USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 64
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The Minneapolis and Central Minnesota Railway Company has surveyed a line from Minneapolis via Champlin, Monticello, Kimball Prairie, Fair Haven and Maine Prairie to St. Cloud. The right of way has been secured for prac- tically the entire distance, and considerable preparatory work has been done at the southern end as far as Champlin. Late in the fall of 1914 work was begun on the section from St. Cloud to Kimball Prairie and grading pushed as rapidly as possible until freezing weather foreed a suspension of opera- tions. It is the intention of the company to resume work as early in the spring of 1915 as the frost is sufficiently out of the ground to permit the use of serap- ers and push it rapidly forward to completion.
The line passes through out of the richest and best settled parts of the county and will be of great benefit to the settlers along the ronte. It will touch a number of the granite quarries, giving them a cheap and ready means of transportation for their output. It will give St. Cloud a much desired con- nection with the Soo railway at Kimball Prairie, the importance of which to this city cannot well be overestimated.
It is the intention of the company to construct a branch line from Maine Prairie junction by way of Marty to Cold Spring, which will be a boon to the farmers in that part of the county.
The power used will be gasoline motors, at least for the present, although at a later date electricity may be substituted.
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CHAPTER XXVIII
THE GRANITE INDUSTRY.
Location of Deposits-Quality and Availability-Early Efforts at Quarrying- Present Quarry Firms-Manufacturers' Association-Texture and Color- Importance and Possibilities-Opinions of the Newspapers.
Deposits of granite, although somewhat confined in area yet practically un- limited in quantity, are to be found in castern Stearns and the adjacent parts of Benton and Sherburne counties. It constitutes an element of wealth that has had and will continue increasingly to have an important bearing on the growth of St. Cloud, which is the centre of this industry. While in some instances the opening of a quarry has proved expensive before stone of the desired quality is obtained, yet the cases are exceedingly rare where the outlay has not been fully justified by the results obtained. Not infrequently the outcropping of this crys- talline rock is such that merchantable stone can be obtained almost from the be- ginning. One of the important features of this industry is that the raw material involves the minimum proportion of the cost of the finished product, very much the larger portion of the outlay being for labor, thus giving steady employment at good wages to a large number of men.
The extent of a quarry is not by any means the first, let alone the only, consideration in determining its value. Its accessibility, elevation, and above all, its bed-seam, are of the utmost importance. In the Eastern granite beds the rock lies in layers, the seams running horizontally. The first layer will be an inch or so thick, the next several inches and so on, increasing in thick- ness as the workman goes down, so that slabs of any extent or of any de- sired thickness can be found in the different strata. In this region, however, the seaming is, on the contrary, perpendicular and the position and direction of the bed or foundation seam is of great importance. In some of the quar- ries this bottom seam or crack is apparently wanting, while in others it will be found from ten or twenty to thirty feet below the surface, giving a face of any dimension, while the grain running perpendicular, it may be split off of any thickness. This, quarrymen say, is the easiest formation to work to advantage; it is not necessary to remove a number of surface layers in order to get stone thick enough for monumental or other heavy work. The stone lies in huge outcrops, running back into bluffs and hills on which large trees may be found growing, the soil above the granite being from one to several feet thick. Again a stretch of level country will seem to be all granite, with just a grassy turf for its covering. Or, huge boulders, like the Rockville "hay- stack," will be found on the prairies, as though they had been missiles hurled by the gods in their battles with the earthly giants of mythical times.
While because of its extreme hardness the use of granite for building pur- poses is more expensive than is that of the softer varieties, yet its great dura- bility has brought it into wide use in the construction of business and public buildings where solidity and strength as well as general attractiveness of
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appearance are desired. Official tests show its strength to be, on edge, from 23,750 to 26,250 pounds per square inch, and on bed from 25,000 to 28,000 pounds per square inch; the weight per cubic foot is 163.1 to 168.4 pounds. This quality of durability is coming more and more to bring granite into use, notwithstanding its higher cost. Some of the more impressive public build- ings in Minnesota have been built wholly of granite, as the court house and city hall at Minneapolis, the United States custom house and post office at St. Paul and the new Catholic cathedral in the latter city. The govern- ment building at St. Cloud, erected for the use of the post office and the land office, is also wholly of granite, and its use has entered largely if not wholly into the construction of many other buildings in this state as also in other states. It is a matter of general regret and mortification that Minne- sota's capitol instead of being reared to its dome with this unsurpassed product of our own state should have been veneered with a bastard marble. The redeeming features of the structure are the massive foundation story and the broad granite steps which furnish the approach.
The prevailing colors of the granite quarried in this vicinity are gray and red, althoughi these are of widely-differing shades, some of the grays being almost black, while the reds vary from a pink to the deep Scotch. The grays consist largely of a quartz, embraced in a matrix of orthoclase, with but a small proportion of mica or chlorite. About one-third of the whole rock is made up of quartz and two-thirds of the remainder of orthoclase; about one-half of the rest is hornblende, and the residue is divided between the other minerals, chlorite predominating. The minerals biotite, muscovite and chlorite, which make the crystalline rock easier to cut, are, in this rock, arranged sometimes with their cleavage surfaces prevailing in one direction, or lie in belts, giving a faintly striped aspect, constituting gneiss, and much facilitating the operations of the quarry by giving the stone a "rift" so- called, the beds being from eight inches to five feet thick. The composition of the red syenite is not very different from the foregoing, but the feldspar is mainly flesh-red and all the grains are coarser. The coarser grain gives it the resemblance to the imported Scotch granites, of which it is practically the equal. The St. Cloud granite is almost wholly free from any of the minerals that show signs of decay or corrosion. It is what is termed "fresh," and while hard to quarry and polish retains its polish indefinitely.
The first granite quarry opened in Minnesota was the so-called Breen & Young quarry at East St. Cloud, in Sherburne county, where the Minnesota State Reformatory now stands. This was in the spring of 1868, the company to carry on the work having been organized in St. Paul the previous winter. The first order, to fill which the quarry was opened, was for the dressed stone to be used in the corners, steps and trimmings of the United States cus- tom house and post office at St. Paul, and at the same time the company re- ceived orders from Rock Island for its stone. Granite from this quarry was furnished for the basement of the St. Cloud normal school building. L. Robinson & Son opened a quarry at Sauk Rapids, supplying the stone in 1872 for the railroad bridges on the St. Cloud & St. Vincent branch and on the Brainerd line. A quarry was opened at Watab, and specimens exhibited
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at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 by Mr. Guerney received an award, but the quarry was afterwards abandoned.
In the two years from the beginning of 1869 to 1871 the shipments of granite from St. Cloud to St. Paul amounted to 3,200 tons.
In the spring of 1876 at the Breen & Young quarry the stone was gotten out for the elegant residenec of Alexander Mitchell, the Milwaukee million- aire. Three years later from the same quarry were taken out four of the largest bloeks ever taken from a western quarry up to that time. Each block contained seventy-five cubic feet and weighed about 12,000 pounds. They were shipped to Milwaukee to be used as piers in the "Mitchell Ex- change" building, that shrewd business man appreciating the value of granite for such buildings.
The first company organized to operate in granite on the west side of the river, in Stearns county, was the St. Cloud Granite Quarrying & Manu- facturing Company, incorporated August 12, 1875, with a capital of $100,000, the offices being at St. Paul. The incorporators were Hiram Rogers, William M. Tileston, David W. Wellman and W. D. Rogers, of St. Paul, and L. A. Evans, of St. Cloud, the latter being the vice-president and the quarry came to be known as the "Evans quarry." It comprised a forty-acre tract in the southwest quarter of section 17, about three miles west of St. Cloud; the stone was the red variety. In the spring of 1886 the quarry, which had been worked by O'Brien & Sons of St. Paul, was sold to Mr. Breen. This quarry has fur- nished the stone for some of the finest buildings in the Twin Cities, including the New York Life and the Germania Life Insurance buildings in St. Paul and the New York Life in Minneapolis. Some of the bloeks when shipped weighed sixteen tons each.
In 1880 a contract was received by Saulspaugh Bros. to furnish the gran- ite for the piers of the Northern Pacific Railway Company's bridge crossing the Missouri river at Bismarck, N. D. Another bridge, known as the Belle- fontaine, located a short distance above the mouth of the Missouri, was sup- ported by three granite piers each 90 feet high, which required 600 loads of St. Cloud granite in their construction.
In 1883 W. J. Holes and M. Moriarity, pioneers in the granite business in Stearns county, purchased of Mrs. Streitz the southeast quarter of section 21, in the township of St. Cloud, and opened up a quarry. Their first contract was the stone for the Ladies' Home at St. Cloud Normal school. At that time there was little demand for anything in this line except street curbing and bridge work with an occasional building job. In 1886 G. Otis Holes succeeded M. Moriarity, the firm becoming Holes Bros., which has continued successfully in business ever since.
In 1884 William C. Baxter, of Minneapolis, in company with J. B. Rob- inson, of St. Cloud, opened a quarry in the northeast quarter of seetion 32 and employed about sixty men. They got out and dressed the stone for a bridge, and also quarried the granite for the government building at Minneapolis, which was their last job. While this ledge is one of the largest and best in the county for building or bridge work it is situated too far from the railway to be operated at a profit.
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In 1886 J. G. Emery and W. C. Stetson, of Minneapolis, purchased of D. B. Searle the so-called Evans and Gwinn tract of 200 acres in section 19 for $4,000, organizing the Minnesota Granite & Polishing Company. Walter Arnold was the superintendent in charge. Several derricks were erected and an up-to-date steam polishing plant was installed. One of the orders filled by this company in 1887 was for thirty-seven polished columns for the state house at Lincoln, Nebraska, and another was for the platform of granite with an unbroken surface of 15 feet 6 inches by 10 feet for the Minneapolis Library building, which was said to be one of the largest granite faces ever quar- ried in the West up to that date. Another platform taken out at this time for the library building was 7 by 11 feet. After about two years' experience this company was compelled to suspend business by reason of the high price of labor and the excessive freight rates.
In April, 1886, the Drake Company of St. Paul and Sioux Falls, S. D., purchased of N. Scheuer eleven acres in section 11, near the Evans quarry, for $1,100. From this quarry was taken the stone for the Pioneer Press building in St. Paul. Some of the blocks weighed twelve tons each.
In August of the same year Drake & Stratton, a wealthy New York firm, purchased of Henry Krammermeyer the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter section of 28, about two miles west of the city on the Luxemburg road, for $800. From the beginning this firm did a large business, shipping out before the close of the year an average of seven car loads of finished granite blocks per day, and the monthly pay roll was $5,500. It operated but a single year, a strike which was regarded generally as being wholly unjustifiable causing its members to give up in disgust. This was a most unfortunate re- sult for both the granite industry and the business interests of the city, as the large capital which Drake & Stratton were able to command and their widely-extended connections would have enabled them to secure and fill heavy contracts along many lines of stone construction.
In the same year, 1886, John Fraser bought of M. Leim eighty acres of granite land on the south line of section 20 for $4,500. This tract was sold by Mr. Fraser in April, 1887, to Robert Ashworth, of St. Paul, for $7,000.
The next comer to enter the field was the Standard Granite Company, which erected a large steam plant on west St. Germain street, but went out of business after about two years' operation.
In August, 1886, three granite blocks were shipped from the St. Cloud depot for use in the foundation of the new post office at Minneapolis. One block weighed thirteen tons and the other two blocks ten tons each. Special trucks were provided and sixteen horses were required to bring cach stone from the quarry to the depot.
In this year the shipment of granite paving blocks began from the Breen quarry to St. Louis, and this branch of the work has since attained large pro- portions. In 1888 Coates & Freeman had a contract for furnishing 1,600,000 paving blocks for the St. Paul Street Railway Company, and the following year secured a contract for 1,200 cars of blocks for the Minneapolis street car extension. Other granite firms also dealt heavily in paving blocks. The
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regulation sizes of paving blocks are 9 to 12 inches long, 31/2 to 5 inches wide and 6 to 7 inches deep.
In 1886, the shipments of granite from the St. Cloud depot were 886 cars; in 1887 they were 1842, and in 1888, 1,927 cars.
In 1889 the following granite companies or producers were getting out stone for shipment : Holes Bros., Drake & Co., M. Breen, Coates & Freeman, R. Ashworth, St. Cloud Granite Co., Anderson & Co., Saulspaugh & Co., John Frazier, C. C. Stone, L. Robinson, Allen Cameron, Joseph Burns, Morgan & Flaherty, Larson Bros. & Johnson, Nelson & Larson, D. A. McIver.
In 1892 the Northern Granite Company (successor to Coates & Freeman) got out ten granite columns, each thirteen feet long, on a Chicago order, and the stone for the basement and first story of a new bank building at Spring- field, Ill .; the Breen quarry got out the granite for a new public building at Omaha, the contract amounting to $40,000; Hollander, Williams & Co. took from the Anderson & Borwick quarry the stone for the new public building at Duluth; a year later the Northern Granite Company supplied the granite for the Planter's Hotel at St. Louis. This year the Bisenius quarry was bought by Hennessy Bros. & Cox, of St. Paul, for $4,500, and from it was quarried the stone for the new government building in that city, John Clark, of the present firm of Clark & McCormack, being in charge of the work. In Octo- ber, 1893, the Robinson quarry, in section 29, was bought by Richard Fother- gill for Chicago parties. At this time a contract was made with Foley Bros. & Guthrie for the building of a spur track connecting the quarries in the western part of the city with the Willmar branch of the Great Northern Railroad.
It was not until 1895-6 that the granite business in St. Cloud became well established and profitable, and this was when monumental work became the leading feature of the industry. The number of plants, with fully equipped cutting sheds, the machinery being of the most modern patterns enabling the operators to turn out the highest quality of work with celerity, has multiplied rapidly from year to year, and yet all are overcrowded with orders. The fame of St. Cloud granite for monumental purposes has extended not only to the far West but to the East and South, and dealers come personally to inspect the stock and plan their orders.
QUARRY FIRMS.
The following-named companies, firms and individuals were engaged in granite production in St. Cloud and the immediate vicinity at the close of the year 1914:
Holes Brothers. This firm was a pioneer organization in the granite busi- ness in Stearns county, having begun business in November, 1886. The mem- bers are W. J. and G. O. Holes. Its work is now mainly in the monumental line, with some of the higher grade building work, such as columns, caps and bases. About 35 men are employed, the annual pay roll being approximately $20,000. It has supplied the granite for the Chamber of Commerce building and James J. Hill's residence, St. Paul; Searle & McClure, D. B. Searle and Kerr blocks, and Unity Church, St. Cloud, and a large number of residences.
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In 1897 it shipped to Chicago, for the Hans Christian Anderson monument, a granite block weighing ten tons and having 87 square feet of polished sur- face. At their factory electric power is used, and the plant is equipped with two motors, five polishing machines, one column cutter capable of turning a column 3 feet in diameter and 14 feet long, two column polishing lathes large enough to polish columns 3 by 14 feet, two surfacing machines and the nec- essary supply of small air tools. Steam power is used at the quarry where are a 60-horse power boiler, a 30-horse power steam hoist, a 20-horse power steam air compressor, a 50-ton and a 10-ton derrick, steam and air drills.
Benzie & Campbell. Organized May 1, 1908, by James Benzie and John F. Campbell. Their work is almost exclusively red and gray granite monu- ments, with some building work. The average number of men employed the past year was 45 and the aggregate wages $20,000. Their output has been shipped mainly to Illinois, Wisconsin and Kansas, with pieces going to many other parts of the country, including California. The polishing machines, air compressor and surfacing machines are run by electric power, pneumatic tools of every description being used. When Benzie & Campbell began business six years ago it was with but a single helper, a boy.
Simmers & Campbell. Organized in 1898 by A. M. Simmers and William Campbell. The lines of work are monumental and building. The average number of men employed during the past year was 55 and the wages paid totaled $45,000. The finished granite has been furnished for the court house at Bloomington, Ill .; Merchants' Bank, Winnipeg; post office building at Huron, S. D .; addition to the old post office at Minneapolis; Great Northern depot and library building, St. Cloud. Electric power is used at the factory and steam at the quarry.
Black Diamond Granite Company. Organized in 1909, with the follow- ing members: Albin Anderson, Charles Schmid, John Anderson and Edward Lauer. The company owns its own quarries of dark red, dark gray and black diamond granite, and ships work to most parts of the United States. Its plant is equipped with the latest modern machinery. The average number of men employed during the past year was 20, and the total of wages was $18,000.
Northwestern Granite Company. Organized in 1890, by Louis Lehmeier, Barney Kaeter and Adolplı Fischer. Their product is street curbing, building stone and monumental stock. The average number of men employed dur- ing the past year was 16 and the weekly wages $150 to $200. Granite has been furnished for the State Agricultural College, West Publishing Co., G. Sommers, St. Paul; blind asylum, Bathgate, N. D .; Lawrence Hall and St. Mary's School, St. Cloud. Steam and compressed air are used in the work.
Pioneer Granite Company. Organized March 1, 1913, with David Alex- ander, president; William Alexander, vice-president; Joseph George, secre- tary and treasurer. Red and dark gray granite are used for monumental purposes, and "pearl gray" for building work. This company purchased in February, 1913, the Baxter quarry, from which was taken the granite used in Minnesota State Capitol. An average of 30 men are employed, the annual wages being approximately $15,000. Granite has been furnished for the
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city hall, Aberdeen, S. D .; Security State Bank, Fairview, Montana ; Olympic building, Winnipeg; post office, Menomonee, Wis .; Ford Motor Works, build- ing and Gateway Park building, Minneapolis; Union Station, Indianapolis. The machinery includes steam hoists and drills, air compressors and other modern appliances. The cutting plant in the city is operated by electricity and the quarry machinery by steam.
United Granite Company. Organized June, 1908, the members of the company being William Shield, president; C. A. Swenson, secretary ; John Erickson, treasurer; Alfred Naugen, Erick Olson, Herman Johnson, Arvid Walberg, Karl Karlin, Karl Anderson, Leonard Engquist. Number of men at work, 26; wages for the year, $18,000. Large monuments have been shipped to Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio and a number of other states. Fully equipped with the latest and best machinery.
National Granite Works. A co-partnership was formed in 1908 by Charles E. Peterson, Gust Peterson, Percy Peterson, Gust Johnson, Axel Peter- son, Stephen Kerkowski and Arthur Hagberg. The business was bought March 1, 1912, by L. C. Brown and Frank Ekstrom, the style of the firm remaining unchanged until October, 1913, when it was incorporated with L. C. Brown, president and manager; Frank Ekstrom, vice-president. The company employed 24 men on an average during the past year and paid in wages $20,000. The plant is equipped with the latest improved polishing ma- chines and air compressors, all driven by electric power, its speciality being polished monuments of St. Cloud granite.
Frick & Borwick Granite Company. Organized October 12, 1890, with John Sparry, president; Edward Resell, vice-president; O. Frick, secretary ; John Gustafson, treasurer; B. Borwick, director; A. Young and O. Bostrom. The company employed during the past year 22 men, the annual wages being $18,000. The product is monumental work. Electric power is used at the shops and steam at the quarry.
St. Cloud Granite Works. Established in 1894, by Alfred Johnson, presi- dent and manager; Emil Peterson, vice-president; Swan Anderson. During the past year an average of 70 men have been employed, with wages amount- ing to $53,149. The kinds of work turned out include monumental, building, bridge and paving. Monuments of large size have been shipped to Buffalo, N. Y., Harmony, Minn., to Canada and one to Scotland. Steam power is used, with pneumatic machinery.
August Erickson & Company. The members of the company are August Erickson, Charles Carlson, A. G. Skoog and Albert Johnson, who began busi- ness in January, 1903. The average number of men employed during the past year was 15, with $12,000 in wages. The business is mainly the produc- tion of paving blocks, curbing stone, monumental stock and other lines of granite in the rough. Use steam and compressed air, with complete outfit of modern machinery.
Melrose Granite Company. The company established its cutting sheds at Melrose, obtaining the granite in the rough from St. Cloud quarries, building up a large business. It has recently purchased a very desirable tract of land west of the Great Northern (Osseo) tracks on St. Germain street, to which
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place it intends removing its cutting sheds the coming spring. This will en- able it to do its work more expeditiously and economically. It is one of the most successful granite firms in the state.
Rockville Granite Company. This company has been in operation for a number of years, having been established by the late Henry Alexander. It produces both monumental and building work, mainly the latter. Some very large and handsome columns have been turned out.
Empire Quarrying Company. This company was incorporated December 31, 1912, by John F. Campbell and James Benzie, of St. Cloud, and Austin B. George, of Dixon, Ill., with John F. Campbell, president; A. B. George, vice- president ; James Benzie, secretary and treasurer ; capital stock, $50,000. The purpose of the company was to take red granite from their quarry situated four miles west of St. Cloud, being the largest deposit of red granite in this vicinity. The quarry has three openings, and is equipped with the most modern machinery, electrie power, derricks, air compressors, etc., and is lo- cated on a spur track of the Great Northern Railway. Rough stock in all sizes is furnished to the trade. The company employs an average of 20 men the year around, their wages for 1914 amounting to $11,370.
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