Quarries in Missouri & Quarry Links, Photographs, and
Articles
Affton Thru Ash Grove
- Affton, Missouri – the Speh Monument Co. on Gravois
Avenue at Vermont Road (from American Stone Trade, November,
1931, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, pp. 36.)
Beautiful New Home
The Miniature Cemetery Effect of the New Home of Speh Monument Co., at Affton, Mo., near St. Louis.
“The Speh Monument Co., located out south on Gravois Avenue at Vermont Road, in the village of Affton, Mo., have recently completed their new business home. As the accompanying illustration will indicate, the plan of the extensive and ornate improvement consisted of providing a spacious display yard developed and appointed as a miniature cemetery, with commodious office building including consulting and reception rooms upon the lines of an attractive cottage, the best form perhaps to indicate comfort and unostentatious cordiality, and yet all of the furnishings and fittings are upon a scale of elegance that will command the respect of every visitor. The front yard is illuminated at night by flood lights so arranged that the display is the most prominent and at the same time the most beautiful object along that well traveled highway leading to the southwest, and but a short distance beyond the city limits of St. Louis, and immediately opposite to the imposing entrance to Sunset Memorial Park, one of the finest and newest cemeteries serving the population of the great city.
“The plan for this pronounced expansion was adopted over two years ago, while the concern was still located in their former quarters at 6845 Gravois Avenue, and with the hearty consent and co-operation of the late F. X. Speh, the founder of the enterprise more than forty years ago, and he lived to see the work well-nigh completed. The company is a family affair, owned and managed by Ernest G. Speh and Leo J. Speh, both of whom have grown up with their father in the business, and both have won their spurs in the field of useful service. The adventure has already proved itself to be a pronounced success as a business proposition.
“The workshop is located in a separate building 25 feet to the rear of the office building, and is built of the same visible material, a buff face brick with stone trimmings. It is one story and full basement, with all the floors and structural members of reinforced concrete. The floor slab of the shop in which the stones of several tons weight are frequently handled is carried on deep beams spaced on 10 feet c-c, and figured by a factor of safety of 10 at 1,000 pounds per square foot. This means that granite slabs piled to the roof would be no more than a safe load. The entire construction of the buildings is fireproof from the basement floor to the roof, which is of green asbestos plates. The equipment of the shop is the last word, with a power plant and air compressors for both a light load and for the full operation of the shops with all the men for which there is room to work with air tools or with the sand-blast, which has been arranged with a view to the greatest efficiency. There is no overhead traveler in the shop, the stones being handled by means of a mechanical truck rolling upon the smooth floor, that can go anywhere it is wanted and at any desired elevation. This is built by the Barrett-Cravens Co., of Chicago, and Ernest Speh says it is the finest thing he knows of for the service they have for it, which is not confined to the interior of the shop by any means. The level of the shop floor is only about an inch higher than the broad slab of concrete between the office and the works, and this is joined to a system of concrete pathways leading to all parts of the miniature cemetery front yard. The same truck makes it a one-man operation to handle any piece of stone currently used in monumental work, and to replace another in the yard after one has been removed. The original plan was to make the hard work part of the business seem a mere pastime as near as possible. Both the shop and the offices are heated from one central heating plant, and both are lighted by electricity, so that night work in an emergency is well provided for. The experience of half-a-century is to be seen.
“To the rear of the property, which is considerably over an acre in extent, the ground slopes away, so that at the west side of the shop the level of the basement floor makes it handy for the delivery truck to back in, and its load can be taken from the shop-floor by means of a chain hoist, and the berth for the truck is provided for at the same time with a never freezing temperature, as it is in the same basement with the heating plant.
“The improvement of the backyard is now proceeding upon the plan to continue the miniature cemetery effect, by means of a sunken garden having a reflection pool about its center, and with monuments set appropriately and effectively in the picture.
“Ernest says they intend to make as many people as happen to see their place of business get memorial minded with the desire to mark every grave properly with something as worthy as they can afford to erect, and that is the inevitable impression it makes.”
- Albany, Missouri – J. W. Kenyon’s Quarry (listed in The Mine, Quarry and Metallurgical Record of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, The Mine and Quarry News Bureau, Chicago, Ill., 1897)
- Amazonia (near), Andrew County, Missouri - Limestone Quarry (Limestone) (from Report on The Building Stones of The United States, and Statistics of the Quarry Industry for 1880, by George W. Hawes, Curator of the Department of Mineralogy and Lithology at the National Museum, and by F. W. Sperr and Thomas C. Kelly, Joint production of the Census Office and the National Museum, 1883)
“Near Amazonia, Andrew county, 14 ½ feet of evenly-bedded, ferruginous gray, and somewhat oolitic limestone occurs. A quarry of this rock was formerly worked 2 ½ miles northeast of Savannah, and the stone was transported by wagons to Saint Joseph and used in the construction of buildings....”
- Amazonia (north of), Missouri - S. H. Atwood & Co. Limestone Quarry on Jacob Schreier’s Farm (Limestone) (The following information is from The Quarrying Industry of Missouri, by E. R. Buckley, Director and State Geologist, and H. A. Buehler, Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines Vol. II, 2nd Series, 1904.)
“S. H. Atwood & Co., of Plattsmouth, Nebraska, have leased land on the farm of Jacob Schreier and have opened a quarry for crushing purposes, one mile north of Amazonia, just east of the Savannah branch of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad system. This quarry was opened in the spring of 1902 and has a face of 700 feet, along the west side of the bluff. The ledge, which is being quarried, consists of twenty feet of gray limestone, in beds from six to fourteen inches in thickness. It has an average stripping of two feet. Near the top a fourteen-inch bed of finely crystalline, compact limestone overlies three feet of yellow decomposed stone. Eleven feet from the base of the quarry is a heavy bed of limestone which is underlain by six inches of shale. The bedding planes are uneven and the beds are separated from one another by thin layers of shale. The stone is ‘shelly’ and along the bedding planes it is somewhat disintegrated. Blasting breaks the stone into pieces sufficiently small so that comparatively little sledging is required before going to the crusher.
“The stone is fine grained but contains geodes and fine seams of calcite. Where the quarry has been worked farthest into the hill the stone has a slightly bluish color. In some places it contains small flint nodules, which are not harmful for most purposes for which crushed stone is used. It spalls easily and breaks with a sharp fracture. The quality of the stone improves and the beds become more solid as the quarry is worked into the hill.
“The joints are irregular and strike mainly N. 35° E. and N. 21° W. Very little attention is given them in working the quarry.
“At present the output is used mainly in the construction of concrete bridge abutments in railroad work.
“The quarry is being worked eastward along a hill. The leased land includes the hill north of the present quarry, and it is the intention to fill the ravine between the two hills with stripping in order to operate two openings.
“The crushing plant, which is one of the best in the State, is situated just west of the quarry. Two Gates Crushers, a No. 3 and a No. 5, are being operated. The crushed rock is elevated and passed through a revolving screen, which operates it into a two-inch product and screenings. That which does not pass through the screen is returned to the small crusher over a belt conveyor and recrushed. The crushers and elevators are all operated from a line shaft. A locomotive boiler is used to furnish steam. The plant is so arranged that all parts of the machinery likely to need cleaning, adjustment or repairs can be reached easily and without danger. A gasoline engine and pump furnishes the plant with water. The rock is conveyed from the quarry to the crusher in extra large, heavy dump carts, which are drawn by two horses. The carts have a small third wheel in front which serves to relieve the team from the load. Substantial stables and houses have been erected, by the company with a view of establishing a permanent plant. The initial cost of plant and buildings was $15,000. The land on which the quarry is located has been leased for fifteen years.” - Annapolis, Iron County - the May and Tow Porphyry Quarry
(Porphyry) (from “Notes on The Building Stones, Clays
and Sands of Iron, St. Francois and Madison Counties,” by
G. E. Ladd, Assistant Geologist, in Bulletin 1, Geological
Survey of Missouri, Jefferson City, April 1890.)
“May and Tow. In township 31 north, range 3 east, at Annapolis, is a quarry at which work has been discontinued, owing to the extreme difficulty with which the rock was worked and also on account of the numerous seams and joint planes which intersect it. The stone is a blue-black porphyry, speckled with crystals of gray feldspar. It has numerous inclusions which resemble bombs in a lava flow. About 10,000 paving blocks is the total product of the quarry.”
- Appleton, Missouri - Henry Laid’s Quarry (listed in The Mine, Quarry and Metallurgical Record of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, The Mine and Quarry News Bureau, Chicago, Ill., 1897)
- Appleton City, Missouri - C. L. Miller’s Quarry (listed in The Mine, Quarry and Metallurgical Record of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, The Mine and Quarry News Bureau, Chicago, Ill., 1897)
- Argo, Missouri - John Stewart’s Quarry (listed in The Mine, Quarry and Metallurgical Record of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, The Mine and Quarry News Bureau, Chicago, Ill., 1897)
- Ash Grove (near), Green County, Missouri - the Ash Grove White Lime Association (Limestone) (from Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri: Early and Recent History and Genealogical Records of Many of the Representative Citizens, Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Edwin Tuck, (ca. 1914.), presented by the Springfield-Greene County Library.)
(The following information is from Chapter 3. Economic Geology, by Edward M. Shepard, Part 1.)
“Ash Grove White Lime Association Quarry. - Near the town of Ash Grove, a ledge of Upper Burlington limestone seven hundred feet long, and from twenty-two to twenty-five feet thick has been exposed, and the fact that it has no horizontal, and few vertical seams, makes it one of the finest undeveloped properties in the state. Though used at present, for the rnanufacture of lime only, it would be of great value for the production of dimension stone....”
“The first introduction of modern methods of manufacture was made by the Ash Grove White Lime Association. This company now (circa 1914) largely controls the trade of the Southwest, shipping to Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and even to the Pacific coast. A history of this company is essentially a history of the lime industry in southwestern Missouri. In 1880, the late Gen. G. H. Nettleton, general manager of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf railroad, called the attention of Mr. J. H. Barton to the large amount and fine quality of limestone thrown out of the deep cut of the railroad west of Ash Grove, and urged the importance of establishing a lime plant on the line of this road. A car-load of the stone was shipped to the old Burns kiln, at Springfield, and burned into a fine quality of white lime. Mr. Barton immediately erected two kilns at Ash Grove and the following year Mr. W. B. Hill, of Carthage, became associated with him. Two years later Barton and Hill organized a stock company known as the Ash Grove White Lime Association, which, in addition to the nine kilns at Ash Grove, soon built several others at Everton, in an adjacent county and at Galloway, in Greene county.”
- Ash Grove, Missouri - the Ash Grove White Lime Association (The following photographs are from The Quarrying Industry of Missouri, by E. R. Buckley, Director and State Geologist, and H. A. Buehler, Missouri Bureau of Geology and Mines Vol. II, 2nd Series, 1904.)
Plate XLVII. Lime Industry. View showing kilns of the Ash Grove White Lime Association, Ash Grove, Mo.
Plate XLVIII. Burlington Limestone. View of quarry of the Ash Grove White Lime Association, Ash Grove, Mo. 
- Ash Grove, Missouri - the Ash Grove Lime Works (from Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, May 1899, Vol. XVIII., No. 6, pp. 350)
“The Ash Grove (Mo.) Lime Works recently (1899) made one shipment of sixty carloads of lime to a single firm in Omaha, Neb.” Plate XLVII Lime Industry.
- Ash Grove, Missouri - H. B. Kellogg’s Quarry (listed in The Mine, Quarry and Metallurgical Record of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, The Mine and Quarry News Bureau, Chicago, Ill., 1897)
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