Blood and Stone

Abundant Granite below the
Lamson & Goodnow Factory

Picturesque rural New England landscapes often evoke images of stone walls that divide farmland and give an air of quaintness to the villages. Stone, especially granite, has always been plentiful in New England. These stones often caused problems for farmers who needed to clear them from their fields to create arable land, using the plentiful stones to build those quintessential walls. The abundance of granite in early New England also meant adequate materials for stonemasons to use for building the infrastructure of towns and villages. The physical monuments created by these stonemasons stand not only as a legacy for the towns they inhabit, but the continued presence of these structures also allow descendants of their hardworking ancestors to to be remembered and better understood. The Merrill family of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts was one such family; they left their blood, sweat and tears on the stone structures they erected and with the families left behind.

At least four generations of the Merrill family of Shelburne Falls engaged as stonemasons, learning the trade from the previous generation and building on each generation's accomplishments. Thaddeus Merrill (1777-1855) of Shelburne Falls is the earliest known member of my family to take up trade, although it is not unlikely that his father or another older family member could have passed these skills on to him, as was common at the time. Nothing is known about the stonework he produced, but Thaddeus is listed in the 1850 census as a stonemason, and family lore supports this. However, when we look at other aspects of Thaddeus’ life, questions arise as to when he may have taken up stone masonry. Either Thaddeus resisted entering the family profession as a young man (entering into other trades before becoming a stonemason) or was an opportunistic entrepreneur who took up a few different business endeavors to support his large family of twelve living children. From family papers and also from the published town history, we know that Thaddeus owned a sawmill in town at one time, a business that could very well have been run in conjunction with a stonework profession. Or maybe this was how he came into stonemasonry, working in conjunction with those already engaged in the profession. Thaddeus seems also to have had an affinity and talent for music; he served as the choir director in town, with an interesting detail that “the finger with which he beat time had been cut off in a sawmill.” Thaddeus apparently dabbled in another business, too— selling alcohol. He was found in breach of the “license law” in 1850 and again in 1851. (The law had been altered in 1850 from prohibiting the sale of “spirituous liquor” to prohibiting the sale of “intoxicating liquor,” seemingly making the law easier to violate for someone who may have been previously involved in alcohol sales.) Were these diverse business endeavors common for early nineteenth century New Englanders? Were there too many stonemasons in town or maybe not enough work? As a stonemason did Thaddeus have a place in local society that allowed him to be successful in multiple endeavors? So many questions remain to be answered. Nonetheless, we know that by the end of his life, he had amassed real estate valued at $2000, indicating his success in at least some of these business endeavors.

Thaddeus passed the stonemasonry tradition onto at least six of his sons: Ira, Caleb, James, Levi, Thaddeus, Jr., and Nathaniel. Only Ira lived most of his life in Shelburne Falls, carrying on the family tradition, while the other sons spread out across Massachusetts and the rest of the country, as far as California, erecting monuments and buildings that document the continuation of the Shelburne Falls Merrill tradition as stonemasons. Ira briefly headed west to Illinois in about 1831, likely to follow brother Caleb after the death of his first wife, the former Olive Nichols, in 1830. He later returned to his hometown, married Olive’s sister Dolly in 1835, continuing and building onto the family business. Ira struggled at first, whether as a stone mason or in a different profession it isn’t clear; a warrant was issued in May of 1841 for Ira Merrill as an “insolvent debtor” with orders that his estate be seized. However, he did eventually establish himself as a prominent stonemason in Shelburne Falls. Between 1850 and 1900, Ira built the Shelburne Falls Hotel, many of the building foundations in town, as well as Goodrich Hall at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and buildings in Northampton, Massachusetts. Ira also succeeded in evolving his profession by securing patents in 1856 and 1857 for new machinery that allowed for improved tunneling and quarrying of stone, proving himself as not only a craftsman and entrepreneur, but also as a man with a skilled mind and drive to improve his lot in life.

Shelburne Falls Hotel (far left)

Tragically, Ira Merrill was killed on November 5, 1866 while engaged in stone work for Lamson & Goodnow Company, at the time one of the oldest cutlery manufacturing businesses in the country. While some of the workers were lifting a gate into place with a derrick, Ira came to assist them. A clasp gave way, causing the boom to fall on Ira who was directly below, hitting him in the head and throwing him ten feet backwards. To be engaged in such a highly skilled, yet dangerous profession demonstrates the dedication to the craft that Ira had. Being a stonemason was not just crafting stones, it was putting oneself at the center of a very complicated and dangerous construction puzzle.

George Gilson Merrill, born in 1836, joined father Ira in stonemasonry, following several years during the 1850s living in Illinois, presumably joining and learning from his Uncle Thaddeus, who had settled in Abingdon, Illinois, and from Uncle Nat, who had established a stone business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. George Merrill became the most prominent of the Shelburne Falls stonecutters, establishing himself as not only a stonemason, but also as a general contractor. George built the retaining walls along the Deerfield River in Shelburne Falls, the VFW building in town, the foundation of Arms Academy (now housing the Shelburne Historical Society), and had the masonry contract for the Holyoke-Hadley Bridge in western Massachusetts (the longest span in New England at the time).

Stone Wall and Foundation at G.G. Merrill's Homestead

George Merrill was also contracted with laying the foundation for the railway that would go through the Hoosac Tunnel, the first mountain tunnel constructed in the country, east of North Adams, Massachusetts; he was aboard the first train (a single boxcar) that passed through the four and a half mile tunnel in February of 1875. After its construction, the governor of Massachusetts appointed George inspector for the stone work and bridges along the Troy and Boston Railroad from Greenfield to the Hoosac Tunnel. Then, in 1890 George served as the chairman of the committee for the Iron Bridge in Shelburne Falls; this bridge still serves as a symbol of the town, connecting the Buckland side of the village to the Shelburne side. It has been featured in several movies and television productions in the past twenty years; the most well-known, The Judge (2014) and Labor Day (2013), include prominent sweeping scenes of this iron truss span.

While three of G.G. Merrill’s sons followed him into related fields of engineering, it was son Roy Merrill (1878-1961) whose work most closely followed in his father’s path. He was the only one of the sons not to venture far away from home, except for when studying at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. One reason he remained in Shelburne Falls may have been a serious injury in the fall of 1906 when Roy “wanted to use dynamite and as it was frozen solid he tried two or three times to cut it then he took a sharp axe and cut it an explosion followed which filled his face and eyes." (23 Dec 1906) In the explosion, Roy severely injured every finger on his right hand and one on his left, as well as sustaining an unrecoverable injury to his left eye, which had to be removed.

Fire Tower on Mt. Massamet
circa 1916

After recuperating, Roy continued to work alongside his father on several projects, then in 1909 took charge of the construction of a stone fire tower 1690 feet atop Mt Massamet, overlooking the town of Shelburne Falls. Previous wooden structures had been blown down during severe storms and so there was a need for a more permanent solution. Roy modeled the stone tower after one in Hanover, New Hampshire that overlooked Dartmouth, his alma mater. Plans were drawn up by his father’s cousin, Frank Merrill, who had returned from Wisconsin to live in his father’s native town. With no source of water close by, combined with steep stony terrain, the work was treacherous. Workmen climbed the steep mountain each day to work, with supplies being brought in on the less steep west side of the mountain. When it was completed, the circular tower made of native granite stood sixty-eight feet high and eight feet in diameter. The tower still stands sentinel today, one hundred fifteen years later, over the village and valley below.

Of George Merrill’s six children, there were only three who produced children, none of whom followed the tradition of stonemasonry or contracting. As the youngest grandchild Edward W. Merrill once told me, his father Eddie Merrill desired to go into “anything that his father knew nothing about.” That may give some indication as to the social dynamics within the family and why the tradition of stone masonry ended in our family. Whenever I visit the beautiful village of Shelburne Falls, I take pride in the mark that Ira, George, and Roy left there. Their work is a large part of the reason the village is so appealing to tourists, movie and television productions, and in attracting new residents from all over the U.S. to live. Like getting blood out of stone, the Merrills of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts certainly poured their hearts, bodies, and souls into the profession of stonemasonry and left the fruits of their labor for their descendants to take great pride in.