
Our little town is blessed with many Historic buildings, all of which were built on foundations made up of field stones found on or near the building site. Some of these foundations are topped with the smooth sided solid granite blocks that just ooze with Yankee stability. We associate stone blocks like these with quarries. But the quarries closest to Mont Vernon are down in Milford, a hefty haul for such weighty freight. Where did the farmers who settled here get all this granite? The answer to this question tells a little story that begins with the evolution of stone splitting in young America’s northeast and ends with a lesson in granite values.
Act 1: A Quick Splitting History
Without a doubt, the first New England colonists found more stone than they ever could have wished for. Most of it was broken up and spread around by the last ice age. The first colonial stonecutters didn’t bother prying granite loose from New England’s bedrock. Instead, they tackled glacial erratics, prioritizing the ones with close proximity to the actual building site. First, they would build a fire on the boulder, to heat up the rock. Before it could cool, they would drop a heavy iron ball on the hot spot to split it. If it wasn’t possible to build a fire on or near the rock, the stone cutter might drill a big, deep hole and fill it with gun powder, blasting the rock into smaller bits. Effective, but not very exact. Both methods required hitting the resulting pieces with a variety of big hammers until the proper shape was obtained. In the 1750s, one of the first stone buildings in Boston, the King’s Chapel, utilized stones that were shaped this way… a rather inefficient and labor intensive way to turn pesky boulders into useful building material. The colonists needed a better way to obtain cut stone.

We may never know who actually invented the “better way” but we do know the man who brought it to the fore. His name was Edward Robbins.

In office
1802–1806
In 1803, the state of Massachusetts needed to build a new prison, but the cost of materials was prohibitive. Robbins was tasked with the job of finding cheaper stone. In his travels, he noticed a building in Salem made of stone split in a manner that was new to him. After inquiring about the stonecutter, he eventually found a Mr. Tarbox of Danvers. Tarbox used what would become known as the Flat Wedge method: a row of slots was cut into the stone with a Cape Chisel, then flat wedges sandwiched between two shims were pounded into the openings to create a split with smooth faces. Robbins brought Tarbox back to teach his team of stonecutters. This proved to be a much more efficient way to create stone blocks, and reduced the cost of building materials by a whopping 60%. The technique was fairly easy to learn, and the tools could be created in any smithy shop. Naturally, word quickly spread, soon stone cutters everywhere were working with Cape Chisels and wedges.


Less than two decades later, the technology was improved again. Instead of slots, a line of round holes were drilled for nail sized wedges with an iron feather on either side. Then it was a matter of tapping each of the wedges until the rock split as before. The advantage being that the holes for this method could be placed farther apart, reducing overall drilling and saving even more time and money. Referred to as “Plug and Feathers” or “Feathers and Wedges”, this technique spread like wild fire and continues to be used today. The drills may have improved, but the hammers, plugs and feathers are exactly the same!


(The concepts presented so far were found on these pages: Stone Structures, Stone Splitting Methods, Granite Splitting Tools and Techniques, Stone Quarries and Beyond, Harvard Magazine, King’s Chapel Boston)
Click here to see a video made in 2019. A man uses feathers and wedges to split a large stone into 3 slices. (Zoom a head to 3 minutes to catch the splitting action.)
The fantastic upshot to all of this is that the shape of the splitting holes can help date when a particular stone was split. There were no round finger-sized drill holes before 1820 (or there abouts). To give this theory a test, I went out to check the foundation stones used for Mont Vernon’s South Schoolhouse turned residence, and found evidence of both techniques!


The school house was originally built in 1812 by Jesse Trow. It was probably one of the first buildings made with wood from his newly constructed saw mill. In the following years, the building fell into disuse, or perhaps it burned. Whatever the case, it was rebuilt and a dedication held on June 17th, 1884 (1907 Mont Vernon Town History, p. 74) These splits may show that the stone was originally worked before 1820 (Cape chisel marks) then reworked for the “new” building in 1884 (round feathers and wedges holes). But there are no granite quarries on our hilltop, nor will there ever be. Milford is too far away for hauling granite. So where did these foundation stones come from? To find the answer, I looked to the Trow Saw mill.
Act 2: Schist vs. Granite in the Old Trow Mill
The fact is, our town is full of schist… which is about as structural as it sounds. We may be proud of the Granite State, but it is less than half granite. Most of New Hampshire’s crust is schist or gneiss (thank you Wikipedia).

Milford’s famous granite was formed when gigantic balloons or plutons of magma rose up from earth’s depths, broke through the schist and cooled. No such plutons in Mont Vernon, however, yet look at the amount of granite used to make the Trow Saw Mill!

The ledger for the Trow Sawmill begins recording the business of the farm and the mill in 1811. Jesse Trow would have been 23, his farther Joseph would have been well into his 60’s. It is likely that the two of them worked together to build the mill. They used the materials that were on hand, lots and lots of field stones… much of it, schist. Over the next 55 years, the family probably noticed the schist stones cracking and breaking from the weight of the stones above them. There may have been some repairs or improvements made because of this over time.

Then came the famous Freshet of 1869. Torrential downpours intensified by the slope of our hill resulted in a flood of water that wreaked particular havoc along the Hartshorn and Ceasar brooks. The event was noteworthy enough to get several mentions in our 1907 Town History book, “October 3, 1869: There had been no rain of any consequence for nearly three months. Seven or eight inches of water fell October 3d and 4th, doing a great amount of damage, entirely destroying the mill of Arthur A. Trow and Daniel W. Trow in the southerly part of town.” (p. 50).

The Trow brothers wasted no time. Like their forefathers in and around Boston a century before, they began harvesting the granite glacial erratics delivered to their area by the bountiful ice age, only now they were empowered with Cape Chisels, Plug drills and countless wedges and feathers. Imagine the crew it took, splitting stone all winter and transporting it to the devastated mill site where they stacked and shimmed each block!



One stone has marks alternating from one method to another… The marks tell us that it had to have been split after 1820. It also tells us that the stone cutters, at least on the day this one was split, were using both methods at the same time. (This may have happened on the South School house foundation as well.)


Harvesting granite from boulders was practiced by farmers throughout the north east. Next time you are hiking in the woods, keep half an eye out for splits caused by chiseled or drilled holes and wedges. If you find one, imagine where the rest of the stone might have ended up…
~~~~~~~~~~In Other News~~~~~~~~~~
We had a great group of folks show up for the first two MVHS Summer Events.
June 18th: Trow Mill Tour
This has been one of my favorite walks since I first discovered it as a little girl. Every time I hike this logging road, there is something new to think and learn about, it has inspired this month’s newsletter!


July 3rd: Lovejoy Quarry
We ended up using our rain date for this event, and the weather was amazing! Keith Trexler gave a great tour around the quarry that he has worked very hard to restore to the pristine condition it currently enjoys. Milford is known as the Granite Town in the Granite State and now we all know a lot more about how it earned that title! Thank You, Keith!!





Coming Soon…

~~~~~~~~~~Our Next Meeting~~~~~~~~~~
We like our MVHS meetings so much, we keep having them every month! The first Tuesday is the day we get the Selectman’s Meeting room on the first floor of Mont Vernon’s Town Hall, and we usually get things started at 7:00. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, July 5 and if you’re reading this, you’re invited to join! We’ve got a great group of history lovers, and we are always looking for more! As with all meetings since Covid, I attempt to host folks by Zoom as needed. I will send out a link to everyone on my email list on July 5th. If you are reading this without me emailing it to you, and would like to attend the meeting, send me your email address, I will be happy to include you!
~~~~~~~~~~Museum Hours~~~~~~~~~~
Our Museum on the Second Floor of Mont Vernon’s Town Hall will be open from 1:00 to 4:00 on Saturday, July 9th. There is ALWAYS something new to see in our museum, and our docents have loads of historical stories to relate, so please come on over and check it out!