They began a systematic process known as
sheet quarrying, which involved removing
granite blocks in layers from shallow pit
quarries with simple tools, including
hammers, drill bits, and iron wedges.
During the late 1820s, Robert’s son John
and his son-in-law Eliphalet Hewitt joined
the company.
In 1834, the newly formed partnership
of Hewitt & Parker took out the first paid
newspaper advertisement for Vermont’s
granite industry, promoting their quarries
and granite works in Barre and Marshfield.
The products listed in the ad included
“underpinning; door steps; sills; caps;
pillars and circles; window caps and sills;
hearth and step stones; mantletree pieces
and tombstones; posts, caps and balls; jet
stone, grist and oil mill stones, cut to any
pattern, at short notice.”
Advertising certainly
increased business for
Vermont’s small
emerging granite -
86