an unforeseen ca-
lamity, or condition of affairs, can seriously affect.

West Rutland is the locality from which the fine white marble of
the range is obtained. Pittsford, Brandon and Middlebury hope to
compete in the production of marble of this quality, but actual com-
petition must be yet in the future. The year 1838 marks near the
early period of successful work, though it was not until about five
years later that William F. Barnes, whose name will always be asso-
ciated with the history of the development of Rutland marble, began
his work upon the quarry, which in connection with others has made
this marble famous throughout the whole country.

Here, upon the western slope of a range of ‘low hills running north °
and south, is found the “Rutland marble.” The strata have a dip to
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 39

the east varying from 25 ° to 85° with an average of 45.0. The
thickness of the beds wrought is from 50 to 110 feet and these have
been followed to a depth of 220 feet. The strata have many marked
and distinct layers, varying in color, texture and value. White, cloud-
ed and blue are the prevailing marbles ; the white, fine-grained, stat-
uary marble being the most valuable.

Full statistics are not at hand indicating the number of quarries and
the force employed. Approximately the number of quarries may be
set down at fifteen, and the number of men engaged about the quar-
ries, mills and shops at two thousand.

The methods of quarrying at West Rutland are like those in other
places and will be described further on. Steam is the power used in
the mills as well as in the quarries.

The ingenious device for automatically distributing sand and water
to the saws in the marble mills, which was invented by Philo Tomlin-
Inson of Marbledale and used in the mills there the first half of the
century, seems to have fallen out of mind. ‘In most of the mills one
man is still required to attend two gangs of saws, keeping up the sup-
ply of sand and caring for its proper distribution. Recently other
methods have been proposed. One just introduced at West Rutland
is a simple elevator arrangement of band and buckets. By means of |
this one man will be sufficient to superintend six or eight gangs.

A successful application of the “sand blast’ in cutting marble for
monumental purposes was made at Sheldon & Slason’s works at West
Rutland, about the years 1875-1876, in preparing headstones for sol-
diers’ graves at the national cemeteries. Similar work has since been
done at other localities, but on a smaller scale.

The blast of sand upon marble rapidly wears it away, but if a por-
tion of the surface be protected from the chiseling action of the sand,
that part will soon stand out in relief. By using the ingenious process
perfected by Tilghman the work was rapidly and cheaply done. The
parts of the stone to remain uncut were protected by an iron shield,
while letters and figures of chilled iron were placed upon the spaces
where the inscription was to be raised. The blast of sand, turned on
40 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

to the prepared stone, would eat away the unprotected part, while

that protected would rise up in high relief out of the block. By this
method, thte name, company, regiment and rank of a soldier could be

put upon a stone in less than five minutes of time. Contracts were
filled by which 254,000 lettered headstones, having dimensions of
three feet in length, ten inches in width and four inches in thickness,
were placed in the national cemeteries at an expense to the govern-
ment of $864,000. The economy of the process alone made it possi-
ble to place these monuments at the soldiers’ graves for so small an
amount.

The stone has been thought too soft for statuary purposes, though

some layers have been used with great satisfaction for this purpose.
At the State House at Montpelier may be seen the statue of Ethan
Allen of heroic size. This statue was cut by Larkin J. Mead, and ap-
propriately from Vermont marble, the quarry at West Rutland’ fur-
nishing the stock. While, from its softness, the marble trom these
quarries cannot carry as fine lines as the Italian, still it stands expo-
sure to the weather better. The layers, too, are growing harder as
they are followed into the earth, and some of them are about as hard
as the foreign.
. Before reaching Sutherland Falls, still in the town of Rutland, there
is to be found the quarry of the Columbian Marble Company. The
marble here is of a peculiar character, variegated and almost black.
This has obtained an enviable reputation for mantel and monumental
work, and from its fineness and hardness stands at the head of the
list of dark marbles.

The extent of the quarry at Sutherland Falls has been already al-
luded to. The marble is of the clouded variety. Some beds opened
in the vicinity are much like those that further south furnish the Co-
umbian marble and farther north the Mountain dark.

It would be interesting to know the origin of these mourning mar-
bles in which the white and black are so curiously mingled. The
material giving the black appearance is assuredly carbon, and prob-
ably in character approaching the graphite which marks the coarsely
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 41

crystalline limestones of the Adirondack region. When freely ex-
posed to a high heat the dark color disappears, leaving a white lime.

A conjecture might be ventured that the rock was originally of dif-
ferent chemical composition in these different parts ; in the white the
oxidation of the carbon was complete during metamorphism while in
the dark the oxidation was interfered with. A second conjecture
would be that during the metamorphosis the particles of carbon
moved together and became aggregated as in the Adirondack mar-
bles. The first suggestion is supported by the actual difference in the

character of the dark and white portions, the former carrying with it
insoluble silicious minerals.

A further thought suggests itself, whether the darkly-mottled mar-
bles will not be found to be a metamorphosed Black River limestone
of the New York geologists.

The Sutherland Falls marble in general resembles that of Dorset,
known as the Vermont Italian. Its veining, however, is peculiar to
itself. Two of the most valuable layers are known as the mourning
veins, the dark and the light. The dark mourning vein has a ground of
deep blue, while lines nearly black run through it in a zigzag course,
presenting a very beautiful appearance. The light mourning vein has
like irregular lines, but the ground is nearly white. Both these layers
are free from flaws and receive a very fine polish. The folding of the®
strata, the further crumpling and compacting of the original layers
have left here a mass of marble unique in character. Not only is
the mass great in volume, but from the apparent plastic condition at
the time of metamorphosis, the lines which would be those of bed-
ding in most quarries have nearly disappeared, those remaining form-
ing graceful veins and ever-varying clouds.

The quarry was opened here near 1836, though not vigorously
worked until some years later. The situation gives it peculiar advan-
tages. It isona gentle height above the railroad and mills, and
when the blocks are placed upon the trucks they will readily descend
to the landing place.

The falls of the Otter here offer an immense water-power, which
42 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

power is admirably economized. The saws in the mills, the polish-
ing beds and other machinery of the finishing shops and even the
drills in the quarry are driven by it. For work in the quarry the air
is compressed by water-power and conducted in an 8-inch pipe
about half a mile away. There would be no gain in using compressed
air in an open well-ventilated quarry if steam were necessary for the
compression. Really there would he a loss of power amounting to
about 40 per cent. But here, as the falls afford so much surplus
power, compressed air is exceedingly economical and effective.

The mechanical appliances as well as the power used at Sutherland
Falls are worthy of notice. Some of these have already been inci-
dentally alluded to. It is by the introduction of channelers and power
drills that the profitable working of compact ledges of rock is carried
forward.

An early view of marble quarrying would give us the sight of a few
men, perhaps spared for a little time from the labor of the farm,
working away with drills and wedges, at thin-bedded and easily-sep-
arated layers of marble. With these slabs, almost ready made, the
local market would be supplied.

Twenty-five years ago this glimpse of quarrying at West Rutland
was given: “It is an interesting scene to behold two hundred quarry -
men ranged in rows, each with his long sharp drill, steadily cutting
deeper and deeper those grooves that are destined to sunder the fet-
ters that bind those valuable blocks to their parent bed. The music-
al ring of the quarryman’s drill, that reverberates to the ear, from the
deep-vaulted quarry, is pleasing to the spectator, as he stands and
looks down into it ; and to the proprietor it is the welcome harbinger
of the ‘good time coming,’ for a successfully wrought quarry is quite
sure to bring fortunes to the proprietors.”

To-day the view of quarrying is entirely different. The statement
of profit we may assume to be as true as when the above was writ-.
ten, a quarter of a century ago, but the description of the method
will not fit. The introduction of power has changed the aspect of
the quarry, the musical drill being now used only as accessory. The
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 43

preparations for loosening the blocks from the quarry are mostly made
by machinery. The champ of channeling machines and the noise of
steam engines driving the diamond drills are harmonious only in the
distance. What, however, has been lost in music, by the passing
away of the old method is more than made up in the efficiency and
economy of the new.

These aids to the quarryman may be properly mentioned at this
place, since Sutherland Falls has seemed to be the pioneer point for
cutting machines.

The channeling machine manufactured by the Steam Stone Cutter
Company of Rutland, Vt., was invented by George J. Wardwell of
Rutland. The first successful machine was built by him in 1863, in
connection with the Sutherland Falls Marble Company, and that orig-
inal machine has been at work there constantly until within a few
months. These machines are now in operation in almost all of the
important quarries in the country, and it is calculated that over
5,000,000 square feet have been cut by them. The channeler is es-
sentially a locomotive machine driven by power, usually steam, mov-
ing over a steel rail track which is placed on the quarry bed, and
carries a single gang drill on one side, or two such drills, one on either
side. These drills are raised and dropped by a lever and crank ar-
rangement. The gang of cutters forming the drill is composed of
five steel bars, seven to fourteen feet long, sharpened at the ends, and
securely clamped together. Of the five cutters, two have diagonal
edges; the other three have their edges transverse. The centre of
the middle, largest, extends lowest, so that the five form something like
a stepped arrangement away from the centre. The drill, lifted, drops
with great force, and rapidly creases a channel into the rock. The
single machine is operated by two men, the double by three. As it
runs backward and forward over the track the machine is reversed
without stopping, and as it goes the cutters deliver their strokes, it is
claimed, at the rate of one hundred and fifty per minute. The ma-
chine feeds forward on the track half an inch at every stroke, cutting
half an inch or more every time of passing. The single machine will
44 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

‘

cut from forty to eighty square feet of channel in marble or limestone
per day, and at a cost of from five to twenty cents per square foot.
The double machines will do twice the amount of work.

A good workman would formerly cut from five to ten feet—that is
a groove one foot deep and from five to ten feet in length—per day.
For this he would receive from 20 to 30 cents per foot.

Diamond drills have been used in England and France many years
for cutting stone. Two general kinds have been in use, one for pros-
pecting—the diamond core drill—a second, used for actual work in
the quarry and known as the Solid-headed Diamond Drill.

The Sullivan Machine company of Claremont, N. H., manufacture
most of the machines of this kind that are used in the marble quar-
ries. The diamonds, or cardons, as they are called, are so arranged
upon the face of a cone-shaped metallic head, or bit, as to cut a cir-
cular space corresponding in diameter with that of the drill bit. This
bit is fastened to the end of the drill rod, or spindle, which is rapidly
revolved and at the same time fed forward intothe rock. A machine
may have one, two or three spindles. Five hundred revolutions a
minute and five inches linear distance for the same period is fair
work for each drill. Water is forced through the drill spindle, and
head, to wash out the borings and to keep the drill-head from heating.

The machine known as the gadder is a single spindle machine used
in boring holes preparatory to raising the blocks. When the requi-
site channels are cut about the blocks to be removed, it is necessary
to gad or undercut the block, in order to loosen it. This is done by
drilling a series of holes beneath it, and then, by wedging, the block
is split from its bed. This gadding was formerly slowly done by
hand, but now the gadder is used and does the work as rapidly as
perhaps twenty men. The first gadder made by the Sullivan compa-
ny in 1869 was put into operation at Sutherland Falls. Afterwards
machines were made which carried two or three drills running at the
same time, one so arranged as to bore holes which connect, and make
an open continuous channel. These are especially serviceable in cut-
ting inclines and tunnels.
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. AS

The high price of carbons for the past few years has interfered
with their use. These carbons advanced from $6.00 per carat to $18
in a few months time, but have recently dropped back to $12.

A new candidate for favor among quarrymen has been tried at
Sutherland Falls and elsewhere, and this is the Saunders Channeling
machine, manufactured by the Ingersoll Rock Drill company of New
York city. The five cutters in a gang, forming the drill, are some-
what differently arranged from those of the Wardwell machine. The
stroke of the drill is operated from the engine direct. The blows av-
erage 200 a minute; the feed averages over one inch per stroke.
Among the advantages claimed for this machine are efficiency, adapt-
ability, especially in cutting the channel at any desired angle, com-
pactness, permitting it to be used in small tunnels and openings, and
great rapidity of operation, cutting from 80 to 100 feet of channel
per day.

New machines and new devices are presenting themselves to the’
consideration of quarrymen and whatever promises to be of real value
is tested, and, bearing the test, is adopted.

The massive beds of marble here at Sutherland Falls give opportu-
nity of taking out large blocks for building purposes. When a more
valuable stone than that obtained from the quarries of coarsely crys-
tallized marble, one of fine grain and firm texture, is demanded for
architecture, the marble at this place will meet the requisition.

The spire of Grace church, New York, is being built from Suther-
land Falls marble, every stone of which is fitted for its destined place
before it leaves the yards.

The stone may go to market in the block from the quarry, or as
sawn stock from the mills, or as completely wrought work from the
finishing shops.

The addition of ten gangs of saws to the sixty-three already in op-
eration, with the opportunity for further extension, gives promise of
great work in the future.

A picturesque village is growing up around the Falls, and the fam-
ilies of different nationalities—English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, Canadi-
46 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

y

an and Italian, are blending into an industious and intelligent commu-
nity.

Pittsford has the honor of having one of the earliest quarries in
Vermont, perhaps the very earliest. Jeremiah Sheldon worked mar-
ble here in 1795, taking his material from the quarry now known as
the Owen quarry. For many years marble for fire-places for the
country around was obtained from Pittsford. The purely calcareous
marbles would do excellently for the mantle and sides, but when
used for the back and jambs of the old-time fire-place would fail. A
variety of stone from this place, probably magnesian in character, was
early sought for and widely used.

There are three beds or veins of marble running through the town
north and south. The most easterly of these has a breadth of about 200
feet and on it was opened in 1871 the quarry known as the Central
Vermont quarry. It was successful until the great depression of 1874,
from which it has not as yet rallied. The marble is of the same
character as that of Proctor, or Sutherland Falls, of which bed it is —
probably a continuation. The middle bed is separated from this
easterly one by about 200 feet of lime rock. This bed is of itself
400 feet wide and contains marble of different shades varying from a
pure white to a dark blue. The marble is of excellent quality and
very sound. Buildings made of this marble have stood the test of
years without showing signs of weathering. An illustration of the en-
during character of the marble from this bed is seen in the house
known as the Conant house in Brandon. The Pittsford Quarry com-
pany formerly, operating on this, furnished marble for several large
buildings in Boston, among which may be mentioned the Continental.
Building, Commonwealth Hotel and the Blackstone National Bank
building.

On the same central bed with the Pittsford quarry, which has been
wrought so many years and to the north of it, is the valuable property
of the Wheaton quarry, now known as the Florence and Wakefield.
About three-fourths of a mile south of the Pittsford quarry in 1880
Mr. F. W. Smith of Burlington opened two quarries, one on the east-
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 47

ern border and one on the western of the same bed. These quarries
are known by the name Florence and the station at the railroad has
come to bear the same name. The Florence quarries are about two
and a half miles north-west from the Pittsford station and about
three-fourths of a mile west of the railroad. The supply of Florence
marble seems inexhaustable and from its superior quality is fast com-
ing into favor. The third or west bed, thought to correspond to that
of West Rutland, is about half a mile west of the central and abuts on
the west against the slate, the slate having disappeared from all the
region east of it. This bed, about 400 feet wide, holds beautiful dark-
blue marble veined and mottled. Such marble has only recently been
demanded in trade. Within a year these quarries have been opened
to supply the new call for dark marbles. That opened by F. W. Smith
& Company is known as the Florentine quarry and has been a great
success almost from the moment of opening.

During the year seven quarries were operated. Considering the
extent of the deposits and the character of the marble, no one can
mark the bounds of the prosperity of the marble industry in the town
of Pittsford. The output of merchantable marble during the year
1884 was nearly 10,000 tons. ,

Brandon has many varieties of rocks on the marble range, and ear-
ly after the settlement of the town men were engaged in the produc-
tion of marble. As many as ten quarries have been opened within
the limits of the town, though few of these have produced desirable
stone. Of those which have been wrought with considerable activity,
beginning with the oldest, is the Goodell quarry about two miles south-
west of the village, closed about five years ago; the Prime quarry two
miles south of the village, not worked ; the Billings quarry, between
those mentioned, active from about 1874 to 1879. The quarry re-
cently opened (1882), known first as the Redpath quarry, now called
the Bardillo, nearer the village, is the one in most active operation, em-
ploying perhaps fifteen men at the quarry and ten at the mill. This
quarry is most admirably situated for excavation ; the blocks are cut
out from the hill-side, placed on trucks and transported easily to the
48 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

mill which is but a few rods away. The stone is rather dark for mon-
umental purposes and the company owning the quarry being large
building contractors, use much of the stock for their own work. The
other quarries opened, either from the injudicious method of exca-
vating, or from the character of the stone, have not been remuner-
ative and are for the present abandoned.

The history of the marble industry in Middlebury reaches back al-
most to the very beginning of the century. According to Prof. Fred-
rick Hall, marble was discovered here in 1802 by Dr. Ebenezer W.
Judd and first sawed by him here in 1805. The sawing that year
was preliminary to a larger business, which was entered upon in 1808
and continued at the same place until 1837. During these years the
marble was quarried on the west bank of the Otter just below the
falls. It was sawed by water-power close by the place where it was
obtained. It found a market in New York, Boston and other cities.
The amount of sawn marble produced annually in those early days of
the business was from 5,000 to 10,000 feet, the standard of thickness
being two inches. In 1815, which year may be taken as a fair aver-
age year, the sales amounted to $7,000, the expenses about $3,000.
Some of the blocks sawed were taken from the bed of the river just
above the falls at times of low water.

Other quarries, mosily in the northern and eastern parts of the
town, have been opened. One of the oldest with its mill was early
known as the Spaulding or the Phelps quarry. It has since been
known by various names, as the North Middlebury, Old Middlebury,
and Cutter Quarry. By this last name it is now known and is the
only quarry in operation in the bounds of Middlebury. Other quar-
ries have been designated as the White or Foot Street quarry, the
Vermont, and the Addison County. In all these, expensive excavations
have been made, but they have failed to be remunerative. In most
cases beautiful white marble has been obtained, but the amount free
from flaws and wholly sound has been so small that the proprietors
have not felt encouraged to continue the work.

It is a matter of prime importance that the cause of this unsound-
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 49

ness should be determined. If the beds were shattered throughout
the whole structure at the change from limestone to marble, no hope
can be entertained of successful work on these strata. If, however,
the flaws are only superficial and caused by external agency, then
deeper excavation will afford sound marble. If the latter is the
case, it may be assumed with entire confidence that untold wealth
is buried here, waiting for those already combined, or whom it may
invite, to come and uncover it. The opening of large beds of sound
rock similar in character to that already obtained and scarcely tested
will give Middlebury the reputation of producing the toughest, whitest,
best statuary marble of the whole range.

The asserting that the character of the marble of this range deter-
rioates in grain in going south from Rutland and in soundness in go-
ing north, is not well established. It is true that going north some of
the layers do become finer in texture, but until the layers deep in the
earth have been éxamined it will be too early to say that throughout
the region they are unsound. In grain and texture the white marble
of Middlebury is known to be the perfection of beauty. In the deep
layers it may be proved to be the perfection of soundness.

Brief mention should be made of rock deposits that at some time
have been used as marble. Those bordering Lake Champlain have
undergone but little change and so retain more nearly their original
character of limestone.

At Larrabee’s Point in Shoreham, Addison County, are deposits of
black marble rivaling the Irish of Kilkenny in character. Fossil
shells appear in some parts, giving a variegated appearance to the
stone. At one time a quarry here was wrought with great success.
Elaborate and beautifully-polished chimney pieces wrought from this
black marble are to be found in some of our older houses. The
quarry is awaiting a return of public demand for the dark marbles,
when it will yield, as formerly, an excellent material for mantel and
ornamental work.

Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain has at one point on its eastern
shore a rock deposit like that of Larrabee’s Point, and like that has
50 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

been worked and for the present is abandoned. But to the south and
west and near the west shore of the Island, a quarry, lower down in
its geological horizon, has these many years been worked with great
success. The massive dark stone is considerably used for moumental
purposes, but is largely demanded as tiles to be laid in floors in con-
nection with the white marble. Fossil shells of great beauty are not
unfrequently found even in the tiles sent to market.

Swanton, in Franklin county, formerly furnished a dove-colored
marble which was extensively used for gravestones. From 1812 0n
for many years marble was sawn at this point, but near 1844 Rutland
marble displaced that furnished by Swanton and after 1850 the quar-
ying of this beautiful stone was wholly abandoned.

The line of the State of Vermont does not limit the range of
marble rock ; but it continues into the Dominion of Canada,
where just north of the line the black marble has been extensively
quarried.

A peculiar rock, scattered as boulders above the marble of Addison
County, is found in place not far from the shore of Lake Champlain
in Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties in Vermont. This
rock as to its geological position is below the true marbles belonging
to the Potsdam ; but in several localities it has by a series of uplifts
been thrust up through the true marble-forming rocks. The rocks of
these up-thrusts, often called the red sand rock, are coarse in texture
where they appear in Addison county, but in the counties north, es-
pecially at Mallet’s Bay in Chittenden County and near St. Albans,
Franklin County, they became so like marble in character that they
are worked as true marbles, and the, product is known in commerce
as Winooski marble.

It would be next to impossible to overpraise the beauty of this
stone. In color it varies from a dark mahogany to a white but
slightly tinged with red. At its best it is charmingly mottled, con-

“ stantly varying, having more frequently a ground work of light choco-
late with which are blended lighter tints and then again mixed with
pure white spots and veins. The whole seems like a commingling of
MARBLE QUARRIES—PROCESSES AND PRODUCTIONS. 5t

agate, jasper, opal, carnelian, and at times serpentine added to pure
white marble. As a fancy marble it cannot be surpassed.

In composition it is a magnesian limestone containing a notable
per cent. of silica, iron and alumina. Its texture is very fine and it
takes a remarkable polish. One peculiarity of the stone has pre-
vented it assuming its proper place as a commercial marble, and this
is its hardness. Owing to this quality, the sawing and polishing is
costly and therefore it has not come largely into use, beautiful as it
is. It is waiting for improved methods ot working to be devised,
and when this is done the Winooski marble will be in great demand.
Like the black marble of Isle La Motte, it has been for a long time
manufactured into floor tiling, for which it is admirably adopted. Its
beauty and value become more striking, however, when polished and
worked up into interior decorations, as may be not unfrequently seen
in some of the public buildings in the cities and noticeably in the
capitol at Albany.

Returns from the census will probably give accurate statements of
.the amount and value of the marble used in our country as well as
‘the sources of supply.

On the authority of Robert W. Welch, late consul at Carrara, Italy,
(Century, June, 1882), we have the information that there is obtained
from the four hundred quarries at that place, worked by about five
thousand men, an annual product not far from 150,000 tons of mar-
ble, this amount saved from the 500,000 tons blasted out of the quar-
ries; of the amount, about 25,000 tons, or one-sixth, comes to the
United States.

Our government returns, according to good authority, however,
show a considerable increase over this estimated amount, the quantity
reaching 35,000 to 40,000 annually, or about 400,000 cubic feet of

veined marble. This pays about 75 cents duty, making the rough
blocks worth about $2.50 per cubic foot, or altogether a sum of
$1,000,000.

At a session of the Tariff Commission held in the city of New York,
October, 1882, Gov. Redfield Proctor‘in his testimony estimates the
52 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

capital invested in the production of American marble in the States
of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Tennessee to be at least $12,000,000, two-thirds of
this in quarries, one-third in mills and other improvements.

The number of workmen engaged is 6,000, one-half of whom may
be considered skilled workmen, engaged in operating and managing
machinery.

The amount of annual production is about 2,200,000 cubic feet, or
over 20,000 carloads ; and the value, $4,500,000. This is five times
the number of cubic feet and three times the total value delivered in
our port, duty paid, of all marble imported per year.

Of this about half is used for building; the other half being used
mostly for marble mantels, furniture marble, monuments and ceme-
tery work. This half competes with the imported Italian. Our
country now demands for the purposes just named, of the Italian
4,00,000 cubic feet, of the American 1,100,000 cubic feet.

The Italian marble does not endure outdoor exposure as well as
the better class of American, so that for this first there is no increase
of demand for cemetery purposes, while for the same purposes the
American marble is rapidly gaining in reputation and use.

Gov. Proctor’s estimate of the annual product of the quarries of
Vermont is 1,200,000 cubic feet, with an increase of about 75,000 feet
per year. At $2 per cubic foot, $2,400,000 may be regarded as a fair
estimate of the sum annually realized from the marble quarries of
Vermont.
APPENDIX.
 

 

 
DEVELOPMENT OF MACHINERY.

HE following statements, without being complete, will show the use and improve-
ment of machinery for quarrying and working marble, with authorities and dates:

1. The mallet, chisel and drill were used in stone-work from the earliest times,
the two latter in Egypt, of bronze,

2. Hand-saws without teeth, fed by hand with sand and water, were used 350 years
before Christ. Pliny: Translated by Philemon Holland. London, 1601. Folio. Tom,
ii, 571. ;

[The earliest recognition of marble work by Pliny is that of the palace of Mauso-
lus at Halicarnassus, as encrusted or veneered throughout with marble; the kinds of
sand, coarse or fine, being described with which it was sawed.]

3. Saw mills for sawing stone, driven by water-power, were in use on the little
river Roer in Germany, in the fourth century of the Christian era. Beckmann, referring
to the Mosella of Ausonius, Vol. ii., 370. Prof. John Beckmann’s History of Inventions,
translated from the German by William Johnston; two volumes; London, 1797.

4. Long, toothless saws, aslong as twenty-three feet, were used by Misson, In-
spector of the Pyrenees quarries, for sawing out blocks of marble, before A. D. 1700.
M. Felibien (ob. 1687), quoted by Chambers’ Cyclopedia, 2d edition, London, 1738,

5. Two or more saws stretched in a frame, forming a gang, were figured by Leon-
ardo da Vinci (ob. 1519). Clarence Cook in “Scribner's Monthly,” Vol. xvii., p. 337.

[Saw mills for wood-sawing, as stated by Beckmann, were in use at Augsburgh in
Germany as early as 1322, and occur often in many other countries in the following
century. In Norway first in 1530. In the same century there were saw mills operating
several blades to cut several deals at once from the same plank.]

6. Saws carried by water-power, reinvented by William Colles, Kilkenny, Ireland |
1730.

7. Polishing and boring done at the same place as above, and by the same power.

8. Sawing and polishing by water-power established at Ashford, Derbyshire, Eng.,
1748. .

g. Automatic feeder, distributing sand and water, Philo Tomlinson, Marblehead,
Conn., 1800.

to. Arrangement for raising and lowering saws, E. W. Judd, Middlebury, Vt,

1822,
56

Il.
12,
a3.
14.
15.
16,
17.
18,
1884.

MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Planing mill, Charles B, Boynton, West Stockbridge, Mass., 1836.

Use of steam for sawing blocks in quarry, as above.

Channeling machine, George E. Wardwell, Rutland, Vt., 1863.

Diamond drill, used in England and France near 1850.

Diamond gadders, Sullivan Machine Co., Claremont, N, H.

Diamond saw,used at East Canaan, Conn., 1876.

Rock drill, W. L. Saunders, New York, 1883.

Various elevator arrangements for feeding sand and water continuously, 1883,
CORRESPONDENCE.

ANY of the facts recorded on the preceding pages have been received through the

courtesy of friends,whose letters have been freely used and the statements condensed.

Ttis next to impossible to give proper credit to the miny to whom expressions of obliga-

tion are due. These gentlemen will please regard the acknowledgement here made as

designed for them individually, and also accept a copy of the present publication of the
Middlebury Historical Society as indicating an appreciation of their kindness.

In a few instances the letters received have such a direct bearing upon the progress
of discovery treated of that they could not be condensed, and are here given nearly en-
tire. It is hoped that these friends will pardon the liberty taken in publishing their
letters without their authority.

(From Richard Colles, Esq., Kilkenny, Ireland.}

KILKENNY MARBLE MILLS, I
3d March, 1884.

To Henry M. Seely, Esq., Middlebury, Vt, U. S.A.

Dear Sir—My sister has handed me your letter of inquiry relative to the sawing of
marble by water power,

I cannot fix the exact date ot the invention of the marble sawing mill by my ances-
tor, William Colles, but it was probably about 1730 or shortly afterwards.

In Tighe'’s “Survey of th: County Kilkenny,” published in 1802, it is stated that “he
first tried a model in a small stream, and finding it succeed, took a perpetual lease of
.the marble quarry.” His lease of the quarrydates from 1737, so this statement very
nearly settles the date of the invention, The same book quotes from “A Tour in Ire-

land” by two Englishmen, published in London in 1748: “I cannot hear that any one
has attempted to imitate the machinery. It is perpetually at work, by night as well as
by day, and requires littleattendance. . . . Though the stones in the quarry some-
times might weigh several tons, yet the method the contriver has used to lift them, draw
them out, and convey them to the mill, without any other than manual operation, adds
still more to the surprise. I am informed that this ingenious gentleman sends yearly
58 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

several ship loads to England, which gives me a particular satisfaction, that they may
find a native of Ireland has outdone all they have hitherto seen.”
The foregoing I think gives you the information you require, but should you wish
to make any further inquiry, I shall be very happy to reply to it.
Yours, faithfully, RICH. COLLES.

KILKENNY, }
roth April, 1884.

Dear Sir—I was pleased at receiving your letter of r9th March, and in reply to

your inquiries beg to say that the saws used here were originally, as they are still, of

soft hoop iron, and fed by sand and water. They were all single blades, not working

in a gang.
I am not aware where several saws were first used together in a frame, but it was

not here, There seems to have been rather a pride taken in keeping to the original
form of saw frames, and it was not until my father’s time that the present frames, with a
large number of saws working together, were erected,

Many thanks for your kind promise to send m2 a copy of the pamphlet on the sub-
ject, if published.

I fear, as you say, this is the wrong time of year for obtaining roots of Cypripedium,
and trust you will not go to too much trouble about them, though certainly if easily ob-
tained I should much like to have so pleasing a memento of our correspondence,

I am, dear sir,
Yours very truly, RICH. COLLES.
HENRY M.SEELY, Esq.

{From Rev. James Graves, B, A., Inisnay Rectory, Strongford, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland]
INISNAY GLEBE, STRONGFORD, \
March 17, 1884.

Dear Sir—I have much pleasure in sending you herewith extracts from two pub-
lished works which fully prove that the driving of soft iron toothless saws for cutting
stone by machinery moved by water power was invented by Alderman W. Colles of
Kilkenny and at work before 1768.

The black marble of Kilkenny has been worked for centuries, and I have no doubt
that the soft iron saw worked by hand was used at a date long before Colles invented
the application of water power to saws, polishers and borers. The marble of the Black
Quarry is still worked, and the same mills and machinery employed by Alexander Col-
les, fifth in descent from Alderman William Colles, who invented and applied that ma-
chinery more than 160 years ago.

I thank you for the paper which you sent, and am

Yours, very faithfully, J. GRAVES.
APPENDIX. 59

'
Statistical Observations relative to the County of Kilkenny made in the year 1800 and

1801, By Mr. Tighe, Dublin, 1802.

Page 103, etc., after describing the Black Quarry and the marble produced by it,
the work goes on to state: ‘

“But the principal work is done at the marble mill which is on the left bank of the
river [Nore] nearly two miles from Kilkenny. . . . This mill is admirable for the
simplicity of its structure, . . . the wheel, r2 feet in diameter, with r2 floats, gives
motion by acrank at one end ofits axis toa frame containing r2saws . .. bya
crank at the other end it moves a frame of 5 polishers. . . . The saws are made of
softiron and last about a week, They are continually supplied with water and sand.

+ . The machinery of the mill was the invention of Alderman Colles, grand-
father of the present proprietor, Mr, William Colles. He first trieda model ona small
stream. . . . Inthe time of Alderman Colles the mill bored as well as polished,
and he applied his marble to a vast variety of articles—as marble tubes, which he un-
dertook to supply to the corporation of Dublin as pipes for distributing the water
through the city.”

In a “Tour in Ireland,” published in London in 1748, by Two English Gentlemen,
Alderman Colles’ mill is described as above and it is said, “I cannot hear that any one
has attempted to imitate the machinery. It is perpetually at work, by night as well as
by day, and requires little attendance.”

[From Mr. Jarres Clapp, M. A., Master of the Merchant-Tailors' School, London]

32 MYDDLETON Sq., LONDON, E. C. V

May 3, 1884. )
My Dear —— Having a holiday, I have been down to the British Museum again
to see if I could settle the date of the introduction of the saw-mill for marble into Der-
byshire a little more definitely. You will be pleased to hear that I have been suc-

cessful . 2...
* * * * * * *
I happened to light upon “Tomlinson on the Useful Arts,” and found what I want-
ed at once—quite by accident—most literally so, for the book fell open at the spot.
Tomlinson says: ‘The principal manufacture of England is ‘in Derbyshire,
along the valley of the Derwent and the Nye, from below Buxton to Derby, The ma-
chinery for sawing and polishing was first established at the village of Ashford, near
Bakewell, in 1748, water being the motive power. About 1810, similar machinery was
erected at Bakewell. Both these works are situated near the quarries.” He says the
machinery for polishing is similar to that for sawing.
The only thing Tomlinson could have added to complete my satisfaction would
have been his authority which I could have looked out for verification sake. He gives
60 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

good diagrams of sawing mills—gangs of parallel saws similar to those I have seen at
the slate quarries in Cornwall. It is a most interesting spectacle—the sawing, prepar-
ing, polishing of stone. “pw ge “Bh complete account given by Tomlinson is verv
interesting, and enables one to quite understand the history and process of sawing
marble. . . . ;

Now, feeling sure that you will be glad I have at last found something definite and

exactly to the point, I remain
Always yours, JAS. CLAPP.

[From Ralph Buckingham, Esq., Marbledale Conn.]
MARBLEDALE, Feb. 27, 1884.
Mr, Philip Battell,

Dear Sir—Yours of Feb. 23 received. In reply to your inquiry about the marble
business in New Preston, which formerly included Marbledale, I have no documentary
evidence of the beginning of the business here, but there are two very old, intelligent
men who have successfully engaged in the business from their early years, from whom
I have obtained my information of the coming of Philo Tomlinson, and the date of his
entering into business. William Morse, born in 1800, nephew of Philo Tomlinson,
came to New Preston in 1817, in the employ of the Tomlinsons’ and is now, notwith-
standing his age, probably the most ofan expert in his knowledge of the quality of mar-
ble and its artistic manufacture of any ever in business here. He gives me the
history of the Tomlinson family, their removal from Derby in New Haven County
where they first quarried, when the first mill was erected, and the process of sawing, etc.

He says he knows the first quarry was opened for blocks for sawing in 1800, and
the mill was erected at that time, with substantially the same manner of, sawing witha
water wheel with a crank in each end moving a horizontal frame with several strips of
iron, set the distance apart in the frame required to determine the thickness of the
slabs, so called, and a box over the block with an apparatus for conducting sand and
water to the saws, and nothing has ever been known here of any other process of saw-
ing marble.

The Rev. George Tomlinson, grandson of Philo Tomlinson, said to me that the
Rev, Horace Bushnell (of national reputation) told him of visiting the mill of his
grandfather, and his “admiration of the simplicity and perfect adaptation of the invention
of his grandfather for conducting the sand and water to the saws.”

Medad J. Goodsell, now living in full possession of his faculties, who entered into
the business in 1820, and who has carried on the business more extensively and suc-
cessfully than any other who ever engaged in it here, tells me that he went to Mr. Philo
Tomlinson’s mill when he came here in 1820. Mr. Tomlinson told him he had been
sawing marble there for twenty years, which would make the date 1800, and Mr. Good-

sell says he said nothing of any other process ofsawing than what was then used. The
APPENDIX, 65

oldest marble tombstone in the graveyard here was erected to my wife's great grand-
father, one of the first settlers of New Preston, Joseph Wheaton, in 178. This was
hewed stone with polished face. Sawed tombstones of marble were not erected before
1800, After that date sawed marble was almost universally used.

I can find nothing which would indicate any conclusion but that marble was sawed
substantially as at present, with a gang of strips of iron, set in a horizontal trame fed
with water from a perforated tube, and a box filled with sand furnished with conduct-
ors, which box received a jar from a stick attached to the machinery in order to keep
the con ductors filled—by Philo Tomlinson of Derby, in New Preston in A. D. 1800;

The first mills erected had one wheel carrying two gangs of saws. Afterwards
most of the mills had two wheels carrying four gangs.

It gives me great pleasure to reply to your inquiries and any one who is engaged
in searching out and rescuing any branch of the history of our country deserves the
help of all good citizens,

Believe me,
Very truly yours, RALPH BUCKINGHAM.

[From Chas. J. Taylor, Esq., Great Barrington, Mass.]

GREAT BARRINGTON, MASss., }
Feb. 25, 1884.

Philip Battell, Esq., Middlebury, V2.

My Dear Sir—In replying to your letters of rsth and roth inst., I may perhaps,
write more than is immaterial than pertinent to the line of your investigation. In re-
gard to the appliances used in sawing and quarrying of marble in early days, it seems to
me in the absence of records or account books we must rely almost solely upon the
individual recollections of men who have been familiar with, or engaged in the busi-
ness. The personal knowledge of not very few of these extend back to the beginning
ofthe century. I am the more forcibly reminded of this by the very recent death of
Chester Goodale of Egremont, at the age of 93, whose boyhood was spent in West
Stockbridge, and who was for many years engaged in quarrying and sawing marble in
Sheffield. The next in order of age, of my acquaintance, is Major Robbins, 86 years
old, mentioned in my last letter; he was long engaged in the marble business in West
Stockbridge. I have had a recent interview with him, of which more beyond.

I have always found old account books a fruitful source of information as to local
matters, and though I have many of these none pertain to the marble interests.

I wrote you that Newell and Cook had, as early as 1802, erected a stone saw mill,
a water mill, at the “Old Quarry” below West Stockbridge Village, and that I found
reason for believing that they had a still earlier stone saw mill on the same stream, in
West Stockbridge Village.

In this belief I am still further confirmed. Newell and Cook certainly did have sueh
62 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

a mill at the village in 1803; they apparently had itin 1802. It appears to have stood
upon a half acre, adjoining the river, which was purchased by Newell in 1794. (New-
ell and Cook are designated as “stone cutters” in a deed of 1799), and although I can-
not, as yet, trace the existence of this mill back of 1802, I am prepared to believe that it
was erected earlier, and, probably, before the year 1800, So far as my examination
reaches, Newell & Cook appear to have been the pioneers of marble sawing in West
Stockbridge. /

Major Robbins says his first visit to the Newell & Cook mill, by the “Old Quarry,”
was in 1806 or 7; that they had two gangs of saws and “a slipper” (whatever that may
be), and that they ran the mill night and day; that the saws used were thin plates of
soft iron with sand and water; that his father then explained to him their working; that
the stone was suspended in a frame within a larger outer frame. He has no knowledge
of any earlier appliances for cutting, than these toothless saws,

He says the marble in the “Old Quarry” was in layers, inclined, one upon another,
and was broken out drilling and wedging. Major Robbins was, later, engaged in the
business himself. He mentions a machine used, perhaps, by the Boyntons, (later than
Newell & Cook’s) for planing marble in which chisels were worked back and forth,
producing a surface better than was done by saws and sand. He also says that at one
of the mills, the sand and water running from the stone was caught in a receptacle be-
low, returned to the saws and was thus used over and over. Mr. Robbins states that
the Boyntons, about 1828 or '30, built a mill for running by steam; but this proved ex-
sive, costing, as the sawyer asserted, 28 cents per foot for’sawing, whereas it was done

at 5 eents per foot at a water mill.

He also describes a process employed by the Boyntons for breaking out the stone
from the quarry; this consisted in cutting a trench with picks at each end of the block
to be removed, and also on its under side; drills and long wedges were then used in
the lower trench, and with the aid of a light charge of powder the whole was loosened.
He further says that the Boyntons made use of saws driven by steam for cutting out the
blocks from the quarry. The marble business has been a very important business in
West Stockbridge, though little or nothing is now done at it. Maj. Robbins says “ they
can’t compete with Vermont marble ;” still Lee is largely engaged in this business, and
large quantities are shipped from that town.

In 1803, Feb. 15, Nathan Johnson and Elisha Stevens, Jr., stone cutters of West
Stockbridge,” purchased a tract of twenty-eight acres in West Stockbridge; this, as I

’ understand, comprised the quarry now known as the “ Fitch quarry,” which, by change
of town lines, is now in Alford. From that quarry Johnson & Stevens furnished large
quantities of stone for the New York City Hall—some stone for the same building are
said to have been taken from the “ old quarry.”

I have not learned at what date Johnson & Stevens began quarrying for the City
Hall, but Martin Reese writes me that they were sawing stone on that contract at the
“old quarry” in 1809.
APPENDIX, 63

As yet I know nothing of the Johnson & Stevens methods in quarrying, but I may
get it, second hand, from elderly men still living in that vicinity.

Relative to the Sheffield marble, I have yet no more information, The early op-
erations there are not so distinct as those at West Stockbridge, and I believe the West
Stockbridge works are the earlier. ,

Sheffield has several quarries. I am not aware that any of them are now worked.
The first of these (so far as I know) are the “Goodale quarry’ (I have mentioned
Chester Goodale, he could have told us all about it), and what I will term the “ Upson
quarry.” From the latter the stone for Girard College were taken about 1838 to 1841.
I think this quarry had been previously worked, but have not studied it up. Philo Up-
son of Egremont was the operator; he was lust by the burning of the steamer Lexing-
ton in the Sound about 1841.

Upson (I think in connection with Philadelphia parties—the firm, I believe, was
Jacobs, Conony & Upson) tad the contract for furnishing stone for the College.

Mr. Goodale had a quarry about a mile north of Upson’s, and also a saw mill
three-fourths mile from his quarry.

Other quarries in Sheffield have, within a few years, furnished marble for the Court
House at Pittsfield and in part for the Capitol at Albany. I have never before heard of
the West Stockbridge chronicler—Spencer(?). The name still remains there, and I
will make inquiries.

I hope to learn something more of the West Stockbridge manner of sawing, but
do not expect to get back of water with iron saws and sand; and I will endeavor to find
out about Johnson & Stevens’ methods of quarrying.

I do not remember to have seen what Dr. Holland says of the Berkshire marbles.
In Dr. Hitchcozk’s Report—r1832—I see he gives the number of saw mills in several
towns of this county (though he does not mention the one then in use in this town),
and also a statement of the value of marble produced in some of the towns.
I am, very truly yours, CHAS. J. TAYLOR.

[The general statement of veins of marble within the New York boundary is made in
the History of Duchess, County, by Philip H. Smith, published in 1877, p. 29, as
follows :]

“ ‘Within the New York line beds of marble, similar to those found in Massachu-
setts near the borders of this State, exist in the towns of Amenia, Dover, Pawling, Beék-
man and Fishkill, In Dover, the quarries have been extensively wrought; and the
marble which they yield, although dolomite, is pure white, fine-grained, and takes a
medium polish. Clouded marble occurs in the towns of Amenia and Northeast.”
64 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

[From John Struthers, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa.]

WALNUT ST. WHARF, oe
Philadelphia, Oct. 4, 1884.

My Dear Stone— . . . . The first white marble used in this city, as far as I
can trace upon records, was the East Dorset, Vermont, and West Stockbridge, Massa-
chusetts, followed by Manchester and Rutland, Vermont; later on the variegated from
Lake Champlain and through sections ot Vermont, to a considerable extent. The Lee
marble from Massachusetts, Berkshire County, has furnished all the marble in our new
City Hall, our largest marble building; in the work, 702,000 cubic feet or 60,000 tons.
Blocks weighing thirty tons have been quarried and twenty-four tons set in one block
in the building.

The Capitol at Washington is built of this marble, considered the strongest in the

world.
Marble from the quarries in Vermont owned by Mr. John K. Freedly, is famous for

its usefulness in buildings and for monumental stock, being white and remarka-
bly sound. Most of the stores of white marble in this city are built of it; the Drexel
building in New York also.

I presume of the Vermont marbles upwards of 30,000 cubic feet have been used in

the past three years.
Sincerely yours, JOHN STRUTHERS.
F. D. STONE, Esq.
EARLY WORK

IN

MARBLE AT MIDDLEBURY.

UDGE SAMUEL SWIFT, in his History of the Town of Middlebury, published
in 1859, quotes from the pamphlet of Professor Frederic Hall, who published in 1821
a Statistical Account of Middlebury, as follows:

“ Proceeding down the creek, on the western side, after passing two saw mills, two
grist mills, a clothier’s works and some other establishments of minor importance, you
come to the Marble Factory. The marble in this village, which is now wrought on a
large scale, and extensively diffused over the country, was discovered by Eben W. Judd,
the present principal proprietor, as early as 1802. A building on a limited plan was
erected, and’machinery for sawing the marble (the idea of which had its origin in the
inventive mind of the proprietor) was then first put in operation. In 1806 a new and
commodious building, two stories high, and destined to comprise sixty saws, to be
moved by water, was erected. In 1808 this enlarged establishment went into opera-
tion, and has continued to the present day.”

“The saws are made of soft iron, without teeth, and are similar in form to those
which are used in sawing marble by hand in the large cities in Europe. The softer
they are the longer they last.” ‘* The marble until lately has been obtained chiefly from
a quarry, situated within a few feet of the mill. During three or four of the last years,
much has been procured, at the time of low water, at the bottom of the creek, immedi-
ately above the falls. It is raised from its bed, partly by means of wedges, but princi-
pally by blasting.” “The marble, after being sawed into slabs, is manufactured into
tomb stones, currier’s tables, jambs, mantle pieces, hearths, window and door caps and
sills, side boards, tables, sinks and various other kinds of furniture. These articles are
transported to Montreal, Quebec, Boston, New York and even Georgia. The machine-
ry has sawn annually from five to ten thousand feet since the year 1808."

This was the first manufacture of marble upon an extensive scale established in this
State, and the machinery for sawing on this plan was first put in operation by Dr. Judd,
and has since been extensively adopted elsewhere. He was an ingenious and some-
what scientific man, of experience in business life. In anticipation of establishing the
manufacture of marble, in the spring of 1803 he obtained from Appleton Foot a lease
for 999 years of the right to dig marble on any part of his lot, between his house and
the creek, the foundation of which was marble throughout, and the privilege of erecting
66 MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

amill, He afterwards obtained a title to the land in fee, and occupied the house on it,
until he built, on the same site, the large brick house, now owned by Dr, ‘Nathaniel
Harris. :

Rev, Dr. Dwight of Yale College, on his visit in 1810, says of this marble and its
manufacture: “A quarry of marble has been discovered in the bank of the river just
below the bridge, a continuation of the ledge, which forms the falls. It.is both white
and dove-colored, elegantly variegated, and of finer texture than any other which has been
wrought hitherto in the United States. It is sawn, ground and polished by water ma-
chinery; and is cut and carved, with an elegance not surpassed on this side of the At-
lantic,”

Judge Swift further says: “ After Professor Hall's account above quoted, Dr. Judd
purchased the quarry of beautiful black marble, on the lake shore in Shoreham, which
he transported by teams and extensively manufactured at his mill here, In the year
1820 he received into partnership his son-in-law, Lebbeus Harris, son of Lebbeus Har-
tis, Senior. By them the business was largely prosecuted, and agencies for the sale es-
tablished in some of the large cities, and in Western New York. In 1837 the whole es-
tablishment was brought to a close by the death of both the partners. Mr. Harris died
in April, at the age of forty-five, and Dr. Judd in September, at the age of seventy-six,
The mill has never been in operation since. Dr. Nathaniel Harris, a brother of Leb-
beus, who had also been engaged in the business in various ways, continued the manu-
facture on a small scale for a few years. Mr. Daniei Judd, son of Dr. Judd, still prose~
cutes the busiuess on a small scale in a shop near the former factory.”

LOCAL QUESTION OF INVENTION.

Several valuable inventions have been claimed for the town of Middlebury, and at
the building of the new Town Hall it was proposed by some of the citizens to honor
such inventors by inscribing their names on a tablet within the edifice. Who were wor-
thy of this honor was a matter to be decided. Among those named was a young Mid-
dlebury lad, Isaac E. Markham, for whom friends set up the claim, that early in the cen-
tury, at ten years of age, he was the inventor of the present method of sawing marble;
that of driving by water power toothless saws fixed in gangs and fed by sand and water.

The Middlebury Historical Society called on one of its members to investigate the
validity of this claim of the friends of Markham, and at the same time to give, inciden-
tally, a statement in regard to the sawing of marble.

The facts of the case were collected and read in a communication presented at a
meeting of the society, which was approved and directed to be published.
.

APPENDIX. 67

At the March meeting of the freemen of the town in 1884, the matter of the erec-
tion of the tablet came up, and as the merits of the different inventors could not well
be decided upon in open meeting, it was determined to appoint a committee, who
should decide upon the cases after they had listened to the statements of interested
parties. The committee appointed to consider whether Middlebury had a just claim to
the invention of the present method of sawing marble was composed of Col. A, F.
Walker of Rutland, Gen. G. W. Grandey of Vergennes and Prof. W. H. Parker of
Middlebury.

On June 11th the committee met at the Court House and listened to the statements
of persons in regard to the invention of marble sawing.

In favor of Markham was presented the facts that he was an ingenious lad, and
that as a young man he invented various valuable devices. Further was brought for-
ward the statement made by the sister of Markham, that she knew that her brother
Isaac was the inventor of the machinery as now used, that she could remember that
he made a working model for the purpose of sawing stone by the use of narrow strips
of sheet iron moving in a gang back and forth and fed by sand and water. He used a
crank for his machine, but it was designed to be propelled by water. Her father showed
the model to Dr. E. W. Judd, who was pleased with it, and subsequently it was ar-
ranged that a mill should be huilt and the invention tested. The mill was built and
proved successful.

To strengthen Markham's claim, aged people were called up who had fora long |
time believed that the boy, Isaac E. Markham, had invented the machinery and pro-
cess which Dr. Judd used, and which since has been everywhere used in sawing
marble.

On the other hand, it was admitted that, while it was possible that the idea of saw-
ing marble with toothless saws, fed by sand and water, and driven by water power, was
original in the mind of Markham, and that he did invent machinery tor that purpose,
it was contended that the probabilities were altogether against that view. Dr. Judd had
been brought up in a town, not far from a locality where the sawing of marble by the
same means was earliest in operation, and his description of methods already in
use in Connecticut probably gave the inspiration under which the young lad worked
and that resulted in the model on which Dr. Judd’s marble mills were subsequently
patterned.

The facts stated in the correspondence were called up and the development of
marble sawing. beginning with the toothless saw from time out of mind, down to the
date of the alleged invention, was traced, in which every point claimed by the friends of
the inventor, the toothless soft iron saw, the sand and water, the gang, and the use of
water as a motive power was covered.

A portion of the letters contained in this appendix was placed in the hands of the
committee as an aid in determining the claim of Middlebury to the honor of the inven-

tion of marble sawing.
63° MIDDLEBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

The report of the committee, received by the Town Clerk and placed by him on
file, is here given :

Your committee, to whom was referred the investigation of whether or not the in-
vention of the present method of sawing marble can be claimed for Middlebury, re-
spectfully report:

That we have considered the matter in the light of such information as was laid
before us by persons interested, and are of the opinion that said claim cannot properly
be made.

Respectfully submitted,
ALDACE F. WALKER,
GEO. W. GRANDEY, | commit

W. H. PARKER,
August 11, 1884.