288 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



The other company, called the Augusta Blue Ledge Company, pur- 

 chased Hall's ledge, on the east side of the river, near Daniel Hewin's 

 house, some 2£ miles from the bridge. 



It is further stated by this same authority* that during the erection 

 of the state-house blocks of granite for the colonnade, 21 feet long by 

 nearly 4 feet in diameter, were obtained from the " Melvin ledge," in Hal- 

 lowell, about 3 miles away. Convenient and abundant as are these 

 quarry sites, it seems a little singular that they should not have been 

 earlier discovered and worked. In building the Kennebec bridge in 

 1797 the piers and abutments were constructed of stone split from drift 

 bowlders, and the houses of Capt. William Robinson, Judge Bridge, and 

 Benjamin Whitwell, built about 1801, had for underpinning granite 

 brought at great expense from near Boston, probably Quincy, or per- 

 haps Chelmsford. Most of the stone of large dimensions of which the 

 old jail was built in 1808 were also, it is stated, obtained with great 

 labor from bowlders, though an unsuccessful attempt was made to work 

 the Rowell ledge at the time. Some of the top strata were broken off 

 by means of wedges driven under the sheets, but the process was labo- 

 rious and slow. The first successful attempt to work a ledge in town 

 is stated to have been made by Jonathan Matthews on the Thwing 

 ledge, in 1825. Powder was not used until the state-house was built, 

 and then at first with only one hole, by means of which irregular masses 

 were thrown out. Later two holes short distances apart were fired 

 simultaneously, by means of which long, straight seams were opened. 

 These seams were again charged with powder, and thus masses of stone 

 of considerable size were moved from the bed to be afterwards broken up 

 by wedges. The Frankfort Granite Company, located at the base of 

 Mosquito Mountain, began operations in May, 1836, and within the 

 next two years took out and sold upwards of $50,000 worth of material. 

 What is now the Hallowell Granite Company opened its quarries in 

 1838, and during the first ten years is stated to have sold $500,000 

 worth of stone. 



It is stated by Professor Seelyt that the earliest attempts at quarry- 

 ing marbles in New England were those of Philo Tomlinson, who began 

 operations at Marbledale, in the town of New Milford, Conn., about 

 1800. Other quarries were soon after opened, and in 1830 as many as 

 fifteen were in active operation within a distance of 3 miles. The prod- 

 uct was sent to all parts of the country. Soon after this date compe- 

 tition set in from other localities, particularly from Dover, N. Y., and 

 Rutland, Vt., and by 1850 the business had proved so unremunerative 

 that the last quarry at Marbledale was abandoned. Marble quarries 

 and mills were also put in active operation at West Stockbridge, in 

 Massachusetts, as early as 1802 or 1803, and these furnished the marble 

 for the city hall in New York City. Work was stopped here in 1855, 

 owing to competition of Vermont and Italian marbles. 



*Op. cit, p. 582. t Marble Border of New England, p. 27. 



