RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

Home life among the workers

Another issue that confronted the worker and housing was sanitation. At first, it was not a major problem. Because of the value and scarcity of the food, one worker recalls: "There was very little garbage to dispose of in my early days. The first I recall was simply thrown out in back. Later, the village (Proctor) serviced weekly a box at every street. Garbage was collected in a horse-drawn dump cart and in our area was carted a short distance away and dumped in the pine wood."

The workers recycled the leftover food into a compost heap or buried it directly to nourish the soil in the backyard gardens.

Kitchen fires were a constant danger. In a story related in the Rutland Historical Society Quarterly XIII, Mrs. John Curry, a 30-year resident of Sutherland Falls, was cooking lunch on a Saturday. She had poured kerosene on the fire to make sure it was lit and in the process her dress caught fire. Since the water for the house was in the outdoor well, she ran outside to the cistern to put out the fire, but she was too late. Given her severe burns, she apparently fell unconscious near the well. About 3 p.m., Clarendon and Pittsford railroad workers spotted her near the railroad tracks. Her husband, unaware of the situation, had gone upstairs to sleep. Mrs. Curry, who was then taken to the hospital, died about 8 that evening. She was 65 and her husband John was 77.

Management houses were, not surprisingly, more expansive and elaborate. In nearly all the cases, however, and Redfield Proctor was no exception, owners and management lived relatively close to the quarries or mills.

Unlike the company-controlled housing in West Rutland and Proctor, the worker houses in Rutland were generally individually owned. Most marble workers lived near St. Peter's, a Roman Catholic Church, in the poorer section of town near the railroad tracks. Meadow and Forest Streets, parallel to each other, were the heart of this district. It was distinct from other marble worker neighborhoods because nonmarble workers lived there as well. In Center Rutland near the falls, along what is now Route 4, were also worker houses. Barrett Hill, a section of Center Rutland adjacent to the falls, contained many marble worker homes dating back to marble mills, when the Irish were the primary immigrants working in the marble industry.

Because of the influx of immigrants, marble companies built cheap, easily constructed housing based on a uniform pattern. Companies did not want to waste valuable land, so worker housing in West Rutland, Rutland, Center Rutland, and Sutherland Falls was close together, built on rectangular plots.

This consciousness of the value of space can be seen in the building boom going on in the cities after the Civil War. Many of the worker houses, including those in the town that would be re-named Proctor, were very close to the road and faced the street. There was no front yard for most of the houses and, at best, little yardage for others. At the rear, usually at the corner of the lot, was the outhouse. The small duplex cottage shared one roof, with one family or group living in either side. Living close together, neighbors were very much aware of each other and could share with one another.

Unlike the slums in the major cities at that time, or even in high rises of the twentieth century, the population density was relatively low. The housing itself never went beyond two floors. The closeness of the houses had advantages and disadvantages. Since the houses were close together, each house provided a buffer to the wind and snow in the winter months, rather than being exposed in an open terrain. But that same closeness created a threat from fires that could spread quickly from one house to another.

Each family had a separate entrance. The house was divided in half, with an upstairs and a downstairs for each family; each unit had its own chimney. On the rear of the house was a lean-to shed for storage. In front of the shed and in the middle of the house was the kitchen; it not only served for preparing meals but also, because it was in the center and on the lower floor, served as a source of warmth. Since Vermont had cold winters, often much colder than the places where many of the immigrants came from, keeping warm in the winter was of paramount concern. The layout of the house helped when there was minimal effective insulation.

Off the kitchen were a small pantry and a room that could also serve as a bedroom. Frequently known as the "birthing room," this central sleeping space was warmer than the rest of the house during the winter because it backed up against the kitchen chimney. It was a place for babies to be born; for infants or toddlers to nap, somewhat undisturbed by household activity; or for arthritic seniors to warm their bones. Household provisions might also be stored in this room, especially if it was imperative that they not freeze during the winter. Flowing from the kitchen was the living room, extending across the front of the unit and containing a closet. Over or under the closet, stairs led up to the second floor or down to the basement. The second floor was typically divided into three bedrooms. In the back of the house was the smallest bedroom, with a closet that could be shared. Along the outside wall was a slightly larger bedroom. Because the two units were mirror images of each other, construction took place in a uniform pattern and the building materials were standardized. Housing for management and particularly upper management might appear ostentatious, but worker-housing units were for the most part undistinguishable from one another.

The second floor in the front contained four windows, two to each side of the complex. Along the side were two additional windows; the smallest back bedroom had only one window. The plentiful use of windows allowed much needed light to enter into the house in an age before electricity. The windows could be opened in the summer to allow the air to circulate. Having the windows opened, however, did pose other problems. Most of the worker houses were located near the railroad tracks or the mills and not far from the quarries themselves, so open windows brought in dust and dirt.

Often the houses were constructed in low areas at the bottom of the hill, as they were in Proctor, or near the swamp, as they were in West Rutland. Soot and pollution settled in the lowest part. In addition to industrial pollution there was air pollution from the railroads that were close to the housing and work sites. Redfield Proctor's house, although near the mill, was at the top of the hill near Otter Creek and above the falls. Thus, while somewhat exposed to the pollution, he and his family were not as much exposed as many of the other workers.

A further danger was air pollution from the wood stoves. Wood was the primary source of fuel, for heat and for cooking, and was stored behind the house. Burning wood contributed to the air pollution in the valley, adding its set of air-borne dirt and chemicals to the industrial pollution from the mill and the railroads. As late as the 1990s, some residents recalled the smog that covered the valley when they were growing up in the 1950s, before the railroad engines switched from steam to diesel locomotives.

The Rutland Herald, Sept. 10,1881, interpreted the pollution in a much more positive light:

"Those who have been discomfited by the smoke with which the air has been filled the past few days will be glad to know that it is really beneficial, for, according to an exchange, 'the more one breathes of it the better up to a reasonable point.' The creosote, which has been taken into the lungs and through them carried into the blood since the murky season set in, is as good as a course of treatment by a physician. People who had toothache a week ago ought to be over their trouble by this time. Creosote, as its name implies, is a preserver of flesh. It is by virtue of this property that smoke preserves hams and other meats subjected to its influence. Creosote forms the base of a large parts of the medicine which people take when the doctor prescribes it for them. It is good for hemorrhage, diarrhea, cholera morbus, cholera infantum, nausea, vomiting, toothache and a variety of other ailments. No one can say that the visitation of smoke at this time is not intended as an antidote for some disease that would be disastrous. It may save many people from cholera morbus brought on by overeating of watermelons and half-ripened fruits."

Marble Minutes is designed to share the history of the marble industry in Vermont. It is part of the Dimensions of Marble program, which, through six distinct projects, will bring together the history of the marble quarries and workers, the communities in which they lived, the artistry of sculptors past and present, and the people, who over generations, created a multitude of new projects and brought prosperity to the region. For more information on Dimensions of Marble, visit www.dimensionsofmarble.org or e-mail Megan Smith, executive director at info@dimensionsofmarble.org. Mike Austin, Ph.D., is the project director, Teaching American History Grant, Castleton State College www.tahvt.org .