The construction and development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal led to the creation of one of the Hudson Valley’s greatest manufacturing industries in the 19th century — that of the famous Rosendale cement. For a time considered the best cement manufactured in this country it and at the turn of the 20th century was the source of half of America’s production of natural cement.
Ulster County cement was used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; the Croton Aqueduct, which supplied New York City with water; the dry-dock of the Brooklyn Navy Yard; hundreds of New York City’s largest buildings; and the principal construction projects of the Hudson River Railroad among many other places.
During the life of the industry from 1825 to the turn of the 20th century the natural cement industry led all activities on the west side of the Hudson River from New Jersey to Albany, employed thousands of men in one way or another.
At least a dozen plants for the manufacture of cement were in operation as well as numerous quarries and kilns for burning “cement rock,” produced from certain fine-grained silica and dolomite mined from the Rosendale and Whiteport Members of the late-Silurian‘s Rondout Formation
The business attracted capital from New York City, Newark, Long Island and upstate, resulting in heavy investments which paid well as the demand for this favored product increased. The heyday of success in this industry was from 1870 to 1890, after which cheaper cement from Pennsylvania, the west, and Greene and Columbia counties dominated the markets and sent Rosendale black cement into decline.
Produced at a greater cost, the local product was considered superior for construction work and some mills continued to operate for the next twenty years – the industry is still represented by a few smaller firms.
Historic Remains
Thousands of local people today know little or nothing about this industry which contributed so much, although there are still many physical reminders of the days of its fame.
Dozens of quarries and tunnels through the solid rock along Rondout Creek from Kingston to High Falls and the areas on either side, stone construction work covered by brush and weeds and occasional ruined smokestacks of once busy cement-burning kilns attest to the importance of the industry.
For many years of the 20th century the yawning cavern mouths of the tunnels were an interesting tourist attraction – mute witnesses of the work of men burrowing under the hillsides following the strata of cement rock which was so valuable.
A few of these remain, but some of the most important ones have been closed, except for doors which give access to the tunnels. These were once used for in the cultivation of mushrooms and later for document storage.
Canal construction work led to the discovery of cement-bearing rock in the United States. When the Erie Canal was being built hydraulic cement had to be imported from Europe for stone work under the water, but in 1818, the same type stone was discovered in Chittenango, Madison County.
Use of it in making durable cement resulted in more economical construction in the completion of the canal. When the Delaware and Hudson Canal was about to be built to carry Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal across Southern Ulster County to deep water navigation on the Hudson River at Rondout, engineers discovered the same type of cement rock at High Falls.
The first was burned at a blacksmith’s forge at that village, reduced to powder by pounding and when tested, proved to be of excellent quality. Thus the Ulster County hydraulic cement industry was born, and the product was used in the construction of Delaware and Hudson Canal’s nearly 200-year-old locks and bridges we see today.
In 1826 John Littlejohn contracted to furnish all the cement needed for the construction of the canal. In the spring of that year, he commenced quarrying, burning the grinding the cement-bearing stone and established a kiln near the sulphur spring below High Falls.
The burnt stone was hauled to the Simon DePuy grist mill and ground, then delivered in tight wagon boxes to the places where it was to be used. When the demand for the product increased other grinding mills were erected and a good business resulted.
The industry died out after the canal work was completed, but some years later, Judge Lucas Elmendorf, for whom Lucas Turnpike (Route 1) was named, saw a future in commercial manufacture of this high quality cement.
He began quarrying and burning cement on land he owned a mile or so west of Rosendale on the canal, and had it crushed at the old Snyder Mill on Rondout Creek. He met with ready demand for his product and soon others followed his example.
Today, the 275-acre Snyder Estate Natural Cement Historic District is roughly bounded by Rondout Creek, Binnewater and Cottekill roads and Sawdust Avenue. The District includes the remains of five plants that produced Rosendale cement.
The Hoffmans began operating a plant at what became later known as Hickory Bush. They were followed by Hugh White who built extensive plants at Whiteport which took his name. He had a big contract for supplying cement for the Croton Aqueduct and had four mills in and about Whiteport.
Watson E. Lawrence, The Cement King
Watson E. Lawrence may well be considered the father of the cement business, for he not only developed the business through the experimental stages, but later became one of the two principal operators.
At Lawrenceville, just west of Rosendale, where his plants and the hamlet providing homes for some of his employees bore his name, and was one of the largest industrial plants in Ulster County.
Remains of his huge kilns and stone buildings may still be seen just south of the highway between Rosendale and High Falls and an examination of the size of the kilns gives one an idea of the size of the industry.
Lawrence took over the business originally started by Lucas Elmendorf. In 1828 he made an agreement with the judge for manufacturing cement and built two kilns and a waterpower mill near Rondout Creek. Here he operated on a small scale for several years filling the limited number of orders that came in for hydraulic cement, learning from experience how to perfect his manufacturing process.
His first kilns were small and used wood for fuel. The kilns were filled with stone, after which a fire was started at the bottom under an arch which contained the wood and allowed to burn for six days and nights by which time the cement rock was supposed to be well cooked and ready to be ground.
Frequently rains and inexperienced burning caused the whole batch to come out as worthless cinders or raw stones. By this slow process of burning a week’s output was not more than 25 barrels per kiln.
After the D & H Canal started providing plenty of anthracite at a low price coal supplanted wood for burning cement rock and larger kilns were built capable of producing 550 to 600 barrels. Government contracts were obtained for the superior type “light cement” and the plant was greatly enlarged and improved at heavy cost.
Unfortunately, a national panic followed and the firm of Lawrence and Company went out of business. Undaunted, he secured new capital, bought more land, a grist mill and a fulling mill nearby and had four medium sized “draw-kilns” built.
A railroad track for horse-drawn cars was built high over the main road and canal to carry the stone to the grist mill which had been converted into a cement mill and by 1856, he was back in business on a larger scale.
Lawrence became famous as the director of two companies that followed until financial difficulties resulted in the organization of the Lawrenceville Cement Company in 1862. At the outset the plant produced 4,000 to 5,000 barrels of cement each season, but as the demand increased, the company built three more kilns, changed from waterpower to a 225 horse power steam engine and made other improvements which gave it a capacity of 700 barrels a day.
Other Manufacturers
Other cement manufacturers in the area included the Rosendale Cement Company, one of the earliest firms operating under the guidance of Watson Lawrence, the pioneer in the industry. Another good producer was the Lawrence Cement Copany, which retained the name of its founder long after it passed from his control.
Although its quarries were located at Hickory Bush, its mill was established at Eddyville, where it had the advantage of tidewater navigation. Among other smaller operators was Martin and Clearwater’s cement works located at Rock Locks where, like other larger plants, they operated about 250 days a year.
The Hudson River Cement Works was located on high ground half a mile from Rondout Creek and the canal near Creek Locks, where they operated six kilns burning cement rock near their quarries.
The firm had its cement ground at Flatbush, and the stone was conveyed to the canal by a double-track railroad operated by gravity. The loaded cars descending to the canal provided enough impetus to carry the empty back up the grade to the quarries at little expense. Their kilns burned 80 to 90 tons of rock per day.
The Warner Lime and Cement Company had its quarries and kilns at Hickory Bush. The burned stone was shipped to Troy, NY, where it was reduced to cement for northern markets.
The New York Cement Company, owned by investors from Long Island, had a capacity of 115,000 barrels of cement annually at its plant near LeFevre Falls, later known as Rock Lock.
One hundred thirty men were employed at its quarries and its seven kilns which were so located as to eliminate a large working force. This firm also took advantage of its location to send its product to its mills and the barreled cement to the canal loading docks by means of a gravity railroad.
Conley and Shaffer had six kilns burning cement rock from their quarries just south of Bloomindale Reformed Church, but were handicapped by being obliged to haul their product to their mills near the mouth of the Greenkill by teams. Their mills were on the site of the old grist mills, of Smedes and DuBois, who operated them at the time of the American Revolution on the stream which takes its name from the color of its water.
In addition to the cement manufacturing, many men were employed and fortunes were made in operating quarries for mills here or elsewhere. Quantities of desirable stone for making hydraulic cement have been found in strata twenty feet thick on both sides of Rondout Creek from south of High Falls to Eddyville.
In several cases kilns were operated for burning the stone but no mills for crushing it. Most of the stone, however, was sold by individuals who owned the land and engaged men to work their quarries. Some rough land unsuited for agriculture sold at high prices because of the stone strata in the rocky hillsides.
Outside Investors, Regional Expansion
The largest cement manufacturers, the Newark Lime and Cement Company, was actually located in the Rondout-Wilbur area, rather than the Rosendale district, but because of its importance an article about this industry would be incomplete without mentioning it.
During the 1880s this was the largest industrial firm in Kingston and operated 23 kilns for burning stones, as well as mills and other buildings which made it possible to produce 1,200 barrels of cement daily. The strata of cement rock were worked on both sides of Rondout Creek where rich deposits in the bluffs were so close to shipping facilities by water the finished produce could be produced at minimum cost.
The bluffs were honeycombed by caverns, some high up on the hillsides, others at the level of the creek and one level worked was 90 feet below tidewater. Motive power was supplied by three steam engines, one of nearly 300 horse power. A cooper shop turned out 300 barrels daily and storage space was provided for 30,000 barrels of cement.
Organized in New Jersey in 1840 the company originally shipped local cement rock to Newark where it was ground. Ten years later the demand for cement caused the company to operate at the source of supply and when the mills on Rondout Creek began running in 1851 a new era of prosperity began for the firm. For some forty years later this firm led the field in industrial activity.
The Rosendale Cement Works owned and operated by F.O. Norton of New York operated a plant at Keator’s Corners where 150 or more employees were kept busy getting out about 150,000 barrels of cement annually.
Two quarries were operated, one just in the rear of the mills and other nearly opposite the railroad station, from whence a narrow gauge horse railroad carried the stone to the kilns and mills for grinding. Norton was a big operator and also had well equipped cement mills at High Falls.
The Bruceville Cement Works was one of the early industries of its type. It was founded by Nathaniel Bruce, who operated it for many years and give his name to the settlement. In 1860, the business was taken over by James H. and Jacob D. Vandemark, who used both steam and waterpower to operate the mills which were near the kilns. At first, the firm bought its rock from other individuals who operated quarries, but later opened an extensive quarry of its own on the old Schoonmaker property.
The New York and Rosendale Cement Company, one of the later firms engaged in the industry, had its plants erected in 1873 in the north part of Rosendale Village. Its quarries were reached by tunneling into the rocky spur which supports the northern end of the picturesque steel trestle of the Wallkill Valley Railroad.
The plant had every facility for producing cement at its steam mills and six kilns at minimum expense, and was able to produce 600 barrels of the finished product with but one hundred men. The cement produced here was of superior grade, as proved in many tests before it was chosen for construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Another and larger enterprise was the Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Company, which in 1847 bought the three Hugh White cement mills at Greenkill, Whiteport and Hickory Bush, together with cooper shops for making barrels, cement quarries, kilns, and “tenement houses.”
Several tracts of land bearing cement-rock deposits were also acquired, together with wharves and storehouses on Rondout Creek near Eddyville in order to handle their product which at first was finished and sold in Newark, New Jersey.
When fire destroyed its plants in Jersey, the company concentrated its business at Whiteport in 1852 and introduced steam engines as well as waterpower to grind cement. Two years before the company joined the Lawrenceville Cement Company, which had nearby quarries, in building a plank road to tidewater 3 ½ miles away on Rondout Creek. This project which cost $14,000 made a great saving to both companies over the previous cost of transportation on existing country roads.
As the business grew a horse railroad was established in 1859 on or alongside the plank road. With its sidings, spurs and branches, this railroad covered ten miles and resulted in a 60% transportation saving over the former method. The Newark company had 19 perpetual kilns for roasting and calcining cement rock.
Each had a capacity of 70 barrels per day. Twelve pairs of millstones driven by two steam engines and a waterwheel had a capacity for grinding a thousand barrels of cement a day. The company made its own barrels at its cooperage, using staves shipped from forests in Maine and hoops and heads produced locally. The cooper was geared to turn out 1,000 barrels daily.
The firm had hard sledding at first, for it was necessary to replace so many of the buildings originally purchased and to add twenty more “tenements” housing four families each, for use of additional employees.
Many other improvements were made so that when business began booming in 1862 the plants had increased their production from 400 to 1,000 barrels of cement a day, and they employed 275 men and boys.
Their product was of a superior grade and was used in the construction of the Croton Aqueduct, Brooklyn Water Works, Cochicuate and Sudbury River conduits for supplying Boston’s water supply, the Georgetown aqueduct for supplying Washington, D.C., and various federal projects such as fortifications, seawalls, lighthouse foundations and other projects.
Production of natural cement in Ulster County was impacted by the rise of Portland cement, Some four million barrels were made at the turn of 20th century but by 1970 no companies remained.
This essay was first published as “Cement Manufacture, Leading Industry in Southern Ulster” by Will Plank (1896-1976) in the Southern Ulster Pioneer of August 14, 1969. John Warren made edits and contributions after a version first published in the blog of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
The Hudson River Maritime Museum is located on the Rondout Creek, Kingston, NY. An educational hub with an extensive collection of maritime artifacts and historic vessels, the Museum also offers tours on their solar-powered boat Solaris.
Illustrations, from above: a canal boat crosses the Delaware and Hudson Canal’s Roebling Bridge over the Delaware River (NPS); a horse-drawn railroad (ca. 1899?) transporting natural cement manufactured at plants near Whiteport and Hickory Bush to docks at Eddyville along the Delaware and Hudson Canal (Century House Historical Society); Rosendale cement mine postcard produced ca. 1930-45 (Boston Public Library); Lawrenceville, from Beers Ulster County Atlas, 1875; New York Cement Company at Le Fever Falls (Beers Atlas); Newark Lime and Cement Manufacturing Company’s works, Rondout, (Beers Atlas); Rosendale cement production site in Ulster County, NY (Beers Atlas); and barrel showing the seal of the New York and Rosendale Cement Company.
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