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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1979, PAGE 7 Brian Winter 's Historical Whitby I#UUU THE MARBLE WORKS Whitby residents are familiar with the Stafford Brothers Monument Works which has been in town for many years, but few are awaré of the monument works that was operated in this town for nearly 50 years by the Wolfenden family. Richard Wolfenden came to Whitby from Yorkshire, England, and established a marble works about 1849. In those days ail grave stones were made of marble, as granite did not come into use until the 1870's. Richard Wolfenden and his sons Jonathan and John did custom carving of grave stones and mantle pieces for fire places as their main line of work. The original location of the Wolfenden Marble Works is not known, but by 1865 the company was established in a new building on Dundas Street East, where the present Toronto Dominion Bank stands beside the cenotaph. By 1876 the premises were enlarged, and the Wolfenden family lived in a frame house beside the marble works. The stone was cut with a revolving circular iron saw, 12 inches in diameter, the edge set with 42 diamonds, the hardest cutting material available. It-was said that this saw could cut through blocks of granite as a wood saw would cut through a pine log. The block of marble was laid on a moving carriage, and in five minutes a slab three feet long and three inches deep could be cut' right through. This work was fomerly done with a chisel and could take ail day. The company also employed a circular "rubber" or buffer that could smooth a block of rough granite in a few minutes. An ordinary tomhstone having letters cut. intn it to the depth of 3/8 FI, w' Brooklin Bylines M J NEWS The speaker for the afternoon group held for adults at the Brooklin Branch Library on Tuesday, January 30 from 1-2 . p.m., will be Mrs. Janet Coates from the Oshawa Celtic Craft Guild. Mrs. Coates is also knowledgeable about the Arts Council and Will be a most interesting guest. Adults who wish to attend. this group should call the library at 655-3191 or register in person. The preschool story hour is held in the Children's Library on Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. as well. It features stories, songs, games, and crafts specially selected for the little ones. The Saturday morning story hours for school aged children are from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. There are still some older mysteries on sale. A great reading bargain. 'Myrtle'Women's Institute wish to advise that Summary Day for the course "Spotlight on Bread" will be held in Trinity United Church, First Avenue, Uxbridge, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, commencing at 1:30 p.m. All ladies are welcome whether they took the course of not. See you there. Don't forget to keep February 5 open. The "Silent Auction" is coming. Brown's Drop Off Dear Readers: (before 2:00 n.m. SatJ I would like to apologize for any inconvenience you may have encountered during my absence. I am back in town and will be available for calls as of January 29, at 655-3932. Hope to hear from you. Susan of an inch could be rendered perfectly smooth and ail trace of the letters completely obliterated in the space of 20 minutes, using only common sand. To do the same work with the best granite sand by hand would take a whole day. A third machine was used to polish and shine the finished stone. The polishing work was done by placing the stone on a carriage, and water was applied during the polishing process by a worker turning a tap on and off. Fomerly all polishing and rubbing of stones had to be done by hand. A turning lathe was used to produce columns of fine Canadian marble, which often served as part of early grave markers. Two tramways were set up in the shop, one to bring blocks of marble inside from the adjacent yard, and one to move materials inside the shop without any heavy lifting. A 10 horsepower engine provided the power for all the machinery. The Wolfendens did a lot of specialized custom work. Besides tomb stones, which were shipped as far away as Brock Township, there was special church work such as a baptismal and holy water-font of Derbyshire alabaster for the Whitby Roman Catholic Church. Some major jobs included the carving from Italian marble of the fireplaces and mantles for -Sheriff Nelson G. Reynolds' Trafalgar Castle, now the Ontario Ladies' College. These were executed about 1860, and are some of the finest examples remaining of the products of the Whitby Marble Works. On Oct. 16, 1877, disaster struck when a fire broke out in a frame shop beside the Wolfenden's plant and their marble .works and home burned to the ground. By the summer of 1878, the Wolfendens had constructed a large brick building to replace their former shop. The building was 80 feet deep with 30-foot frontage, with the marble shop on the ground floor and the family residence above. The front room, with a ceiling of 15 feet, was used as a show room, and other examples of the Wolfenden's craft were displayed in the front yard. Back of the show room was the carving room. In 1878 when the shop was new, the Wolfendens were producing a monument for the grave of Rev. Dr. Robert Thornton, Whitby's first Presbyterian minister, who died in 1875. -The Thornton monument, which can now be seen in Union Cemetery, was a column of Italian marble, 18 feet six inches high, valued at $600, a considerable sum in those days. Also being worked on at this time were two monuments of George Ashe travels north to install council Durham West MPP George Ashe sometimes has to travel far afield in his position as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. Last wéek at the annual meeting of the Brooklin and District Progressive Conservative Association, he told how the day before, he had been visiting the communities of Moose Factory, Cochrane and Moosenee at the foot of James Bay. Mr. Ashe was called upon to install the new council of the as yet unorganized area of Moosenee. He nelated how the ballots for the election there were bilingual, but the two languages were English and Cree, not English and French. The only way to get to those communities is by train or by air, and in the summer time, the Polar Bear Express on the Ontario Northland Railway brings about 20,000 visitors to Moosenee, said Mr. Ashe. He also commented that Moosenee b-has the highest crime rate and fire loss Der capita of any municipality in the province. "It certainly gives you a new perspective on other parts of the province said Mr. Ashe, commenting on his trip. Arnprior marble, from quarries back of Ottawa. One was for the late John Ratcliffe of East Whitby, and the other for the wife of Jesse Wells of Uxbridge. The, Wolfendens designed and constructed all their machi- nery, using a forge on the prenises. They had mechanized their plant in the 1860's and 1810's, and had perfected their equipment by the time of the fire. Fortunately they were able to salvage most of it. In 1878 the Wolfenden Marble Works had eight employees and was one of the principal businesses in the Town of Whitby. The Wolfendens went into partnership with a man named Lawrie in the 1880s and sold the shop in the early 1890s, but repurchâsed it, and the business continued in operation until about 1899 when the Wolfenden building was converted into an armory for the 34th (now the Ontario) Regiment. It appears that the Wolfendens left Whitby at this time, the first two generations of the family in this country having died. The Wolfenden Building was a car dealership from 1946 until the 1960s, and was demolished in 1969 to make way for the Toronto-Dominion Éank which now occupies the site. SINCE 1917 THE BIGGEST EVENT NEXT TO THE ROSE BOWL. No question as to the answer, the answer to that - it's MURRAY JOHNSTON'S 1/2 YEARLY SALE of the finest men's wear to be had in this area is now in progress at the old stand - 8 Simcoe Street North in DOWNTOWN OSHAWA. Svfurray Johnston ° 8 SIMCOE STREET NORTH 725-4511 DOWNTOWN OSHAWA SQUARE m buil cenfte