The Klondike Quarry, three miles east of Cobleskill along the D&H Railroad line, was the largest of the Schoharie County quarries during the stone boom. It held a contract with the City of New York to provide stone for the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, a contract today worth more than $65 million. Run by the NYC-based Cobleskill Quarry Company, the Klondike employed nearly 500, many of them recent Italian immigrants.
The full story is told in Farming With Dynamite: The Forgotten Stone boom in Schoharie County, available here and at local bookstore.
We add to the remarkable story of the Klondike with two reports which appeared separately, yet on the same page of the May 18, 1898, Cobleskill Index. We can’t help but consider them somehow related. Let us know your thoughts on the deadly incident.
The first story, headlined simply, ‘Cobleskill Quarry Co.’ describes a NYC policy that created financial challenges for the Klondike and its employees:
“Mingled surprise and regrets were everywhere manifest Monday morning. when the Cobleskill Quarry Co. paid 378 hands and shut down the works.
“Eleven thousand dollars was paid. A state law prohibits any city from creating debt over a certain per cent of assessed valuation. There is a dispute among N Y. City officials as to whether or not the city has reached the debt limit, and as a consequence work on all public works has been suspended and 60,000 laborers are thrown out of employment.
“The Cobleskill Quarry Co. has the contract from the city for foundations for the East River bridge. They have received no money from the city for labor and material furnished in the past eight months, and their dues now, on contract, is said to be $250,000.00. Hence the “shut down” of the Cobleskill Quarry.
“The company, which now has the contract to furnish stone for the D&H, formerly supplied bv Reilly & Weiting, intends to run the quarry with about fifty hands, on smaller outside orders.
“The company says they may start at any time on full force—any time the entanglement in N. Y. City is unraveled.
“There are rumors that the company will be running within a few days with over 100 hands.
“Since putting the above in type it is stated that the Quarry Co. has received $200,000 on indebtedness from the City of New York.” (Italics added. – ed.)
The second item in that day’s paper was headlined “Injured by the Cars,” tells of a tragedy at the Cobleskill train depot that apparently followed a scuffle the day before with the Klondike’s paymaster. We can only guess the cause.
The paper reported:
“Yesterday noon an Italian, about 20 years of age, employed by the Cobleskill Quarry Co., attempted to catch on a freight going east, intending to go to Klondike.
“He swung under the cars and both legs were horribly injured. Dr. Frasier was quickly on hand, and he decided to send the man to the Albany Hospital, and he was placed on the next train east.
One and possibly both legs will have to be amputated above the knee. It is rumored that the young man had trouble at the quarry and drew a knife on the paymaster.
The name of the Italian is Guiseppe Ophallete of New York. The wheels passed over his left ankle, crushing the bones. There are two fractures, one below the knee and one at the hip, The right leg is badly crushed, He is bruised all over his body. There may be internal injuries.
(Editor’s Note; In the same issue, the paper later reports Mr. Ophallete died of his injuries.)