Personal Accounts and Stories

Personal Accounts, Stories, & Thoughts Relating
to Workers in the Stone Industry

Please note that there are other accounts of stone workers involved in the stone trade in the state in which they lived and worked.

Stone Carvers – “What is a stonecarver?” – Thoughts by Patrick Plunkett, on the Stone Carvers Guild web site.

Stone Workers & Their Families in American Life Histories - Manuscripts from WPA Writers’ Project (1936-1940), Library of Congress - American Memory.

Using search words such as “stone carver” or “stone worker” etc., you will find stories about the people who worked in the stone industry prior and up to 1940. (You can refine the search to a specific state.)

(From the web site) “These life histories were compiled and transcribed by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-1940. The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents consist of drafts and revisions, varying in form from narrative to dialogue to report to case history. The histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts.”

The Stonesetters – The Men Who Built the University (Duke University Archives, Durham, North Carolina). This site tells the story of Louis Fara, a native of Frugarola, Italy, and the other stone masons of his era who help to build Duke University. Click here for information on DukeStone.

"July 16, 1990 marked the end of an era in the history of the construction of Duke University. On that date Louis Fara, a native of Frugarola, Italy, and the last of the original stone setters who skillfully laid the Indiana limestone trim on West Campus, died...Fara was representative of a group of laborers whose unique background and contribution will be acknowledged as long as eyes gaze upon Duke's majestic Gothic arches. The laborers' background and their sense of accomplishment have to be pieced together from scattered published interviews. Fortunately, their names are familiar, for many remained in Durham to raise their families. Six decades after the completion of West Campus the city telephone directory still lists the Italian names of Fara, Ribet, Ferettino, Citrini, and Berini. In addition, Giobbi and Greppi worked the stone as well as the highly respected stone workers Macadie and Brown. They worked along side native blacks and mountain whites who had also migrated to Durham in search of steady employment during severe economic times."

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