On the current page, six small photos near the bottom, Harris is in the blue shirt, next to Stan White and Harry Winter. On March 30, 2018, he and his wife Gerry will move from Norwich to a retirement center in Matthews, NC, to be near their daughter and her family.  This will help them deal with some medical problems.

A member of the Norwich High School Class of 1955, Harris helped start Hillcrest when teachers Lyman Anderson, Stan Gibson and Vail Sheldon created it in the early 1950's. Then in 2010, when the Class of 1955 led the Norwich School System  Board of Cooperative Education (BOCES)  to revitalize Hillcrest, Harris was an even more vital leader.

Note historian and naturalist Don Windsor in the red jacket, next to Harris in the first of the six photos. Harris can be seen in several of Don's books about Chenango County.

His wife Gerry taught at Holy Family School and is remembered as a great teacher.

The Class of 1955 held a farewell luncheon for Harris and Gerry at the Ontario Restaurant on March 10.  Ed Tucker organized this event, with about 20 people attending. 

Harris and Gerry will be missed in Norwich.  We wish them a smooth transition to North Carolina.

Chenango Greenway has purchased the West Hill Stone Quarry, seeking $300,000.00 to improve public access and develop the quarry for environmental enjoyment Click here for Evening Sun March 17th, 2021.

A National Park Service officer has shown an interest in exploring our west hill stone quarry as part of a National Park site in Chenango County, presenting how stone quarries are part of our heritage.  The items below explain how this could also benefit Hillcrest, employment in Chenango County, etc.

The following item was the last page of the 20 page document “Hillcrest Conservation Park (and Stone Quarry?)—A Proposal,” distributed by Harry Winter in August 2010.  Please see below for the update of August 18, 2011 regarding the quarry.

STONE QUARRY

Pat Scott has recommended that we contact Daniel Conroy, currently in Suwannee, Georgia, for details and history when his family owned the Clark-Conroy Stone Quarry. The large piles of stone slabs which many of us remember, were removed for the construction of I-88 (finished in 1989).But there must be photos of the quarry as it existed when we were in high school.

The F. B. Clarke Blue Stone Co. operated the two largest blue stone quarries in the US and two smaller quarries all in the town of Oxford, according to the Evening Sun of April 17, 1995, p. 1.

The US Park Service has a National Historic Site “Steamtown” in Scranton, PA, devoted to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. What about something similar for bluestone quarrying? Money is available for this from two sources: the Appalachian Regional Commission (federal), and the Obama emphasis on projects which furnish jobs. The ARC is already active in Chenango County as a grant application is submitted to them for child care (Evening Sun, March 18, 2010, pp. 1, 3).

The quarrying industry is currently exploring a project in Pharsalia (Evening Sun, April 6, 2010, p. 13).

If someone could find the photos of the West Hill Stone Quarry as it existed before the l-88 construction, we could explore putting laminated plastic displays of those photos in the current quarry, as a first step to getting a National Historic Site on bluestone quarrying located in Chenango County. Hillcrest might share its entrance from Manley Road with the quarry project. Both would benefit.

Update, August 18, 2011, by Harry Winter

History portion

It turns out that my late brother Joe’s wife,  Greta Wingate, is a cousin to Kathy Conroy, whose husband Tom Conroy is one of the Conroy owners of the mineral rights in the stone quarry.  It is important  to know that the Conroy’s never owned the land of the quarry, only the mineral rights. However, Tom  and his brother  Daniel are very interested in the history of the quarry, and have shared some items with me, for example the three page “The Stone Quarry” item below.

The current owner of the stone quarry is Mrs. Anna Mae Guinn Quincy, who lives on West Main street, opposite the Old Stone Mill.  My thanks to Jim Dunne, who is also interested in recovering the history portion of the stone quarry and has furnished some valuable information.

Development Portion

There are several models available to look at when we consider the current importance of the stone quarry for jobs and tourism.  If either Hillcrest or the quarry develops, it will help the other.  Madison County maintains a very important battle site, perhaps the most important military site in North America, the Nichols Pond Champlain Battle site, where on Oct. 10, 1615,  the Frenchman  Samuel Champlain and his Huron allies attacked a fortified Oneida village, turning the Iroquois against the French and insuring that the USA would be English speaking.  If you go into Morrisville and take the shortcut through Peterboro and Canastota to the thruway, the Nichols Pond site is clearly marked after Peterboro and before

 Canastota.  There is a field of electricity generating windmills next to the Nichols Pond site. Can we get Chenango County interested in using this model for the quarry? We might envision the quarry as holding laminated plastic photos of the huge piles of blocks of slate, which existed in the quarry until 1988. Other laminated photos might show the quarry at its highest rate of employment, with the gravity railroad which transported the beautiful bluestone slate to the  center of Norwich.

Another model is the national park site in Scranton, Steamtown, which has an internet site.  Anyone from Chenango County visiting Steamtown will recognize its concentration on the DL&W Railroad.

Since we are in the Appalachian Regional area, federal money is available for either model, and  was used at the beginning of the Northeast Classic Car Museum’s development.  It has also struck me that the Greek yogurt company Agro Farma near Columbus recently gave $300,000.00 for a sports park in  New Berlin.  The money is here, what is needed is a group to take and run with the project, as a group did with the Northeast Classic Car Museum.

It is interesting that Margaret Allen, in her book on the Norwich Italians from Lipari, Home from Home  The Aeolian Community of Norwich New York State USA describes first the job opportunities in the many quarries around Norwich.  Liparesi had obsidian mines on their island; the bluestone quarrying was not that different (p. 25).  Only after the quarries does she mention the job opportunities on the railroads and in the factories in the Norwich area.

THE STONE QUARRY

(John A. Ryan, son, is probably a mistake; it should be John W. Ryan, his father.)mn jn jm

The stone business started in Norwich about 1900 when John A. Ryan started a quarry just beyond the top of West Hill facing the west.  In 1902 Daniel Conroy took over a half interest in the Ryan Company and it became known as the Ryan-Conroy Co.  Shortly after the formation of this Company, Theodore Wood started a quarry just east of and facing east of the Ryan-Conroy quarry.

After a short time, Woods sold out to the New York Blue Stone Company, They invested in the form of equipment which included a tramway railroad.  This little railroad was always of great interest to visitors.  It operated on a gravity system – a very simple construction.  The road bed was three rails with the exception of four rails forming a switch in the middle to allow the cars to pass.  Each car was hitched to a cable which was wound around a drum at the top with a brake on it; then extended to the other car.  This took cars from the top of the hill to Wheeler Ave.  where a small dock was built to load the stone on the horse drawn wagons. 

In 1904 the Ryan interest was taken over by Daniel Conroy, and then the Clarke Blue Stone Co. of Oxford bought an interest in the quarry forming the Clarke-Conroy Co. Inc.   The officers were H.W. Clarke Daniel Conroy, and his son Dan F. Conroy.  After a short time, the N.Y. Bluestone Co. sold out to the Clarke-Conroy CO.  As time went on, more equipment was added.  Hand derricks were replaced with horse powered derricks.  Heavier stone was being taken out.  Most of the wagons required one team of horses.  It was necessary to add a wagon drawn by three breast and some wagons with two teams.  Many horses were owned by the Company, but a few were rented.  A days work for a rig was three loads from quarry to dock. 

To care for the shipment of stone by rail, a dock was built on Rexford Street on the west side of the D.L.&W. tracks.  Two derricks were put up to handle the stone. 

The O.&W. built a dock on West Railroad St. where the O.&W. freight house now stands.  This dock also had two derricks.  On the docks stone was stored until an order was filled and then loaded on the railroad car for shipment.  This required a small crew of men on each dock. 

A large blacksmith shop was built at the quarry with two forges.  In this shop tools were made, sharpened and repaired.  Here heavy wagons were assembled and repaired.  Replacement carts were made for the derricks and other equipment. This required very versatile mechanics. Two gasoline engines were added to compress air to replace the slow drilling by hand.

 When the Clarke-Conroy interests were consolidated, more heavy equipment was added. The Oxford quarry was closed and the steam derricks were moved to Norwich.  The tramway was taken up and rebuilt to carry heavier loads.  An office was opened in Norwich over what is now Conroy’s Drug Store.

 The quarry employed many skilled and unskilled laborers.  This helped business in the village of Norwich and about 1906, as an inducement to move the stone mill to Norwich, the village purchased the property extending from the railroad siding crossing Hale St. to Birdsall and up Birdsall St. including  the present Paino property.  Clarke-Conroy accepted the property and made arrangement to move the mill.  Under this agreement, Daniel Conroy was in charge of getting the stone out and shipping it to the docks. Dan F. Conroy had charge of the docks and shipping.  Clarke ran the office and was a salesman.

 Later the O.&W. decided to build a new freight house where the stone dock stood to replace the freight house on East Railroad St.  This necessitated moving the stone dock to Silver Street alongside the O.&W. side where the feed store now stands.

 The first building on the property purchased by the village was an office building – a two story structure.  This building was later moved to the front of the lot and is now the residence of Raymond Brosmer.

 The Mill property was a rectangular building about two stories high.  This was of sturdy construction for heavy machinery.  The machines themselves were set in concrete.  Standing at the west end of this building was a one blade saw called a rip saw.  This saw would make only one cut in the stone.  Next were three gang saws. Each of these saws had several blades to make a number of cuts.  The next section had three planes.  The first plane was for large stone and was a slow working machine to plane a large stone down smooth.  A stone of this type was often used form the sidewalk to the entrance of a building.  The next plane was a smaller and faster machine to smooth a medium size stone.  The third machine, still smaller and faster, was used to smooth smaller stones like steps and sills.  This machine could also put fancy edges on the small stones.

 A rubbing bed was at the east end.  This was a revolving heavy steel plate.  On this stones were rubbed down to a very smooth finish.

 South of this building was a small track with a small car on it to run stone from one end of the mill to the other.  Along the track were derricks, each having its individual hoist inside the mill.

 One the north side was a large boiler room and steam engine capable of running all the equipment at one time.  As the mill ran 24 hours a day at times, electricity was generated to light the mill and office.

 The blacksmith shop was capable of making tools for the stone cutters, and keeping them sharp.  It also repaired the machinery.  Much of this work required experienced workmen.

 Two cutting sheds were erected.  These sheds were used for stone cutters to work in and were protected from rain and sun.  The men working in the cutting sheds were real craftsmen at their work.  Names of buildings and of companies were cut in the stone here to be placed in the front of buildings.  They could cut other fancy work into the stones. 

 At the beginning of World War I, the stone mill was considered a non-essential industry and was closed.  This mill and quarry were closed only a short time when the government sent Clarke-Conroy Co. an order for stone which could not be filled.  During the war H.W. Clarke died leaving more of a problem to reopening the operation when the war ended.  Daniel F. Conroy reopened the mill but concrete and reinforced concrete were being used more and replacing stone.  This was very keen competition to face when business was resumed.  During the depression the stone for buildings was ready to ship and some had been shipped when builders went broke.  This was more than the company could stand so was forced into the hands of receivers.