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

Part One — The St. George District 53
stone was sold in the rough, and the remainder was dressed at the
company plant in St. George.
This stone is one of the blackest quarried in the St. George
District. It is coarsely crystalline and consists chiefly of black augite
in crystals up to one half of an inch across, greenish grey feldspar
in irregular grains, and brown biotite. Thin sections of the stone
were not examined under the microscope, but the rock appears to
contain olivine and to closely resemble in composition the stone
from the Spinney Quarry (48) on the west side of Digdeguash
Lake. The most troublesome defects are veinlets of white quartz up
to one eighth of an inch wide paralleled by zones of darker green.
Quarry 50 (‘Charles Hanson Quarry’) in black granite is
reached from the Village of Bocabec on Highway 127 to St.
Andrews by going about one mile north on Bocabec Ridge
Road, running up the west side of the Bocabec River. The quarry
property, owned by Charles Hanson of St. Andrews, covers
about 80 acres on the side of a hill located 900 feet southwest
of the bridge over the Bocabec River. The quarry was opened by
McGrattan & Sons in 1906 and produced a dark stone that was
marketed under the trade name Egyptian Black Granite (Parks
1914, p. 149).
Operations in 1934
The H. McGrattan & Sons dressing shed in St. George
is equipped with four polishing beds, one roughing lathe, one
polishing lathe, one surfacer, one sand blast equipment and one 10
x 10 Sullivan air compressor. Hydroelectric power is used under
terms similar to those with the other operating granite companies.
The main products of this company are monumental stock
and dimension stone, the latter coming principally from its Dawson
Mountain Quarry. Material from the quarry has been used chiefly
for structural projects, including the drydocks at Saint John. A
considerable amount also went into the railway bridge over the
Reversing Falls in Saint John.
Stuart Quarry
History
The discovery of the Stuart Quarry (Map 2, 51) just northwest
of Bocabec began with a porcupine. So said a reporter after he
interviewed R.A. Stuart, High Sheriff of Charlotte County:
One day last winter [of 1892–93], Sheriff Stuart
took his gun and started off in search of game amid the
wilds of Bocabec. When in the neighborhood of what is
familiarly known as Orr’s Mountain [now, Chickahominy
Mountain], he noticed where a porcupine had found a
hiding-place among the boulders at the foot of the cliff.
He tried to dislodge the animal, but without avail. “We’ll
come another day and smoke you out, old fellow,” said
the Sheriff to his companion.
True to his word, a day or two later found Mr.
Stuart, with a package of sulphur and an axe in his hand,
threading his way amid the snow and tangled shrubbery
in search of the porcupine’s lair. While cautiously
picking out his path, his knee came in contact with a
projecting boulder with so much force as to cause him
a twinge of pain. Without thinking what he was doing
particularly, Mr. Stuart aimed a blow at the offending
boulder with his axe, and knocked off a long sliver of it.
Instantly his practiced eye caught sight of [black granite],
and both pain and porcupine were soon forgotten.
~ St. Andrews Beacon, December 7, 1893