1. Daniel F. Johnson has kindly transcribed and donated the following article on the discovery of the black granite in Lower Bocabec. It is extracted from an article in the St. Andrews Beacon, December 7, 1893, page 2, column 5:
Bocabec Black Granite2. The Memoirs of Annie M. Holt mentions the granite quarries on page 15:
It was a porcupine - one of those plain, every day, ugly looking, bristling porcupines - that led to the discovery of the black granite quarry in the adjoining parish of St. Patrick and when the historian of the future applies himself to the task of sketching the career of the black granite barons of Bocabec he must not forget to place the credit for the discovery on the proper shoulders. This is how it happened.
One day last winter, to beguile an idle hour or two, Sheriff Stuart took his gun and started off in search of game amid the wilds of Bocabec. When in the neighborhood of what if familiarly known as Orr's mountain, just across the border of St. Andrews parish, he noticed where a porcupine had found a hiding place among the bounders at the foot of the cliff. He tried to dislodge the animal but without avail.
"We'll come another day and smoke you out, old fellow," said the Sheriff to his companion.
True to his word a day or two later found Mr. Stuart, with a package of sulphur in his pocket and an axe in his hand, threading his way amid the snow and tangled shrubbery in search of the porcupine lair. While cautiously picking out his path, his knee came in contact with a projecting boulder with so much force as to cause him a twinge of pain. Without thinking what he was doing particularly, and never dreaming that the stone was other than the ordinary trap rock which abounds in the neighborhood, Mr. Stuart aimed a blow at the offending boulder with his axe and knocked off a long sliver of it. Instantly his practised eye caught sight of granite quartz and both pain and porcupine were soon forgotten in the face of his new discovery.
Across the Upper Bocabec Bridge, a road led to a granite quarry on land belonging to Charles, son of Hiram Hanson. This quarry was operating in 1908-1909 (I’m sure of this). Another black granite was on the Sam Orr property in lower Bocabec. The Black granite is all over this part of Bocabec. The hillside rock in front of my house takes a beautiful black polish with little white flakes like snowflakes, much prettier than Red Granite. However, a lot of this in Bocabec was found to have rusty veins in it, so was unfit for large monuments. From Upper Bocabec they carried it from quarry on heavy drays drawn by horses, to St. George. In Lower Bocabec they took it that way to salt water, some near Birch Cove and eventually taken on scows to St. George. The quarry down in Lower Bocabec was owned by Sheriff Stuart, St. Andrews, and McGrattan’s quarry-men of St. George operated the one at Charles Hanson’s.3. Ruth Spicer brought the following article to my attention several years ago. It is from the Saint Croix Courier, January 11, 1894:
The owner of the black granite quarry at Bocabec will commence the construction of their works as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made. Plans for the wharf have been drawn and the timber for the structure is being cut. The plans call for a wharf 82 feet long by 32 feet wide, with a depth of 16 feet at the face.4. See also the Digdeguash Red Granite Company page.