This is a collage of images featuring some of the early pioneers of the granite industry in the Township of Stanstead. Upper left, is a group shot of granite workers at the Harris Quarry in Graniteville. Somewhat right of centre in front of the horse with rider, are two men with their hands on their hips. These are, left to right, David W. Moir and Jonathan H. Haselton. These two truly kick-started the industry in 1876 when the Harris Quarry was first opened up. One wonders how much the barefoot kid 2nd from the left was being paid?
By the 1880s other players had become involved, including Russell Rediker, whose farm adjacent to the Harris Quarry was poor in soil but rich in granite. Top right, Russell at left and his son Ezra with a load of a single block of granite (weighing probably 0.5 tons and testing the limits of the standard farm buckboard). They are delivering the block to the Graniteville Methodist Church (built in 1896-97), which has been raised in order to accommodate a new basement in 1905. Below right, Russell Rediker with his two vocations, farmer and quarryman. Rediker died in 1959 at the age of 99.
A good friend of Russell’s was Samuel Bennett Norton. Norton purchased a quarry from Rediker in 1899, another adjacent property in 1902 and proceeded to make his quarry the largest in the region. He had very good eye for granite stone, indeed he only had one eye having lost the other in a quarry accident. It was said that with his one eye and the feel of his hands Sam could tell where and in what orientation a block of granite had been extracted from his quarry. He was a compassionate and responsible boss and a civically-minded citizen (was mayor of Beebe). He sold his quarry interests to Brodie and Sons in 1929, just before the start of the Great Depression. Norton died in 1932.
