Be PROUD of Our Limestone Heritage!
Our local Limestone industry has contributed to local, state, and national history and economy, as well as to cultural, architectural, archeological, and geological studies. Few communities can claim such a unique distinction. We should all be proud of the work that is done here, and especially proud of the skill of our limestone workers. I am distressed that the skill, scope and sheer volume of work done by our local stone workers is highly underestimated here in our area.
Back when I was a young child in the 1950's, most of the men in my town worked in the stone industry. About once a year, the stone workers would line up at the end of their long hard workday at the Union Hall for Quarry & Mill Workers in Oolitic, covered in stone dust, waiting to vote on whether or not to strike for better wages and/or working conditions.
The line would be a couple of blocks long, and they would look like a row of Pillsbury Dough Boys. I have never seen such a sight, before or since, and I wish I had a photograph of them at that time. I am thankful that I can still remember those lines so vividly and wish I could paint a picture of them.
Limestone workers often are required to work outside in the most extreme weather, heat and cold alike. My former brother-in-law, Jim Leach working in an open-ended mill in the dead of winter. One particularly cold day, he went into a shed to warm up by a heater. After he thawed his clothes out a bit, he felt a wetness, and discovered that his thighs were cracked open and bleeding from the cold water from his grinder (called a "stone bug") freezing on his legs. Even enclosed mills are very cold in winter and of course stifling hot in summer.
Stone work requires a great degree of skill that must be learned under the direction of experienced stone workers. I am very proud of the stone workers I personally know, and even more proud of those within my own family.
Both of my Grandfathers, Leston R. Hillenburg and Harvey G. Jeffries worked in the Quarries. I would probably not be here had not my Dad's family, including several of my Great Uncles moved here from Kentucky, specifically to work in the limestone industry. I would guess that the majority of Lawrence County residents have at least one ancestor who worked in the stone industry, and some had entire families worked in the mills and/or quarries. Many still do.
In 1925 one of my Maternal Great Grandfathers, James Robert Arthur died just one month before his 46th birthday, from injuries he had received in an accident at McMillan Quarry in Peerless two weeks earlier.
In 1926, one of my Dad's cousins, Elmer Stanley Jeffries, died at age 11 from head injuries he received while playing on a grout pile in Dark Hollow Quarry two days earlier.
In 1930, one of my Dad's Uncles, Jesse S. Owen also died at age 39 from injuries he received in an accident at Dark Hollow Quarry that same morning.
Another one of my Maternal Great Grandfathers, David M. Hillenburg, died at age 70 as a retired quarry worker, and my cousin, Glenn Jeffries retired from the Quarries.
These are just the family members that I know worked in the stone industry, but there are probably other stone workers in my family. I would guess that the majority of people in Lawrence County are descended from stone workers.
I've compiled a list of about fifty-six immigrant families who came here to work in our limestone industry, from at least eight different countries, and these are just the families that I personally know about; I'm sure there were many more. Since the late nineteenth century, Lawrence County, Indiana has been a little Micro-Melting Pot of race, religion, and national country of origin.
We are so fortunate to live in an area that has such exceptional stone workmanship. There are stone quarries and mills in several other states, but none can compare to ours here in Lawrence and Monroe Counties. The quality of our local limestone is superior.
For several months, I had the privilege of working in the office of a small stone company and later I worked in the office of another small stone company on a temporary job. I was shocked to discover how closely connected I was to so many people in the local stone industry. Nearly every person who came into those offices was someone I'd known my entire life.
We are surrounded by limestone in our daily travels; we walk on limestone sidewalks and patios, we drive on gravel roads, we pass by intricate stone carvings in local cemeteries and on our buildings, and we often see stacks of mill blocks in roadside grout piles, as well as blocks of stone being transported on trucks.
All too often these sights just fade into the local landscape, and we fail to see the beauty and craftsmanship of it all. We should all be proud that we have shipped our local limestone to countries all over the world. Just the local stone sculptures in our local cemeteries alone are famous throughout the globe.
We take our stone industry too much for granted and rarely stop to consider that many talented people from this area really have "Built a Nation" with our stone. Our local limestone has been used for bridges, tunnels, buildings, railroad beds and many prominent buildings, including thirty-five of all fifty state capitol buildings; Also, the Pentagon, the Washington National Cathedral, most of all the buildings in the Federal Triangle, The Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium, the Chicago Tribune Tower and countless others were built from our local limestone.
The next time you're exposed to one of these sights, please stop and take a really good look at what you see, and thank all the stone workers that you know for making us proud of their skills and artistry.
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