Slate quarries idled as a trust went bust

Collaboration worked effectively for the slate companies along the border of New York and Vermont for much of the 19th century.

The communities around Granville, N.Y., and Pawlet, Vt., held the majority of the nation’s slate deposits and an exclusive supply of certain grades. So it behooved local slate companies to form a trust, in which quarry owners cooperated to set wages and prices and to adjust production levels according to demand.

This type of alliance among separate companies within the same industry, which would soon be prohibited by the antitrust laws of the early 20th century, eliminated competition among local slate producers, fostered economies of scale and kept prices generally stable in the national market.

But the banking crisis known as the Panic of 1893, which set off an economic depression lasting for several years, put the brakes on the construction industry and sent the demand for slate plummeting. That led to the dissolution of the local slate trust, as the larger slate producers withdrew from the arrangement and left smaller companies to fend for themselves.

Many of the smaller slate companies closed or stopped quarrying — or, with skeleton crews, held on to stockpiles and waited for the market to rebound.

This sparked a reverse migration as many of the region’s skilled immigrant slate workers returned to Wales, from which they had come.

“Over seventy tickets for Wales have been sold by a local agent in town,” The Granville Sentinel reported on Dec. 15, 1893.

Others departed New York or Vermont for states where they could find work.
“Some fifty or more slate workers and trimmers and about twenty-five Hungarians have left town,” the Sentinel reported. “West Pawlet has suffered a like loss. The men have gone to Wales, Pennsylvania and California.”

The exodus continued as the local quarries remained largely idle through the end of 1893.
“About 250 persons have moved from Granville since the shutdown of the quarries,” the Sentinel reported on Dec. 29.

In an editorial published Jan. 19, 1894, the Sentinel lamented the dissolution of the Vermont Slate Trust, which it called a shortsighted move for the industry. (The trust had at one point counted nearly a dozen members who controlled 35 local quarries, according to the website of the Slate Valley Museum.)

“The slate producers are not going to profit by the dissolution,” the newspaper wrote. “It is a policy of ruin for them. The sharpness of competition will instantly drive the smaller firms out of business, and then it will become a battle of giants for the supremacy, till their number is reduced to a half dozen or less.”

The Sentinel recommended immediately reorganizing the trust.
“Combination will keep up prices, for it is an industry which cannot be seriously affected by tariff treatment. … Let us have another organization — a ‘trust’ if you please. It will save the slate of this valley and restore the prosperity of the working and industrious people whose existence and comfort depend upon it.”

Some of the slate companies that had halted their operations were merely waiting to see how the whole situation would play out.

“It may be proper to make some statement in regard to the quarries of Griffith & Nathaniel,” the Sentinel reported on Feb. 2. “It is not due to any lack of orders, as the firm has been in business for twenty-four years and rarely has been without orders on its books. The shutdown is due entirely to the collapse of the Vermont Slate Trust and the uncertainty that prevails in regard to prices. They do not know upon what to base the wages of the men and, therefore, shut down until this doubt is removed.”

Employees should not be blamed for the situation, “a working man” wrote in a Feb. 2 letter to the editor of the Sentinel.

“In the first place, I wish to inform you, Mr. Editor, that we working men are not content with the life of idleness that has been thrust upon us,” the letter stated. “I can assure you that there is nothing that an honest working man who has been used to a life of industrious toil hates more than a life of idleness. Who is responsible for this state, I don’t intend to discuss now. But, this I can safely say, it is not the working man, because everybody knows that we had no finger in the broth at all.”

As the winter of 1893-94 progressed, there were some signs of hope.
“Williams and Edwards started their quarries this week, giving employment to about eighty people,” the Sentinel reported on Jan. 12, 1894.

“Granville is rejoicing over the evidences of returning prosperity shown by the starting up of several slate quarries in that village,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Jan. 24.
“The pleasant sound of a few quarry whistles and an occasional blooming blast is heard in the land, which indicates slowly returning prosperity,” the Sentinel reported on Jan. 19.
“Owens Brothers have sold all their slate and expect to reopen their quarries in about two weeks,” the Sentinel reported on Feb. 16. “These men are hustlers and will lose no time.”
The sounds of prosperity grew louder as more quarries reopened.

“The people of Granville are rejoicing that the long spell of idleness is about over. Hundreds have already been at work and every man will have employment in March,” albeit at lower wages, the Sentinel reported on March 2. “The engine whistles and morning blasts will be welcome music.”
“Norton Brothers have reopened their quarries but at present are only employing about one-half of their regular number,” the Sentinel reported on March 9. “They will increase the number as soon as there is an increase in demand for their slate at better prices.”

Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star of Glens Falls for 21 years before retiring in 2017. He now is a freelance writer focusing on the history of politics, labor and media in the region.