Up for consideration is a Davidson Marble Co. stock certificate from 1890:

 

#24

Issued to Alexander Davidson for 25 shares on September 10, 1890

Signed by Alexander Davidson as president and Charles E. Stedman as secretary

Incorporated in New York

Datelined Watertown, New York

Uncancelled

Certificate in good condition

Vignette of an eagle

 

The Davidson Marble Company was organized July 25, 1890, with Alexander Davidson, president, John A. Davidson, treasurer, Charles Stedman, secretary, A. C. Davis, superintendent of mill, and Erwin B. Hurlbut, superintendent of quarry. The Davidson Marble Company quarry (also known as Davidson Brothers Quarry) was located in the town of Gouverneur, New York (St. Lawrence County). The marble from the Gouverneur quarries is a very hard and heavy marble, of close and even texture, and susceptible of a high polish. Its close texture prevents the absorption of moisture and thus protects it from disintegration from the effects of frost.

 

This valuable marble, although existing in almost unlimited quantities and cropping out in innumerable places in this vicinity, was utilized only for ordinary rough wall purposes until the year 1825, when Jasper C. Clark, of Hailesboro, town of Fowler, constructed a small mill at Mill Creek for sawing this material, which was then known as "gray lime-stone."