Dorset Marble Company Records

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.