USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 113
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It will be readily understood that the devising and perfecting of a machine that would ac- complish this class of work rapidly and successfully was no simple problem. But the idea fastened itself in Mr. Wardwell's brain and staid there. In 1859 he constructed a small work- ing model and on that secured his original patent. In the following year he made a large ma- chine at St. Johnsbury, Vt., which was taken to Rutland and set at work on a block of marble furnished by Messrs. Sheldon & Slason. This machine, while it did not work to the satisfac- tion of the inventor, was still useful in showing him what was lacking in it. It was broken up and sold. In 1861 he built a new machine, radically different from the other and sufficiently smaller to admit of its being worked by and for experimental purposes. This was taken to the Sutherland Falls quarry and placed at work. The inventor might very properly have cried "Eureka !" The correct principle was discovered. The machine was successful, considered as an experiment. It cut a channel about twenty feet long, and twenty inches deep in the solid rock, using bars of steel only one-half inch thick, and cutting a kerf one inch wide. This channel was cut in the center of the machine and between the rails on which it moved ; it could not, therefore, cut close up to the wall of a quarry, nor could the rails be staid together ; these were serious advantages, but the inventor knew they could be obviated.
The War of the Rebellion was now inaugurated, and owing to the general depression, the manager of the quarry advised Mr. Wardwell to lay aside his machine until more propitious times. He accordingly returned to Canada and worked at his trade, saving his earnings for future work on his invention. In the spring of 1863 he received letters from H. P. Roberts, manager of the Sutherland Falls quarry, to the effect that business had revived and counsel- ing a renewal of his work. Meanwhile, during the winter of 1862-63 he constructed another model with the standards and gang of cutters on the outside of the machine, which allowed it to cut the channels outside of the rails on which it moved and close to the walls of the quarry. With this model he revisited the quarry at Sutherland Falls, and also showed it to Hon. E. M. Madden, president of the marble company, who lived in Middletown, N. Y., and the result was, an arrangement by which a larger machine on the new principle was to be built. On this point Mr. Wardwell says in the statement alluded to :-
" The cost of constructing this machine was to be borne by the Sutherland Falls Marble Company, while I was to receive $2.50 per day for superintending its construction and the sub- sequent operating of the same on their quarry to the extent of establishing its practicability for cutting channels in the quarry. The conditions under which this machine was to be con- structed and used was - that should it prove a success after a fair trial on the quarry, and should a patent .issue on an application which I was to make therefor, I was to give the Suth- erland Falls Marble Company the right to said machine, and any number of similar machines, together with such improvements as I might subsequently add thereto.
Immediately after making the above arrangement, I returned to Rutland and commenced the construction of a machine (April 23, 1863), which was completed and put to work June 23, and was kept at work nearly all of the time until cold weather. From the time of first starting up until the 22d of September, the machine was operated by myself, during which time I had occasion to make a number of experiments which suggested changes that were made in this machine, and others that I afterwards built."
This machine was designed to be driven by a portable engine attached to the rear of the machine by a link and moving with the machine on trucks. It cut in one direction only, and
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GEORGE JEFFARDS WARDWELL.
returned to the starting point by a reversal of the feed motion. It was covered in all its parts by patents under date of November, 1863. In practical working the machine was broadly successful, doing the work of about fifteen men and cutting channels three to four feet deep. It was worked at the Sutherland Falls quarries about seventeen years and now stands in the quarry yards at that place.
The further development of the machine and its working is best given in Mr. Wardwell's own words. He says :-
" In the spring of 1864 I again went to Rutland and called upon all the proprietors of quar- ries in Rutland and neighboring towns. Owing to the quality of marble in different quarries, some of which was hard, with more or less flint, others softer, and the varying dip of the strata or veins in the different quarries, and the manner in which the several quarries were worked, gave rise to much discussion as to the practicability of using a machine on other quarries than the Sutherland Falls, which seemed to be the only one on which my machine could be used.
" It was well known to quarrymen that all previous attempts to cut channels by machinery had resulted in utter failure ; and the prevailing opinion was that a machine to be practicable for general use should be one that could be worked on each of their respective quarries, and in conformity with the systems then in use in the different quarries ; that is, if channels were being cut by hand-labor, the ideal machine must be one that could adapt itself to the then existing working surfaces however uneven and rough they might be, and be able to cut chan- nels in the same places on elevated sections of the quarry, as well as on the faces of the dip- ping strata at different angles, and under the same circumstances as was then being done by the hand process. Another idea had become fixed in the minds of quarrymen, particularly at West Rutland, that was, that channels must be cut through the several veins at whatever an- gle they might lay in the quarry in order to 'raise' the blocks at the natural cleavage beds with the ' plug and feather ;' and that this was the only manner that blocks of marble could be 'raised ' safely, and that any other method would entail a loss of a large amount of stock. After the machine at Sutherland Falls had been in use about one year cutting vertical channels cross-wise of the veins, and to greater depths than was formerly done by hand, and the blocks were being successfully 'raised' with the 'plug and feather" where there was no cleavage bed, a change was made in the system of working the quarries at West Rutland by having the uneven working surfaces brought down to level floors. In this manner some of the largest quarries were, in about two years, brought into a condition suitable for using my machines. I spent the early part of the spring of 1864 in trying to dispose of a part of my patent, and in soliciting orders for my machines, and failed to do either. My means being exhausted I was compelled to suspend further efforts for a time, and went to work for the Sutherland Falls Marble Company, building stone boats in the attic of one of their stone saw- mills. About midsummer I made a contract with the firm of Sheldon & Slason to construct a machine for them to be used in their quarries at West Rutland. I was to receive one thousand dollars above the cost of making for the right to use said machine ; and in order to close this trade I had to enter into an agreement whereby they might use any number of sim- ilar machines, together with such improvements as I might add thereto, upon the payment of further sums agreed upon at that time, as follows : for the first additional machine, $250.00 ; second additional machine, $200.00 ; third additional machine, $150.00; fourth additional ma- chines, $100,00 ; fifth additional machine, $50,00; and upon the further payment of $50.00 any number of machines more than six. All of these conditions had to be acceded to before I could close a trade for the first machine. A few days after making this trade with Sheldon & Slason I made a similar trade and agreement with the Rutland Marble Company, knowing at the time that the consideration was but a trifle as compared with the profits that would be derived by the companies who were to use them. I believed that if these two companies could be induced to use the machines in their quarries it would enable me to introduce them into general use. Before these two machines were completed I received an order for a second machine for the Sutherland Falls Marble Company, and these machines were completed late in the fall and they were not put in operation uittil the summer of 1865.
" In January, 1865, I sold my entire interest in my patent of November roth, 1863 (reserv- ing the right to use in the quarries of the Sutherland Falls Marble Company. Rutland Marble Company and Sheldon & Slason), to the Steam Stone-Cutter Company, a corporation organ- ized under the laws of the State of New York, with a capital of $300,000 divided into 30,000 shares of Sio each. For this sale I received 81,500 cash and 3,352 shares of stock in said Company."
In January, 1865, the Steam Stone-Cutter Company was organized with W. S. Nichols as president ; George E. Royce, treasurer, and Mr. Wardwell, superintendent. He further says : -- " In 1868 eight double gang machines were built, so that down to January, 1867, the Steam Stone-Cutter Company had built twenty, eighteen of which were double gang machines.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
These twenty machines with the four single machines built by me in 1863 and 1864, made twenty-four machines, exclusive of the two experimental ones built by me in 1860 and 1861. One machine was sold to parties in Cuba, and one was sent to the Paris Exposition of 1867 and sold to parties in France. The other twenty-two machines were sold and in use in various quarries in this country.
" In 1867 I sold my foreign patents to the Steam Stone-Cutter Company, receiving therefor 1,740 shares of stock in said company, making my interest in the company at the present time 5,092 shares ; 25,000 shares only have been issued by the company.
" In 1867 the Windsor Manufacturing Company and E. G. Lamson, of Windsor, Vt., placed stone channeling machines upon the market and made sales of thirteen machines in violation of the patents owned by the Steam Stone-Cutter Company; and two machines were also made and sold by Ross & Barrett of Rutland, Vt. The receipts for sales and cutting done with these machines amounted to nearly $100,000. The making and selling of the machines above named gave rise to eleven suits in the United States Courts, costing the Steam Stone- Cutter Company about $50,000. The validity of my patents was sustained and injunctions issued against the parties who made and sold, as well as against the parties who were using the illicit machines.
"The value of this machine over hand labor in cutting channels consists - ist. In cutting channels much cheaper. Each single-gang machine will average to do the work of twenty- five men per day, requiring two men only to run the machine ; and each double-gang machine will average to do the work of fifty men per day, requiring three men only to run the machine.
" 2d. It cuts channels straight and true as a sawed surface, which effects a saving of stock of from two to three inches on each channel surface, equivalent to four to six inches in the width of each block of stone.
" 3d. It cuts its channels deeper than can be done by hand, whereby a larger amount of stock is removed with less waste from raising.
"NOTE. - By the hand process the channels were cut from three to four feet deep, and the waste on each floor due to ' raising ' was from six to eight inches - a waste of about one- sixth of the block ; while channels cut by the machine are from six to eight feet deep, with less waste to each floor, as deep blocks from deep cutting are stiffer and 'raise ' better, leaving a smoother and evener floor, thus effecting a large saving of stock, there being twice the amount of stock removed from each floor with less than one-half of the waste, and with one raising process instead of two.
"4th. Where channels are cut deep they can be cut a greater distance apart, and thus blocks of greater widths can be raised safely, thereby effecting a saving of stock, while less channeling is required, and less labor in raising, to produce a given amount of stock.
"NOTE. - Channels were usually cut four feet apart by hand, which would give four cubic feet of stone to each foot of channel, whereas if they were cut six feet apart, each foot of chan- nel would produce six cubic feet, or one-half more of stone, with the same amount of channel- ing and labor in raising.
" 5th. In quarries that were worked by hand, using powder and the wedge, the waste would equal the amount of stock saved, or fifty per cent. of all the stone removed from the quarry, while the whole working surface would be badly shattered and cut up by powder strains, ren- dering it difficult to produce blocks of any considerable size or dimension. The sounder the quarry may have been in its natural state, the more demoralizing would be the effects of pow- der. In such quarries, if they are naturally sound, the use of this machine will enable them to save all of the stock removed, except such loss as would be due to the floors (where the plug and feather is used) and the trifling amount of stone removed in cutting the channel, while blocks of any desired dimensions could be safely quarried. In all such quarries where this machine has been in use, the value of the quarries has been enormously enhanced, and a number of quarries that had been abandoned, that could not be worked to profit by the hand and powder process, have been worked profitably and successfully by the use of this machine.
"6th. Blocks of stone quarried by this machine require less labor to bring them to a fin- ished or dressed surface, and, in fact, the shape and condition in which they are taken from the quarry is such as to allow them to be wrought into various forms with less labor and waste of stock, than by any other known process of quarrying."
Now let us see what this machine has accomplished. In the statement from which we have quoted, Mr. Wardwell made a detailed calculation (chiefly from records of actual cut- ting, and partly estimated), of the number of feet of channeling cut by all of his machines down to 1880, and estimated the saving effected thereby over the old processes. A recapitu- lation of these estimates shows the following gross gains :-
Saving in cutting 4,435, 143 feet of channel in marble. $3,614.530 00
Saving of 2,658,084 cubic feet of marble (at $1,00 per foot) $2,658,084 00
Saving in marble by use of machines 86,272,614 00
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GEORGE JEFFARDS WARDWELL .- M. J. FRANCISCO.
Saving of 2,829,047 cubic feet in Sandstone and Limestone, at 30 cts. per foot . $848,714 00
Total saving in stock and labor $7,121,528 00
Total number of channel feet cut in all kinds of stone, 5,566,752, all accomplished from 1865 to 1880.
" It is difficult to fix a cash value, or to state the advantages that the public at large have derived in consequence of the introduction of this machine. It has greatly enhanced the value of quarry property. It has greatly increased the amount of stone produced, thereby giving employment to a large number of laborers in and about the quarries and mills, in raising, hoisting, handling blocks and sawed stock, sawing, coping, etc. By this increase of produc- tion, railroads and other transportation lines have been benefited by an increase in the amount of freights, and proprietors of quarries and contractors have, by the use of this machine, been able to furnish marble and other kinds of stone for private and public buildings, and for other uses, at a lower price than if such stone had been quarried by the hand and powder process."
This machine is now in use in nearly all of the quarries of the country, and on all varieties of stone except granite. Its practical value is almost beyond estimate, and its invention is an achievement of which any man might well be proud. It has been awarded a gold medal from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (1865) ; a silver medal, Paris Exposi- tion, 1867, also a medal at the Philadelphia Exposition. The Steam Stone-Cutter Company erected its own shops in Rutland in 1868, and Mr. Wardwell is now one of its largest stock- holders.
Although the development of this machine occupied many years of his attention, he has found time to devise other valuable machinery. In 1874 he invented and patented two species of valveless steam engines - a horizontal cross-head engine, and an upright oscillating engine, These machines embodied new features, particularly that of simplicity of construction, and were exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, where they received bronze medals.
Mr. Wardwell's natural tastes have also led him outside of his chosen occupation, and he studied deeply the sciences of geology and chemistry, and has probably the finest geological collection in the State. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him in 1885 by Middlebury College, and he is a member of both the American and the British Associations for the Ad- vancement of Science.
Mr. Wardwell was married on the 4th of October, 1850, to Margaret Moore, of Hatley, Canada. They have had four children, the two eldest of whom were sons and died at the age of five years. The two living are George Alvin, now in Hatley, Canada, and Lizzie O., wife of Thomas Mound, of Rutland. Mrs. Wardwell died November 10, 1883, while on a visit to her friends in Hatley.
RANCISCO, M. J., was born on the 5th day of August, at Westhaven, and was the third son of John Francisco, who moved to Westhaven in 1795, and participated in the War of 1812. At the battle of Plattsburgh he was one of the famous "Green Mountain Boys," and an eye-witness of the conflict between the Saratoga and Confiance, and the retreat of the British when MacDonough was declared the victor. He came up the lake with the fleet to Ticonderoga, where he left the vessel and returned to Westhaven, Here he resided for eighty- three years, being thus more than three-quarters of a century intimately associated with every interest of the town and county. He was the first preceptor of Horace Greeley, who began his eventful career in Westhaven. The Francisco family have heen remarkable for lon- gevity, one of the ancestors having guided a plow when he had attained the age of 105 years.
The subject of this sketch left Westhaven in 1852 for Ohio, to enter Oberlin College. After completing his studies there he passed several years traveling through the West and South, visiting all States then admitted to the Union and some of the territories. He returned to Vermont in 1859, returning West again in October, 1860, as principal of the Northwestern Commercial College, at Fort Wayne, Ind. Here he resided during the first years of the Re- bellion, and took an active part in raising volunteers for the Union cause. In this work he met the opposition of the " Knights of the Golden Circle" and Klu Klux Clan, and at one time became involved in a riot composed of members of that infamous gang.
In 1863 Mr. Francisco married H. Margaret Holmes, daughter of Israel Holmes, of Wa- terbury, Conn. Mr. Holmes was directly connected with the founding of all the large manu- facturing concerns of Connecticut. He was a descendant of the Judds of Revolutionary memory, and of the genuine Puritan stock. In 1829 he made a voyage of discovery and inves- tigation concerning the possibilities of introducing on a thorough basis the manufacture of rolled brass. A long and stormy passage in a sailing vessel was a type of the stormy scenes he was destined to encounter in the prosecution of his mission. English jealousy and law were both arrayed against him, and made it very warm for the presumptuous Yankee who
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
dared to interfere with the right of England to do the manufacturing of the world; and the two combined succeeded in filling up his time with strategic movements and coup d'états on the one hand, and of imminent dangers and narrow escapes on the other, a detailed record of which would read to-day like a romance. Few men have displayed more activity or ability in the manufacturing line. His influence and personal efforts have largely shaped the legis- lation of the country in matters pertaining to this branch of the nation's industries; and in the course of his endeavors in this direction he became the co-worker of the leading statesmen of the time, of Webster, Clay and Benton. He wielded a trenchant pen and frequently contribu- ted to the columns of the different publications of the day. He had large interests in Connect- icut and the city of New York at the time of his death, which interests devolved upon Mr. Francisco as trustee of his estate.
Leaving Fort Wayne in 1864, Mr. Francisco accepted the presidency of the Pennsylvania College of Trade and Finance, at Harrisburgh, and with the co-operation of Governor Geary, Ex-Governor Curtin, Senator Cameron, Secretary of the Commonwealth Jordon and Hugh McCulloch (who was then secretary of the U. S. treasury), he organized a large and flourish- ing institution, the graduates of which are now filling responsible positions both at home and abroad. After several years of close application in the management of the college, failing health compelled him to relinquish all business, and he returned to his native State and passed a year at the Mineral Springs in the northern part of Vermont. At this time the English fire insurance companies were negotiating for admission into the United States, and Mr. Fran- cisco assumed the general management for Vermont of the North British and Mercantile In- surance Company, and the London and Liverpool and Globe Insurance Company of London and Edinburgh, the first foreign companies that were admitted to the State. He was after- ward made manager for Vermont, New Hampshire and Northern New York of several other large companies, and by a conscientious adherence to conservatism rather than haste, careful- ness rather than impulse, and final profit rather than present volume of business, and by dili- gent attention to all engagements, he has made a record which marks him as the most suc- cessful fire insurance manager in the State. In 1876 Mr. Francisco met with a serious acci- dent which came near being fatal, and which compelled him to relinquish all business for nearly two years, and necessitated a voyage to Europe, where he spent one season with his family. In 1884 he received another injury, which confined him to his house for nearly a year and a half, and has left him lame for life. Notwithstanding these drawbacks he has steadily increased his facilities until he now represents aggregate insurance assets of more than $200,- 000,000, in both American and European companies, with the prestige of having written the largest policy ever made in New England, viz., for $2,100,000. In 1884 he was elected presi- dent of the Holmes & Griggs Manufacturing Company of New York City, which office he now holds.
Mr. Francisco has two sons, Israel Holmes Francisco, who is cashier in his father's office, and Don Carlos, aged six years.
P AGE, JOHN BOARDMAN, was born at Rutland February 25, 1826. His parentage was worthy and of New England's best. His grandfather was a notable physician of Charles- town, N. H. His father was the cashier of the old Bank of Rutland. In the History of Charlestown, N. H., we read that John and Hannah (Robbins) Page, of New Fairfield, Conn., were born, respectively, on the 19th and 31st of March, 1720, and were married at the age of eighteen. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom William was the fifth. This son, Dr. William Page, born February 20, 1749, was one of the original incorporators of the New Hampshire Medical Society and a medical practitioner of great worth, connected socially with the best families of the region. He represented Charlestown twice in the General As- sembly of Vermont, and four times in the Legislature of New Hampshire, and was a promi- nent citizen during the Revolutionary War, of great influence and uncompromising devotion to the principles of liberty. He died in 1810. William Page, eldest son of Dr. William Page, was born September 2, 1779. He went to Yale College at the age of thirteen, ; was assistant engineer under his father in the construction of the canal at Bellows Falls ; studied law with Judge Farrand at Burlington, and settled at Rutland in 1806, where he resided until his death, in 1850. He was cashier of the bank from its incorporation in 1824, and was widely known as an exemplary man and an excellent citizen. He was one of the deacons of the Congrega- tional Church. He was married in 1807 to Mary Boardman, and in 1813 to Cynthia Amanda Hickok. Thirteen children were the offspring of the marriage, of whom seven still survive ; Mrs. William Barnes, Mrs. A. G. Pease, Mrs. Newton Kellogg and Mrs. J. B. Hollister, of Rutland ; Mrs. S. D. Winslow, of Pittsford ; Dr. George Page, of Crown Point, N. Y., and Egbert S. Page, of Des Moines, Ia.
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