Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/159

In the first of these historic papers it was stated that one of the chief inducements that led James Simonds to fix upon the harbor of St. John as a place of settlement was the abundance of limestone there. Soon after the formation of the company some experiments were made which proved the excellent quality of the lime, and thenceforth it became an article of export. The company had four lime kilns, the situation of which will be best understood by a reference to modern landmarks. One was at the base of Fort Howe hill opposite the head of Long Wharf, another on the old road from Fort Howe to the Indian House, another near St. Luke's church and a fourth near the Suspension Bridge. In the course of their ten years business Simonds and White sent to Newburyport more than 3,500 hogsheads of lime, for which they received twenty shillings (or four dollars) per cask; they also sent lime to Halifax, Cornwallis and other places in Nova Scotia, and in May, 1773, they even shipped a cargo of 208 hogsheads of lime (with 5,000 bricks and some pine boards) to Newfoundland in the sloop Merrimack. The work of quarrying and burning limestone was carried on by the laborers of the company, many of whom were employed in the winter season in getting out the stone and hauling it with oxen to the kilns, others in cutting wood for burning. The wood grew almost on the spot where it was required, and its cutting served to clear the land as well as provide fuel for the lime kilns.

Such was the beginning of an industry that afterwards grew to large proportions, and which, in spite of McKinley tariffs and Dingley bills, may some day have a great future in store for it. Messrs. Simonds and White, however, labored under great difficulties in the early days of this industry. The facilities for manufacturing were by no means good, the men employed