have such a world-wide reputation.

The principal reason is the
thoroughness of work, and always
securing the best materials, and
the best skilled labor. No paint
is ever allowed to cover any de-
fect in the wood or iron, that
would have a tendency to weaken
the carriage, on any consideration.
Many parts of wheels, or other
work have been stove before the
eyes of the workman, which (as
Mr. Downing used to say) was the
most emphatic and cheapest argu-
ment he could produce to let his
workmen know that no sham work
was allowed in their shops.

Their carriages have been sent
to nearly every quarter of the
globe, and, doubtless, no firm in
this country is, at this date, as well
known as the firm of Abbott,
Downing & Company, carriage
makers, Concord N. H.

The total value of carriages
(including repairing) annually
pi'oduced in the city is about
$ 600,000.

The Granite business is an im-
portant branch which has grown
to large proportions within the
past twenty years. Granite of the
best quality has been known to
abound in Concord for many years,
but was quarried from large drifts
or bowlders, which at some age in
the past, were parts of the main
ledge which had been cleft asunder
by some violent convulsion of na-
ture. These drifts from the granite
ledges in Concord have been found
as far south as Massachusetts line,
but never to any distance north-
ward eastward or westward. From
these drifts, the stone for the Old
State House, and other buildings
was quarried.

The granite ledges, (or Rattle

Snake Hill) commence about one
mile from the Capitol, north-west,
and extend along for over two
miles nearly parallel with the Con-
cord and Claremont railroad.

Mr. Luther Roby, now living in
the city, (1873) first opened this
ledge on the southerly base and
near what is called the “ Pulpit.”
The piers for the Federal bridge
came from this opening; also the
stone was boated down the Merri-
mack, to Manchester, by Mr. Roby
and son, for the basement of the
Manchester depot. They sent the
first Concord granite to Lowell,
Mass. The ledge now being so
successfully worked by Mr. Hollis,
was also opened by them. ‘But
the first great successful competi-
tion with other popular quarries in
Maine and Massachusetts, was in
securing the contract to furnish
the granite for the Merchants’
Bank, Boston. Blocks of granite
one foot square dressed in various
forms were sent from Hallowell,
Maine, Rockport, Quincy and some
other quarries. Mr. Roby had the
apparent temerity to send his block
from the Concord quarry, and after
careful examination as to merits
of the granite from each quarry,
the contract was given to Mr.
Roby, the price hardly coming in
as competition but the quality of
the stone. It has been ascertained,
by eminent chemists and geolo-
gists, that the stone from the Con-
cord quarries, is perfectly free
from oxides or other mineral sub-
stance, which on exposure to the
atmosphere, would mar the beau-
ty of some New England granite.

The award of this contract soon
established the reputation of Con-
cord granite, as being the then oest
in market. When the quarry-men