Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/513927
AGGREGATES MANAGER May 2015 44 by Bill Langer Bill Langer is a consulting research geologist who spent 41 years with the U.S. Geological Survey before starting his own business. He can be reached at Bill_Langer@hotmail.com. "The walls of the exterior are of [Barre dark] granite, which shews the architectural details to great advantage." — Zaddock Thompson, 1842, History of Vermont, Part Second, p. 132 Barre Granite, the topic of this series of articles, had achieved recognition as an attractive building material by the 1830s, and quarries had been established to provide large quantities of the beautiful granite. A committee in Montpelier was established to prepare a plan to build a new state house. The committee solicited bids to furnish 23,000 cubic feet of Barre dark granite for the walls of the state house. Construction on the state house took place between 1833 and 1836. The pillars, foundation, window caps, sills, and cornices for the second Vermont State House were extracted from a quarry on Cobble Hill, and the ashlars for the walls came from Millstone Hill. But the granite had to be transported from Barre to Montpielier, and that was no easy task. My great grandmother's family was in the drayage business, and my mother would regale my siblings and me with many a tale about hauling freight by horse-drawn wagon. But nothing we heard compares with the demanding struggle to move large granite blocks from the quarries to the state house. The contract to haul Barre granite to Montpelier for use in the state house was undertaken, not by granite men, but by teamsters. Their workday began before the 5 a.m. breakfast with the feeding and harnessing of the horses. After breakfast, sleds were hitched to the horses, taken to the quarries, and loaded. Although some of the more advanced quarries had crude derricks operated by men or by horses, most blocks were loaded by pushing and pulling them on rollers. After the sleds were loaded, workers returned home for mid-day dinner and fed the horses. After dinner, they left for Montpelier with their load of granite, unloaded it, and returned to Barre. By the time they had supper and tended to their horses, it would be 9 p.m. The heavier blocks were left for winter when they could be drawn over the snow on sleds. Special strong sleds were built es- pecially for the task at hand. Each sled runner would be 'clogged' with a chain in front. As many as 30 or more oxen and horse teams would sometimes be required to transport large blocks down the hill. Three or four teams of horses might be harnessed to the rear of the sled to hold back the load. The workers could breathe a sigh of relief when they arrived safely at the foot of the hill. Unfortunately, the teamsters lost money on the contract to haul the granite for the state house. They had a cubic foot of granite cut and weighed and bid for the contract based on the weight of that cubic foot. They expected to be paid the bid price for ev- ery cubic foot of granite they drew to Montpelier. However, the granite at the quarry was in blocks of different sizes. Each block had the size it would be after it was cut and trimmed at the job site. Consequently, the teamsters drew hundreds of cubic feet of granite for which they received no pay. But their hard labor contributed to the construction of a building with lasting value. "When in 1837 the Capitol was completed, it was pronounced the finest in the United States and called forth loud praise for the high grade of granite used in its construction." — A.W. Brayley, 1913, History of the Granite Industry of New England, Vol. II, p. 31 Teamsters get an early lesson on the economics of transporting granite during the construction of Vermont's second state house. VERMONT STATE HOUSE The