Aggregates Manager

November 2015

Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine

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AGGREGATES MANAGER November 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 In Stone D uring the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, hard-working men developed a booming granite industry in Barre, Vt., but we should not overlook the hard-working women who also contributed to the liveli- hood of the Barre stone industry families. While some families could subsist solely on the incomes of the granite workers, others needed supplemental income. This was especially true when the male head of the house passed away from disease, silicosis, or an accident, leaving his widow to fend for herself and her family. From 1880 to 1910, women held a variety of jobs, but about half of Barre's working women were boardinghouse keepers. This was remarkable considering that, nationally, less than 2 percent of the working female population took in boarders. In a typical boardinghouse, "room" meant a bed, a chair, and a place to hang the boarder's clothes. "Board" meant three meals a day. The daily schedule of cooking breakfast, packing lunch pails, making beds, cleaning rooms, laundering and mending clothes, buying groceries, cooking supper, and cleaning up was grueling. A single woman could manage one to three boarders. Four or more tenants usually required the help of family members or paid employees. Mrs. McCarthy was an Irish shed owner's widow. Her husband loved the granite business, but when, first, his uncle and, next, his good friend, both died from lung disease, her husband began to drink excessively. His workmen often half carried him home after the shed closed for the day. Business suffered. Mrs. McCarthy took action. "I saw my duty even though it was a painful one, and I did it," said Mrs. McCarthy, "I went up to the shed one afternoon and talked to every one of the unmarried men…[I] told them I would be glad to have any of them as roomers… By the end of the next week, six were rooming at the house." To further supplement their income, many boardinghouse keepers sold homemade wine and grappa (a distilled wine) to board- ers and neighbors. Liquor laws in Barre changed back and forth from a dry community to one that licensed liquor sales. However, during times when liquor sales were allowed, licenses were only issued to males with formal liquor establishments. Consequently, some women were arrested and fined or even jailed for those small-scale liquor sales. Boardinghouses could be very pleasant places to stay. In a 1940 interview, Pierre Savoie, a hard-working Barre stonecutter, reminisced about the time he spent in boarding houses. "Mrs. Fournier did the cooking that night, we all liked it. Her husband died of stonecutter's t.b. the month before. She said she was going to…take in roomers and boarders. Four of us moved in next week… [A]nother French woman began to take in roomers and boarders next door. They was friendly, but they knew us men talked about the food and compared it, so there was competition. It suited us fine. Each one would cook the best she could, and still make a profit. I never ate so well since." Savoie went on to say, "I almost married once with the widow who run the boarding house next door… but I figured I wouldn't be my own boss no more. I'd have to work all the time, if I liked the job or not… I like money, but I ain't going to break my back getting it." To him, running a boarding house was more difficult than cutting stone. While the men were away cutting stone at the quarry, women were cleaning rooms and preparing three meals a day. BARRE Boardinghouse Keepers To generate income, the women of Barre, Vt., often ran boardinghouses. They provided a room and three meals a day to many of the area stonecutters.

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