BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES. 291 



the introduction of machinery and improved methods of working. The 

 total product of the three quarries for this year was about 781,600 cubic 

 feet, valued at not less than $650,000. A fleet of twenty-five vessels of 

 various kinds was regularly employed in transporting this material to 

 market. 



The quarrying of slate for roofing purposes is an industry of compar- 

 atively recent origin in the United States, few of the quarries having 

 been operated for a longer period than twenty or thirty years. The 

 earliest opened and systematically worked are believed to have been 

 those at West Bangor, Pa., which date back to 1835. 



The abundance of slate tombstones in many of our older church-yards, 

 however, would seem to prove that for other purposes thau roofing 

 these stones have been quarried from a much earlier period. It is 

 stated, moreover, that as early as 1721 a cargo of 20 tons of split slate 

 was brought to Boston from Hangman's Island, in Braintree Bay, which 

 may have been used in part for roofing purposes ; but the greater part 

 of the material for this purpose was imported directly from Wales. It 

 is also stated* that slates were quarried at Lancaster, Massachusetts, 

 as early as 1750 or 1753, and were in extensive use in Boston soon after 

 the close of the Revolution. The old Hancock house on Beacon street, 

 already noted (ante, p. 000), was covered with slate from these quarries, 

 as was also the old State House and several other buildings. This 

 quarry was worked more or less for fifty years and formed at one time 

 quite an important industry, but which finally became unprofitable, and 

 about 1825 or 1830 the works were discontinued, not to be again started 

 till about 1877. 



The first quarry opened in what is now the chief slate-producing re- 

 gion of the United States was that of Mr. J. W. Williams, situated 

 about a mile northwest of Slateford, in Pennsylvania. This dates back 

 to the year 1812.t 



The Vermont slate quarries are of still more recent development, work 

 not being begun here till 1845, when Hon. Alason Allen began the man- 

 ufacture of school slates at Fairhaven.J 



It is interesting to note, in this connection, that during the business 

 depression of 1876-'80 almost the entire product of the American quar- 

 ries was exported to England, where it sold for even less thau the 

 Welsh slates, though necessarily at very small profits. The return of 

 more prosperous times, however, created a local demand, and the export 

 trade has proportionally decreased, though considerable quantities are 

 still sent to the West Indies, South America, England, Germany, and 

 even New Zealand and Australia. 



At present not far from $3,328,150 are invested in the slate quarries 

 of the United States, and the value of the annual product is some 

 $1,529,985. 



* Marvin's History of Lancaster, Mass. 

 tRep. D. 3, second Geol. of Penna., p. 8u, 

 t Geol, of Vt., Vol. II, 1861, P. 70b 



