GIS AERIAL VIEW OF THE QUARRY IN 2015

I screen captured the above pixs from the Anson County GIS viewer.  The brown circle to the left of center in the first pix is the actual quarry site which is a pond and as I remember it back in the middle to late 1950s.  I will post additional pixs taken after the history section. 

BROWN STONE QUARRY HISTORY

The below is a copy and paste of an article in the Messenger-Intelligencer dated March 15, 1917:

Messenger-Intelligencer issue of Thursday, March 15, 1917 Page 1 – Brown Stone Quarry to be Opened – Mr. John T. Patrick has contracted with a large building contractor of Atlanta, Georgia in order to open up the brown stone quarry known as the courthouse quarry, which is owned by Mr. Patrick.  Specimens of this stone that were quarried many years ago are to be seen around Wadesboro.  The stone was used for the foundation of the old courthouse & wears remarkably well.  It is as good brown stone as can be found in North Carolina.  It is understood that the stone will be shipped to Atlanta & elsewhere in large quantities.  Employment will be given to a number of men by this development.

HISTORY OF ANSON COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA 1750 - 1976

Below is published in Mary Louise Medley's book titled History of Anson County, North Carolina 1750 - 1976 page 168,

"Brownstone Operations"

A second kind of mining was carried on in Anson in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the quarrying of brownstone.  Two quarries are cited in an article by Thomas L. Watson and Francis B. Laney, "The Building and Ornamental Stones of North Carolina," in the North Caroline Geological Survey Bulletin No. 2, published in Raleigh in 1906.

One of the quarries was operated by John M. Linehan and the other by W. A. Polk.  The old Linehan quarry was about one and a quarter miles northwest of Wadesboro, a short distance from the Seaboard Air Line Railway.  The W. A. Polk quarry, formerly the Wadesboro Brownstone Company, is reported to be the one that furnished the local brownstone appearing in some of the illustrations. Brownstone was used extensively as a building material in 1889 and 1890.  The Polk quarry was about one and a half miles northwest of Wadesboro and furnished two colors of stone, red-brown and light brown.  "Stone from this quarry was used in the post office building and federal court buildings in Wilmington, Ashville and Statesville; YMCA in Charlotte and Atlanta, and in the Garrett School Building of Baltimore," the article states.

Industrial Growth

The exterior brownstone trim of the Governor's Mansion in Raleigh has been identified as Anson County Brownstone, but was not mentioned in the article.  The North Carolina Governor's Mansion drew compliments from the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who described it as "the most beautiful in America."  Governor Daniel Fowle was the first to live in the mansion.

The town of Wadesboro has many examples of this fine building stone today, including the Thomas Wade D.A.R. War Memorial Drinking Fountain at the corner of Wade and Green Streets East.  The square in which it sits is now a lovely garden for all seasons, maintained by Wadesboro's Ola Kala Garden Club. The memorial honors those who served from the Revolution through World War I.

The brownstone wall placed around Calvary Episcopal Church in 1920 to mark its centennial observance enhances the earlier brick building.  Women of the church were responsible for the projects.

A carved piece of brownstone with the letters B/C entwined is found at the Martin Street entrance to the education department of the Wadesboro Baptist Church.  It was part of the earlier brownstone and brick church at the corner of Wade and Rutherford streets, which is said to have been build with stone fragments from a local quarry.

The foundation for the home of Mrs. Bessie Colson on Morgan Street is also constructed of this fine enduring native stone.  Mrs. Lila Martin has a water trough carved from local brownstone in the yard of her north Wadesboro home.

Hand-book of North Carolina by NC Dept. of Agriculture by John D. Cameron page 294

The below article is the best description of the operation of the Brown Stone Quarry that I have located to this date which details equipment usage, etc.:

"In Anson County is the Wadesboro Brownstone Quarry, one mile north of Wadesboro on the Carolina Central Railroad.  The stone is quite hard and uniform, of a light chocolate-brown in a grayish-brown color, and of fine to medium texture, the lighter colors being usually coarser.  The quarry was opened in 1887, and was worked until June, 1891.  The quarry face is about 150 feet long by 30 feet high, though much of this face and the material which has been quarried is worthless cap-rock and soil.  The cap varies in thickness from..to 15 feet.  Quarrying is very much facilitated by natural jointings and bedding, and blocks 8' x 8' x 8', and smaller, are easily obtained.  From 40,000 to 50,000 feet of stone have been quarried.  The stone dips S. E. 20 degrees and the quarry faces almost due west.  All stone was sawed either at the quarry or shipped rough;  dimension stone, 75 cents per foot, sawed two ways, $1; four ways, $1.25.  It was used principally for trimming brick buildings.  Specimens of it may be seen from Atlanta to Baltimore, notably the United States Court-houses and Post-offices at Wilmington, Asheville and Statesville, N. C., the Young Men's Christian Association buildings at Charlotte and Atlanta, the Garrett School building at Baltimore, and the Baptist Church at Wadesboro.  A steam-pump was constantly employed to drain the quarry, and in rainy weather work would sometimes be suspended for a month on account of flooding.  The machinery connected with the quarry consists of two boilers, an engine of about 50 horse-power, five gangs of saws, steam-drill, one steam-power derrick of fourteen tons capacity, and two horse-power derricks.  The full force employed was about sixty workmen."  It appears that reorganization of the Brown Stone Quarry Company eventually led to its demise.

NOTE:  According to Mary Louise Medley, the Wadesboro Brownstone Quarry later became the W. A. Polk quarry which occupied the same site.

PICTURES TAKEN OF THE QUARRY SITE

Ralph Coble picked me up around 8ish this morning and it was extremely humid to say the least.  I got my ole straw hat, hunting boots on and a home made sweat band which definitely came in handy to keep the sweat out of my eyes.  I had my hiking pole and a little Ruger .380 LCP for snakes, etc.   Ralph had the print out that Richard Harrington gave him and we parked at a private drive way off the old 52 N road on the other side of the railroad underpass.  We walked to the end of the gravel drive way and tried to get someone to come to the door of the home to let them be aware of our presence, but no one came to the door.  The access road that leads in the vicinity of the Brown Stone Quarry has a locked gate, but we walked around it. 

Below is a copy of the GIS print out that Richard Harrington gave Ralph:

Ralph parked his car as stated above near the main road at the gravel access drive way to a private dwelling.  We walked the access road to the last building to the right of the center below the clearing, but in the past four years, it is over grown.  Also, the trees to the right have been clear cut and an area locals called Carl's Mountain, not Carr's Mount was visible to the right.  The elevation of Carl's Mountain is 464 feet above sea level per an earlier topo map I had access to.  The Carl's Mountain land is owned by Shirley Lawson Ratliff of Jacksonville, AL.

TOPO VIEW OF CARL'S MOUNTAIN

The pinkish arrow in the above pix is pointing to the crest of Carl's Mountain. The blue arrow in the above pix is pointing to the crest of Carl's Mountain.  We made a large circle and followed a dry creek bed and crossed several dirt trails/roads and finally came to a pond which later proved to be the actual site of the quarry.  The reason I am sure other than going from memory from the late 1950s, was evidence of the humongous brownstone rocks and the cliff wall that was at least 30 feet to the east of the pond.  I also found and documented evidence of a couple large stones that had drill marks paths from 1 to 3 inches in diameter and several feet in length and definitely was made by a powered drill of some type.

The height of the above stone is at least six (6) feet.  There are two parallel drill marks going the entire height of the stone at an angle and at least 1 inch in diameter.  In all probability, the large stone has shifted and no doubt the drill originally was in a vertical orientation; just a guess at the best!

Those stones are huge for sure.

The above is a stone with about a three (3) inch diameter parallel drill grooves.

Those straight, half moon shaped and parallel grooves are definitely man made for sure!

The above brown stones might have been rejects and the stones encompass a larger area adjacent the quarry pond.

QUARRY POND

There is a good 30 feet plus drop off down to the water level.  It is no telling how deep the quarry was when it was in operation and has filled in with debris and sediment over the decades as evidenced by a little island near one end of the quarry pond.  At this location, the elevation is 350 feet above sea level according to Ralph's Obamaphone.  I call all cell phones Obamaphones, regardless of their make/model and/or price, etc.

The coordinates at this view are:  34 degrees 59 feet 7 inches N and 80 degrees 5 feet 19 inches W

As a young lad, I accessed the quarry from the western side across from the steep rock wall.

PIXS EXITING THE QUARRY SITE

This area is prolific with large brownstones. 

One thing if for certain, there are many thousands of tons of brownstone still in the immediate vicinity of the ole quarry site. 

The Brown Stone Quarry property is currently owned by Richard Lockhart & Wife Effie C/O Juanita M. Joyner of Lawrenceville, NJ property pin # 647518410156, Deed Book 91 Page 106.  According to the tax records, it is 30 acres deeded, but actually 31.5 acres and has a section large enough for a road that ties directly into the Air Line Railway property which makes sense for shipping stones out of the quarry.  At the time I visited the site in the middle to late 1950s, I do not remember rail access to the site, but that does not mean it didn't exist when the quarry was operational.

I think Ralph wants to go back in the fall and do further recon on the site and it would be good to see what the view currently looks like from across the quarry pond to the back side of the rock cliff wall.  The ole rock quarry site brings back a lot of my memories as a boy and they are still fresh in my “Mind’s eye” as then.  The terrain in the 1950s where the Anson Middle School now resides on 52N was nothing but broom straw fields and farm land and "time waits for no one!" and did my share of rabbit hunting with hounds and other small game.

We both were soaking wet when we got back to the vehicle.  I believe we were gone about 1.5 hours and great to find the quarry site on the first attempt.

Below is a pix of Ralph Henry Coble:

I am going to tell Ralph he needs to loosen up a little with a grin or something.....grin if you must!

Web page published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 06-05-19.