Quarrymen | Adams Historical Society

024-Worker with Dump

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:44 -0500

023-Portrait of Worker

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:40 -0500

022-Edward Horton

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:38 -0500

021-Clyde Horton

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:34 -0500

020-Stanley Presnal

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:32 -0500

019-Fredrick Pietras

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:28 -0500

018-Charles Derose

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:24 -0500

017-Emil Mazzantini

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:22 -0500

016-George Carson

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:18 -0500

015-Steve Smachetti

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:16 -0500

014-Carl Barschdorf

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:14 -0500

013-Edmund Ziaja

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:10 -0500

012-Charles Shepherd

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:06 -0500

011-Wilfred Belisle

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:17:02 -0500

In 1918 Wilfred Belisle was fourteen years old, and he worked at the Berkshire Cotton Mills. At eighteen he worked at GE for four or five years until he was laid off. He started work at NEL in 1932 as an electrician. He worked on a new building, and was on call twenty-four hours a day. He retired in 1969.

"My father, Napolean, worked there for fifty years in the 1900's; he built the original wood burning kilns."

Wilfred Belisle - Adams, MA

Worked 35 years

Photographed July 12, 1990

010-Chuck Frost

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:58 -0500

Charles Frost began working in April 1957. He worked in the pit as a driller and blaster, and he remembers scaling the quarry walls with a jack-hammer. That labor intensive job has been replaced by the operator in a crane or a drilling derrick. His next position was as yard foreman, and he later retired as a shift work foreman in January 1986.

Charles Frost - Adams, MA

Worked 29 years

Photographed March 13, 1990

009-Walter Juras

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:56 -0500

Walter Juras worked at the Arnold Print Works and the Berkshire Cotton Mills. In 1953 he started work at NEL as a tube mill operator.

"They gave a steady job."

He later worked as a hydrate operator, packer, yardman, and then packing again. He hurt his arms while packing, and then worked as a loader. In 1980 he retired, but he feels he was forced out due to his injury, and he remains very angry.

Walter Juras - Adams, MA

Worked 27 years

Photographed September 23, 1990

008-Louis Perrier & Jamie

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:54 -0500

Louis Perrier started working in 1942 in the carbonating plant, as a slaker. In 1950 he was foreman for the carbonators. He later became foreman in the shipping department, and retired in 1977.

"If I was young again I would be willing to work... Good plant managers....

"We realized what work was... through the Depression."

Louis Perrier (with his granddaughter Jamie Butler) - Adams, MA

Worked 35 years

Photographed June 23, 1990

007-Arthur Maino

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:50 -0500

Arthur Maino started working at the plant on April 28, 1958. He retired from driving the heavy equipment in the quarry on December 1, 1984.

Arthur Maino - North Adams, MA

Worked 26 years

Photographed March 10, 1990

006-Robert Dixon

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:46 -0500

Robert Dixon worked at GE and the telephone company before he started at NEL in 1958. He grew up within one mile of the quarry, but he later moved further away. He worked as a machinist, making parts for most of the equipment, but he,

"did just about everything when I had the time."

His sister, Gene, worked at the plant as well. He retired in 1980.

Robert Dixon - Adams, MA

Worked 22 years

Photographed October 7, 1990

005-Walter Grizwold

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:42 -0500

Wallace Griswold started shift work in 1942. He was a slaker, a process which converts lime to chalk. The job was physical, and he recalls making sixty to eighty trips a day with a wheelbarrow loaded with two-hundred pounds of lime. He held the job for ten to fifteen years, and then he moved to run the turbos that made chalk. He retired in 1976.

"We had a German butcher. ... At lunch we would warm up sausage on the steam pipes. When my father wanted lunch he would throw a stone at the roof of the house, and his mother would put the bag over the fence."

(At that time the Griswold's lived in the company housing at the base of the quarry.)

Wallace Griswold ( Walt ) - Adams, MA

Worked 34 years

Photographed March 27, 1990

004-Walt Avery

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:38 -0500

John Ryder, at CK Williams, hired Walt Avery as an electrician on June 15, 1962. In 1968 he became the supervisor, and no longer punched in his clock #306.

"I saw a lot of management come and go."

He worked for GE before he came to CK Williams/ Pfizer, and there he was laid off six times in sixteen months.

"Some plants have unions, but Pfizer pays better, and they don't lay off."

He retired April 28, 1989.

Walt Avery - Adams, MA

Worked 28 years

Photographed July 11, 1990

003-Joseph Jozefiak

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:34 -0500

Joseph Jozefiak was twenty-eight when he started at NEL, but before he had worked at the Arnold Print Works and GE. He was laid-off for eight months, and started work at NEL in the quarry, June 16, 1958. He worked as a pit man for a while, then as an oiler on the heavy equipment. He retired on May 1,1989 from the maintenance department.

"I replaced my step-father-in-law.... You had to know somebody to get a job."

"We didn't need a union... good benefits, a raise every year... it all averages up... work load."

Joseph Jozefiak - Adams, MA

Worked 31 years

Photographed July 1, 1990

002-Charles Briggs

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:30 -0500

In April 1947, Charles Briggs got the job through his distant relative, Clyde Horton, who worked at the plant.

" I started on one-hundred pound bags, loading railroad cars...seventy tons to a car.... I held eight bags on a two wheel cart... worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week."

He later worked as a rotary kiln tender for six and a half years. He then pumped #6 Oil to Bunker C.

"It was almost like tar. We had to heat it up in order to pump it out of the tanks."

He worked in shipping and receiving, and then broke a bone in his back and was out for about a year. He returned to work in the laboratory, and retired from Pfizer in 1972.

Charles Briggs North Adams, MA

Worked 24 years

Photographed May 1, 1990

001-Anthony Cardimino

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:16:28 -0500

Tony Cardimino began work as a crane operator in 1946. At the time his father-in-law was working there as well, but shortly afterwards his father-in-law retired with fifty years. He retired from quarry work in 1986.

" At one time we were all family."

Anthony J. Cardimino ( Tony) Cheshire, MA

Worked 38 years

Photographed March 14, 1990