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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 59 SANPETE OOLITE LIMESTONE world—Penrhyn and Dinorwic.20 Edward L. Parry migrated to the United States in 1853 at the age of thirty-five. He participated in the initial stages of the construction of the Salt Lake LDS Temple, became chief mason of the St. George LDS Temple, directed building of the St. George Social Hall, was chief mason on the St. George Tabernacle, and several other buildings. Immediately after completion of the St. George Temple, Edward moved to Manti where he was master mason on the Manti LDS Temple from 1877 to 1888.21 He and his eldest son Edward Thomas prospected for potential quarries, located attractive ledges of stone northeast of Ephraim, and filed claims on the property.22 The Ephraim quarry was opened and operated while construction on the Manti Temple was in progress. Stone from the Ephraim quarry was used in some of the upper levels of the temple.23 After completion of the Manti Temple, the oolite limestone continued to be used for local buildings including the Sanpete County Courthouse completed in the 1930s. With the arrival of the railroad in Sanpete County—first to Wales in 1882, then Moroni in 1884 and Manti in 1893— the local limestone could be shipped from the county to Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and localities from Colorado to California. The first stone from the E. L. Parry and Sons Ephraim quarry was shipped to Elias Morris, a stone dealer in Salt Lake City in 1882. The stone blocks, ranging in size from 157 to 257 cubic feet (13 to 21 tons), were taken to Wales on wagons and put on railroad cars for shipment to Salt Lake City.24 E. L. Parry's account books show regular shipments of stone including shipments to San 20 In the mid-nineteenth century Penrhyn employed 2,000 men and the slate industry at its peak in the 1870s employed 11,000 to 14,000 men. The rock splitter was the real artist and quarrymen were the elite group of the quarry workers. R. Merfyn Jones, The North Wales Quarrymen (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1982), 72. 21 Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. IV Biographical (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1892), 459-61. George Brooks grew up in the home of Edward L. Parry where he learned the craft of stone masonry. Details of the life of Edward L Parry are given in Juanita Brooks, George Brooks Artist in Stone, (N.P., 1965),11- 79. 22 Edward L. Parry claimed 368 acres in 1880, and Edward Thomas claimed an additional 80 acres in circa 1883. The Utah Territory had no laws providing for claiming public lands for the purpose of quarrying stone. The Parrys had been advised that in the absence of any other method, the land could be claimed under the Desert Land Act. Blodwen P. Olson, “The White Stone Men,” Beehive History 23 (1997): 18; “The Quarry Contest,” Deseret News, May 21, 1884. Claims were filed on the property under the Desert Land Act of March 3, 1877, which was enacted to promote the development of arid and semiarid lands of the Western United States. Through this act, individuals could apply for land to cultivate and irrigate public lands. The cost was $1.25 per acre and a promise to irrigate at least one-eighth of the land within three years. A partial payment of $0.25 per acre was required. Competition among quarry men for the best stone was intense, and included examples of overlapping claims and claim jumping. “Attempt to Jump a Stone Quarry,” Deseret News, May 7, 1884; “The Sanpete Quarry Question,” Deseret News, May 7, 1884; “The Quarry Question Again,” and “Made Still More Clear,” Deseret News, May 21, 1884 23 “Stone Quarries Fade into History Pages,” Manti Messenger, July 30, 1970. 24 Gary B. Peterson and Lowell C. Bennion, Sanpete Scenes: A Guide to Utah's Heart (Eureka: Basin Plateau Press, 1987), 60-61; David F. Johnson, “The History and Economics of Utah Railroads” (M.S. Thesis, University of Utah, 1947); Clarence Andrew Reeder, “The History of Utah’s Railroads, 18691883” (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Utah, 1970). 59 |
