THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

October 11, 1990

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            The Wisconsin Granite Company operated in Waupaca until about 1915, whenit was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.  Over the years, the methods of street paving had changed to concrete and asphalt and the plant was abandoned.

            According to the Warranty Deed, volume 97, page 204, dated May 25, 1899, N. P. Nelson and his wife, Ellen R. Nelson, and Mads Rasmussen and his wife, Mary Rasmussen, all of Waupaca, sold to the Waupaca Crushed Granite and Stone Company of Racine, Wis.  The description of the property is faint and hard to read, but it is described in chains, link and degrees.  The selling price was $1,000.

            Warranty Deed, volume 104, page 32, dated April 26, 1902, shows that the Waupaca Crushed Granite and Stone Company sold their holdings to the Western Consolidated Granite Company of Chicago, , Il., including in the machinery, crushers, boilers, screens and other equipment.

            Warranty Deed, volume 110, page 593, dated May 20, 1905, shows that the Western Consoliated Granite and Stone Company sold out to the Wisconsin Granite Company, also of Chicago, Ill., so now we are at the beginning of the Wisconsin Granite Company that was located north of the main Soo Line tracks, about one half mile west of the Waupaca Depot.  This was supposed to be one of the six quarries owned and operated in Wisconsin.  The Red Granite and Montello quarries may have been two of the others.

            The Wisconsin Granite Company produced, in carload lots, granite paving blocks for pavements and crushed granite in various sizes for of the types of pavement work.  Most of the products were shipped to the Chicago market.

            In the first years of operation they employed 50 to 60 men in manufacturing paving blocks and six different sizes, or grades, of crushed granite for paving and cement work.  It also produced a grade of crushed granite that was in the manufacturing of asphalt shingles, and sold to other roofing places where the patent roofing was manufactured.

            A considerable amount of the crushed granite was used on state highways in Waupaca and Portage counties.  In later years the work force increased to approximately 100 men.  Many were employed as stone cutters who produced paving blocks by hand.  These blocks were about eight by eight feet, by 10 inches.

            The huge crushing and screening plant was of wooden construction three or four stories in height with a cable-way leading from the quarry hole to hoist the granite to the plant to be crashed.

            The hole was 150 to 200 feet deep and required constant pumping of the water to keep the pit dry.

            A big power plant supplied the steam power for operating the crushers and screens, as well as many steam drills operating in the quarry hole.

            This plant was different from the one that was four miles to the north, in that it did not have a polishing plant.  It may have been that this granite was of poorer quality and color and not suited to ornamental work.