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"What the Vermont Marble company must do is quite clear. We must gear our thinking to work for war; we must devote our plants and equipment; our financial resources and our personnel to the utmost extent, to making some contribution to the war effort." -Redfield Proctor
The Vermont Marble Co. expanded rapidly until the 1930’s when demand declined due to the Great Depression. Just after finishing the exterior of the Jefferson Memorial in 1940, the Vermont Marble Company shifted direction and deployed its talents toward the national war effort for World War II. By early 1941, the first steps toward retrofitting stone carving equipment was underway and two machine shops were already repurposed for the war.
Motivated by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of that year, the Vermont Marble Company ramped up both the volume and scope of its wartime products, manufacturing many vital necessities for the Army, Airforce, and Navy. While their change was seen as aiding the national interest, doing so also allowed the company to avoid becoming needless and insolvent during these "unique" years. By 1942, “war work” constituted 43% of the Vermont Marble Company's production quota and the company continued to increase that number as more and more shops were repurposed from stone production to meet the needs for other materials such as metal, wood, and mica.
By 1943, the Vermont Marble Company was awarded the Army-Navy "E" award for Excellence in production of the materials of war and was again rewarded in 1944 with a white star for continued efforts.
Effects of the War on Marble Production
Effects of the War on Marble Production
Despite a worldwide economic crash and a hiatus on large building construction, monumental marble production for Vermont Marble was increased by the effects of WWII.
Domestically
Domestically
The West Rutland and Florence quarries were maintained for monument stone orders and interiors, while the Danby quarry was mothballed. The monument shop in Proctor became one of the company’s busiest plants in the production of domestically sold memorials.
Internationally
Internationally
Prior to the war, most marble statues came from Italy where they were made at prices much lower than could be produced in comparison to the American wage scale. As a result of hostilities in Italy commercial stone carving was all but suspended and international buyers looked to the Vermont Marble Company instead, resulting in continuous statue production for the company throughout the war. Much of the demand was for military memorials.
Shortage of metals early into the war brought an increase in the use of marble burial vaults and cinerary urns across the country. Prior to December 1941, marble urns were found primarily on the Pacific Coast, while bronze was the primary material in the east.
With the increase in the sales of marble urn resulting from the war, the company eventually developed a complete line of designs for the market. Marble won the immediate favor of customers compared to other stone types, not only for its elegant beauty, but also the wide range of colors available. The Vermont Marble Company offered many different varieties of both local, and foreign marbles for cinerary urns.
Defense Work
Defense Work
The same view of a marble shop in Proctor just a few months apart (1943)
From Marble Shop to War Plant
From Marble Shop to War Plant
Like with so many other organizations at the time, a management committee for the Vermont Marble Company, known as the War Work Committee and appointed personally by Redfield Proctor, was charged with the general supervision of related sales, production and engineering. Government offices were contacted and weeks were spent in Washington exploring possibilities and finding sources for equipment. Hundreds of defense-oriented projects were discussed, many of which were ultimately deemed too impractical for the company’s capabilities in 1941. Over a relatively short period of time though, the Vermont Marble Company would expand its volume of business in war time production as it was able to add capacity and expand into new fields.
While war time contracts for the company were being actively pursued, many of the large marble planers in the company's Proctor exterior shop were being rebuilt to serve the war time production.
The final shipment for the completion of the Jefferson Memorial was made in April of 1941. During the same month, contracts were signed for planing the bases and beds for rifle barrel drillers, and in June another contract was signed for planing the bases for ship engines. Huge marble planers were rebuilt, small planers enlarged; single post planers converted to double post machines. Carborundum moulding machines, once industrial abrasive sculpting devices, were made into planers and milling machines. Lathes were converted into boring mills; marble diamond saws and polishing machines into radial drills, and all machines made capable of working to a degree of accuracy far beyond their original requirements.
"When the Vermont Marble company began its conversion from peacetime work to wartime work, the problem of finding machines to do the new job had to be met. Take the instance of this machine above. Once it was a marble turning lathe. Now it's a horizontal boring mill. Its working feed is accomplished by the combined effort of a drum switch from a quarry channeler, a motor reduction unit from a rubbing bed and feeder, a gear box from a scrapped carborundum moulding machine, and a chain drive from a discarded planer." (Rutland Herald, September 16 1943)
Carborundum molding machines were used extensively in the Vermont Marble Company's marble business prior to the war. Changing from grinding to milling heads made these tools equally versatile in the machining of metals. During the war, the largest machine of its kind in the world was changed from molding the columns of the Supreme Court and Jefferson Memorial buildings to milling surfaces on engine parts for Liberty ships.
1941 - 89% marble production and 11% war work
1942 - 57% marble production and 43% war work
1943 - 15% marble production and 85% war work
In the spring of 1942, the two exterior shops, as well as the machine shops at the Proctor complex, were operating almost exclusively on war time production at the limit of their capacity.
Out of necessity, the interior marble finishing shop at Center Rutland was converted to the task of building and assembling complete machining units, while sections of the Proctor plant, and machine shop at West Rutland, began to produce parts for these units.
The war time economy had initially reduced the Vermont Marble Company's employment to approximately 840 workers by early 1941. Speedy conversion of plants from the manufacturing of stone to war production, though, resulted in an increase in employees by an additional 400, bringing totals up to approximately 1250 at the peak of war time production.
Machinists devised countless ways to retrofit preexisting marble mills to suit their wartime needs.
Machines and their operators were originally tasked to manufacturing tolerances measured in thumbs and inches, but the machines were quickly converted and the operators trained to work in the much smaller dimension of micrometers. Machines that had once been satisfactory for coarse tolerances of marble could not, without considerable changes, manufacture the military's much needed products. Often, the old tolerances on exterior marble of 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch had to be changed to tolerances as close as five thousandths of an inch, or .005. In addition to this monumental task, conversion of skills and equipment had to done while production went on in full-swing.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Pullies, engine components, pumps, etc. were produced in vast quantities at Vermont Marble via cleaver in-house production teams that were able to make their own equipment.
By government request in 1942, the Vermont Marble Company accepted a contract to survey the supply of old-growth spruce in Vermont that was suitable for wooden aircraft parts.
To assist in the harvest, the currently mothballed mill and shop at Florence, VT was stripped of its marble working equipment and replaced with dry-kiln and woodworking machinery. The renewed mill manufactured countless wooden wartime products including ammo and equipment crates.
While only small amounts of aircraft spruce were manufactured due to changes in government mandate, the shop maintained a steady workflow starting in September 1942 with the production of numerous wooden goods including cable reels for army units, shell crates, ammunition boxes, and many other types of packages for overseas shipment.
Wood contracts required a whole new degree of specialization for the company's workforce. Employees had to be trained in very particular lines of woodworking even when necessary machinery for the jobs was not readily available.
The former monument finishing shop in Proctor was repurposed solely for the processing of mica for electronics.
Mica was part of an ongoing international import from Brazil, India, and Argentina, with a small amount being sourced domestically. In Proctor mica was split, sorted, cut, and shaved, providing the necessary components for electronic communication systems such as radios and walkie-talkies. Every Flying Fortress aircraft produced, required roughly 5 lbs of processed mica to operate.
Women and the War Effort
Women and the War Effort
"If it had not been for the cooperation and enthusiasm of the women in the vicinity of its plants, the Vermont Marble Company would not now be making as large a contribution to the war effort as it has been able to do." (Rutland Herald, September 16 1943)
Prior to the war, women were employed at the Vermont Marble Company only to do clerical work at the main office.
During the war, however, due to a shortage of men to fill the work force, opportunities at Vermont Marble for women were excellent. Mothers, sisters, and wives, including estranged or widowed wives affected by the war, were more than willing to become “Rosies” during the war and quickly became the backbone of the company’s workforce.
During the war women were trained and employed in all but the most grueling tasks of war work production, from milling to machining. This was especially true for the great deal of those who had no prior relevant skills.
The employees of the Florence plant, most of whom were women, largely came from the northern end of Rutland County, VT and provided the efficient workforce that might have otherwise kept the Vermont Marble Company from being able to take on such large-scale tasks.
This page was written by and largely put together by the Lithomania Studio.
References
References
“Army-Navy ‘E’ Commemorative Booklet.” Vermont Marble Co., Proctor, Vt, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
Kennedy, Nancy H. “From Quarry To Gallery: The National Gallery of Art.” Rutland Historical Society Quarterly 37, No. 2 (2007): 1–18. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (I of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 13, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (II of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 14, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (III of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 15, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (IV of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 16, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (V of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 17, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble at War (VI of VI).” Rutland Herald. September 18, 1943. “Vermont Marble Goes To War”. The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Marble Chips,” 1938 and 1939, Proctor, VT Free Library.
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