SCEPCOP Forum

ND - How old was your sister's house?

I had been to the place a number of times and think it was over 100 years old at the time. That was 20 years. The front steps were made of nice Vermont marble. To check the foundation they pulled the stones away from the front of the house only to realize that the surface that was down had the names of people on them.

Vermont, 120 or so years ago. I have found that many graveyards in the South were vandalized during the Civil War, so repurposing such items is not uncommon. Odd for Vermont however.

I don't put anything past Vermonters. I'm sure that the graveyard was a good source of stone and the effort was being pragmatic. Cows needed tending to. Time was important. The residents of the graveyard were likely asked if they minded. Seeing that there were no dissenters, the resolution to move the stones to a nearby residence passed with a simple voice vote. All in favor say "aye'. All opposed say "nay". The ayes have it.

Hmmmmm. I wonder if those steps might have been 'seconds' where mistakes were made when carving the headstones. Now that would make sense when applying it to Vermont.

That's a good idea about the seconds, but this was not close tot he marble areas or the stone cutting areas of Vermont. The granite zones are in Barre and the marbles ares run from Middlebury south. This was in the Fairfax area. Moving the stone there would have been a big effort. The area is not on rail lines, present or historic. It might have been done if a logging truck was returning empty. The house was not far from the Lamoille river and I image back in the late 1800s the river would have been used to convey logs. At that time Vermont was one of the largest timber ports in the nation - number 3 if I recall right. The rest of the house was rather modest and used field stone. But who knows now.

I was looking for updates on the Triangle and will keep looking to see if the tombstones there turn out to be legit or not.

Good points there. Around here we turn up all sorts of unusual historical items from Europe. The items were used as ship's ballast and dumped all over the shores. It makes walking the beach interesting.

I know one of the important items shipped as ballast was roofing slates. The discovery of red slates of good quality along the southern Vermont-New York border made it possible to avoid receiving slates from England. Many people emigrated to the area from Wales that were experienced slate makers. Many of the mines are still in operation. Even today the repair of roofs of older buildings along the East coast requires the purchase of slates from England to obtain slates that match.

Roofing tiles are very abundant on the Southern coasts. I have a broken ceramic one from France, dated 1500 something. I forget the actual date right now as it's out in the garage.

Is the roofing tile you intact or broken? I understand that the harbors in the Mediterranean are covered with discarded broken items. Isn't part of the Revolutionary War and the discontent in the colonies due to the insistence that raw materials were sent back to Europe and that finished goods were imported from Europe? All of the fine things were imported.

That would certainly make sense.