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Dorset Marble Company Records

 Collection
Identifier: mss-612

Scope and Contents

The Dorset Marble Company Records are the business correspondence of the D.L. Kent and Company marble firm and the Dorset Mountain Marble Company (1890s-1900s), which seems to have succeeded the Kent Company. Kent and Co. was located in East Dorset, Vermont while Dorset Mountain had mills and quarries at South Dorset and East Dorset.

The material from the Kent Co. consists of estimate, order, specification, payment, and shipment information of marble for tile, monuments, and headstones. Some letters accompany payments from clients while others contain complaints regarding late shipments, mistakes and faults of material, and high prices. Clients were located as far afield as Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia, and Louisiana, though most business recorded here was conducted in the New England region. A small amount of the correspondence deals with legal matters.

Internal and client correspondence of the Dorset Mountain Marble Company is present in the form of order, shipment, and payment information as sent from the office in Philadelphia to the mill in Vermont. These are mostly from President William J. Gray to R. W. Smith Jr. in Vermont. A small amount of the communications relate to internal accounting.

Dates

  • 1859 - 1914
  • Majority of material found within 1880 - 1910

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.

Biographical / Historical

Duane L. (D. L.) Kent (1828-1882) was born in East Dorset, VT to Lucretia Sykes Kent (1799-1881) and Urial Kent (1797-1872), a farmer. In 1857, he married Elsie A. Batchelder (b. 1838). His brother Charles B. Kent (1840-1914) was also in the marble business. Note that the records in this collection were created through the continuation of this business after his death.

The Dorset Marble Company was established in 1881 through the Vermont legislature. It included quarry property owned by D. L. Kent and Co. In 1882, the Dorset Marble Company purchased the quarry and mill from Messrs. Sherman, Gleason, and Proctor thus making it one of the largest marble businesses in the state at the time.

The Dorset Mountain Marble Company was reorganized in 1895 under "capitalists and contractors" in New York City and Philadelphia. In 1897, Dorset Mountain bought Kent and Root Marble Co. of South Dorset and the nearby Charles B. Kent marble mill. After being "idle" for two years, the quarry was reopened in 1902. The Vermont Marble Company leased and ran the property in 1905. Newspaper reports in 1911 indicate that the Green Mountain Marble company bought out the Dorset Mountain Marble company and "has been operating the mill there for some time." Dorset Mountain Marble Company went into receivership and ceased operating in 1915.

The marble business in this region involved name changes which are not always clear. It appears that sites were referred to by various names. At different times, multiple sites were owned by a few large companies after bankruptcies, subsequent purchases, and expansions. A location might still have been known by earlier names or referred to that way to identify a smaller organization being run by a large umbrella company which was operating at multiple sites in southern Vermont.

Extent

0.2 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Collection contains correspondence, orders, invoices, receipts, and a mortgage documenting the activities of the marble dealer in Dorset, VT.

Physical Location

Library Research Annex; contact uvmsc@uvm.edu for access.

Title
Guide to the Dorset Marble Company Records
Status
Completed
Date
2018 April
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the University of Vermont Libraries, Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Silver Special Collections Library
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington Vermont 05405 U.S.A. US
(802) 656-2138
(802) 656-4038 (Fax)