The Granite Industry of Southwestern New Brunswick: A Historical ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 The Granite Industry of Southwestern New Brunswick: A Historical Perspective The Saint George Red Granite Co. shipped its first schooner-load of granite from quarries on the west side of the Magaguadavic River (Map 3, 33 and 34) to Cormack’s monument shop in July 1872. Events thereafter moved swiftly. In February 1873 the firm submitted a bid to the then-Liberal federal government to produce columns for a new post office in Saint John. In April the company was officially incorporated, and in May its directors voted to erect a finishing shed in the St. George area. By September 1873 they had won the post office contract, erected a saltwater wharf at The Red Store (Map 2), and completed a railway from the quarries to the shed site on the Magaguadavic River. And in February 1874 they opened their $30,000 finishing shed (Map 2). But after those first frenzied months, things started to go wrong. Alexander Mackenzie, who became the Conservative Prime Minister in November 1873, tried to negate the column contract (possibly because, as a former stonemason, he had ties to stone suppliers in Upper Canada). In June 1874 a fire destroyed the finishing shed. Isaac Burpee became Mackenzie's federal Minister of Customs and left the company over a conflict of interest. Isaac's brother Fred took control in November 1875, reorganized the by-then insolvent firm into the New Brunswick Red Granite Co., and erected a new shed in Saint John, which also burned and had to be rebuilt. The stonecutters slowly caught up on the pre-fire back orders. Then Peter Cormack died in July 1877. A few years later, legal disputes broke out among the directors, some of whom left in a snit. Fred Burpee persisted through all these travails until his company grew into one of Canada’s most successful granite producers. The firm’s granite works lay near Sand Point on the southwest side of Saint John Harbour on Union (now, Protection) Street. The Carleton Branch Railway passed directly in front on the works. Derricks hoisted stone from the railflats onto tram cars that scooted from one section of the granite shed to another. The firm employed more than one hundred men, and its main customers were in the United States. The company’s US focus became troublesome when protectionist sentiments began to dominate American trade policy. The US tariff on finished stone skyrocketed from twenty to forty per cent in 1890. Burpee expressed his concerns to a St. John Globe reporter on March 7, 1891. Present-day Harbour Bridge Present-day highway 1 Wharves Union Street (now Protection Street) Estimated location of the New Brunswick Red Granite Co. shed Wharf Sand Point Slip Wharf Saint John (South End) Saint John Harbour Sand Point 0 200 m (scale is approximate) Above: Estimated location of the second granite shed of the New Brunswick Red Granite Co. (formerly, the Saint George Red Granite Co.) in Carleton, southwest side of Saint John Harbour. Adapted from Roe & Colby 1875, p. 42. The exact location of the first granite shed of the Saint George Red Granite Co. is uncertain. According to The Daily Telegraph (October 22, 1873), the steam-powered shed lay half a mile south of the quarries on a twenty-acre block of ‘fine intervale land’ (yellow X on Maps 2 and 3) along the Magaguadavic River. The company also constructed a saltwater wharf beside what was known as The Red Store (red X on Map 2).
Part One — The St. George District 11 “Is it true,” asked the reporter, “that you have made arrangements for the removal of your works to the United States?” “Well, not exactly,” said Mr. Burpee, “I have made no arrangements, but I see no other course open for me. Under the present restrictions my business cannot flourish.” “Where would you be likely to remove your works?” asked the reporter. “Probably to Eastport or Calais,” said Burpee. “Either of these towns would grant me a subsidy of from $5,000 to $6,000, which would cover the expense of removal.” The Calais offer materialized, and in mid-1892 Fred Burpee hauled his mill equipment across the border to Maine. There, he began to profitably dress rough St. George stone for the American and Canadian markets. Two years, in July 1894, he suddenly sickened and died at age 62. Without Burpee, the company muddled along for a while under director Charles Young, who became president. Young bought all corporate holdings in Calais and St. George at an auction around 1898, seemingly intending to carry on. He hired a quarry manager, John Maxwell, who focused solely on shipping rough stone to Maine. But Young lacked Burpee’s verve. By the time Wright visited in 1932, the quarries were in disarray. Charles had died twelve years earlier from a cerebral hemorrhage, having long since quit granite for the lumber trade. (The quarries’ post- 1920s history under the Young Estate continues on p. 33.) Bay of Fundy Red Granite Co. The Charles Ward cited by Dr. Wright as being the ‘discoverer’ of the red granite was the famous New Brunswick artist, Charles Caleb Ward (1831–1896). Ward was born in Saint John into the prominent merchant family of John Ward & Sons. As an aspiring artist, he studied first in Paris and later in New York, where he achieved much acclaim for his landscape and other paintings. His depictions of the settlements and daily life of First Nations people were unusual for their time, being neither sentimental nor romanticized. Ward settled in New York in 1850 but in August 1856 married Julia Wetmore, daughter of the St. George customs collector, Colonel Abraham Wetmore. The young couple thereafter shuttled back and forth between St. George and New York, where Charles had a studio from 1868 until 1872. During his summers in Charlotte County, Charles painted bucolic scenes of Lake Utopia (see p. viii) and took fishing trips with his father-in-law. Story has it that, while visiting Lake Utopia one day in late 1863, Wetmore and Ward met a local mason named James Laney. Some time earlier, Laney had set out to collect a rough granite hearthstone and instead found a disc-shaped chunk of granite near the western shore of the lake. When he hauled the disc home and removed the moss coating, he noticed a face carved onto one side. Laney’s wife said the face ‘glowered’ at her. Wetmore heard the tale and asked to buy the stone. Laney agreed and Wetmore hauled it to St. George. It eventually was donated to the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, where it became known as the Stone Medallion of Lake Utopia. Was this reported medallion-buying trip the same fishing expedition that allegedly spurred Ward’s interest in red granite?
Page 1 and 2: Energy and Mines The Granite Indust
Page 3 and 4: Energy and Mines The Granite Indust
Page 5 and 6: Preface and Acknowledgements iii Ta
Page 7 and 8: Preface and Acknowledgements v Pref
Page 9 and 10: Preface and Acknowledgements vii Ac
Page 11 and 12: Part One — The St. George Distric
Page 19: Part One — The St. George Distric
Page 71 and 72:
Part One — The St. George Distric
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Part Two — The Hampstead District
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Appendices 93 class of stone his cu
Page 105 and 106:
Appendices 95 It has long been the
Page 107 and 108:
Appendices 97 Quarry 6, Map 3. View
Page 109 and 110:
Appendices 99 Above left: Quarry 12
Page 111 and 112:
Appendices 101 Above left: Quarry 3
Page 113 and 114:
Appendices 103 Left: Quarry 46 (‘
show all

The Granite Industry of Southwestern New Brunswick: A Historical ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?