Historical California Stone Carvers, Stone Cutters, & Monument Dealers
Frederick Field - Chronology
Frederick FIELD, Dorset, Bennington County, Vermont > Chicago, Illinois > Niles Berrien County, Michigan > Dorset, Vermont > San Jose, Santa Clara County, California (including his son Arthur Field)
Introduction to the Frederick Field & Family Section
My interest in the men who carved the beautiful cemetery stones in the cemeteries in California came about after a wonderful presentation by Mary-ellen Jones, a local cemetery stone researcher, at one of the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society meetings in 1978. Mary-ellen described her frequent trips to the Northern California Gold Rush country where she photographed the beautiful cemetery stones and recorded all of the information. Eventually, when I was given the opportunity to write a paper on local history in Charles Bohakel’s Contra Costa County history class at our local community college, I chose to write the paper on the men* who signed the marble cemetery stones in our local cemeteries. (* At that time I was aware that many of the stones were produced by many workers in memorial shops, but I hadn’t found any women stone carvers yet.)
I started by surveying many of our local cemeteries. I found that the predominantly marble stones that I located were signed with individual and/or company names. To learn about these pioneer cemetery stone carvers, I interviewed John Silva, of Silva’s Memorials; and his background information about the history of the monumental companies in our area started me off in my search of signed cemetery stones and later the quarries from which the stone originated.
Frederick Field came to my attention early in my search of our local cemeteries because there seemed to an inordinate amount of marble cemetery stones signed with the various Field signatures (F. Field; Field, Combs & Gregory; Field, Combs & Kendall; and F. Field & O. A. Kendall). In my imagination, I pictured a very industrious stone carver working on all these stones that contained his “signature.” As my research continued, I found this view of Frederick Field to be entirely incorrect as Frederick Field had been a wealthy man in Vermont prior to moving to California and he may have spent very little time actually carving on the stones himself.
I also learned that many of the cemetery stones that were signed “Excelsior Marble Works, San Jose” that were created after 1878/1879 were created in the Excelsior Marble Works shop under Field’s ownership after his business relationships with John W. Combs, J. M. Gregory, Allen O. Kendall ended.* (* In Frederick Field’s will, his monument works in San Jose was referred to as the “Excelsior Marble Works,” although the above-cited names were also used as signatures on the stones in addition to the “Excelsior Marble Works, San Jose” signature.)
Through the years since I began this search in 1997, I found that Frederick Field was anything but a “little old stone carver working in his monument shop.” He was born into a well-known Dorset, Vermont, family in an area abounding in marble quarries. He later moved first to Chicago, Illinois, and then Niles, Michigan, where he owned and operated monument shops with his brother, Charles Field. Frederick Field later moved back to Dorset, where he married Mary Hannah (Bacon) Field* and they had the their first of their children. While living in Dorset , Frederick was a wealthy man with a worth of over two million dollars, according to an 1888 biography of his son Arthur G. Field. In Dorset Frederick Field was a partner in an Italian marble quarry with his brother Charles Field and his cousins, Edson Holley and Duane Kent. After the quarrying operations in the Italian marble quarry ran into limestone causing a great deal of expense, nonpayment of marble that he had sent down to the southern states prior to the Civil War, and the death of three of their children in 1870, Frederick Field moved his family in 1874 first briefly to San Francisco and then on to San Jose where he joined other early pioneers in the San Jose monument business. (* Mary H. (Bacon) Field became widely known as a writer.)
As for Frederick Field having been a stone carver himself, there is very little in his history to show that he ever actually carved stone himself. In one of his relatives’ letters, she indicates that all of the young men of the area learned to carve the stone. So, perhaps he learned how to carve, but there is no indication that he carved any stones in his own monument shops.
One other interesting piece of Frederick Field’s story relates to Allen Orrin Kendall who came from East Dorset, Vermont, where Kendall’s family lived, to work with Frederick Field in San Jose. For a few years A. O. Kendall was part-owner with Frederick Field in the Excelsior Marble Works on Second Street in San Jose. The 1876 and 1878 San Jose city directories list the firm name as first “Field, Combs, & Kendall ” in 1876, and “Field & Kendall” in the 1878. According to Frederick Field’s obituary in the San Jose Herald, dated November 18, 1887: “Mr. Kendall, who had worked with him in Vermont, subsequently bought an interest in the business, but finally Mr. Field purchased the entire business.” (So far I have only found one stone from the 1875 time period that was signed “F. Field & Kendall.”)
According to San Jose city directories, A. O. Kendall worked with F. Field as a marble cutter from 1881 through 1885. As of 1887, he was listed as a foreman with Frederick Field. (Frederick Field died in 1887.) In 1889 Kendall was listed as a foreman with the Western Granite & Marble Co., which was organized in May 1888 by John W. Combs, Timothy O’Neil, and William W. Blanchard. Kendall remained at the Western Granite & Marble Co. through to the 1899-1900 city directory. (For more information on Allen O. Kendall’s life, see the section entitled: “Allen Orrin KENDALL” in the main California Stone Carver section of this web site.)
So, rather than being a “little old stone carver,” Frederick Field had been a well-known, wealthy marble quarrier and monument shop operator prior to moving to San Jose where he again owned and operated a successful monument business. From my research I found that Frederick Field’s son Arthur G. Field worked as a stone cutter for a few years before going into real estate. Arthur acted as a representative of the company touring through California counties around San Jose selling the Field cemetery stones. Today many of these cemetery stones are possibly due to Arthur Field and other traveling representatives selling cemetery stones signed with the various Field signatures. So far I have found cemetery stones signed with the various Field signatures and the Excelsior Marble Works signature in cemeteries in the following California counties: Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County, Sacramento County, and Solano County. Recently, Anita Mason, a Monterey County, California, researcher found stones in the Moss Landing Cemetery in Monterey County signed “F. Field” so, undoubtedly, many more stones will be located with his name included in the signatures in the future.
You can use Google Maps to see the location of the Excelsior Marble Works at 277 North Second bordered by East Julian and Devine streets, which is covered with buildings today. His home at 5 Clinton Place (which is located off of Stockton Avenue near West Julian Street) as shown on Google Maps street view shows the neighborhood to be light industrial today. So, today all that is visibly left of Frederick Field’s life and business in San Jose beyond the old city directories, historical records, etc., appears to be the many cemetery stones that bear his name.
I want to thank the many people who assisted me in my research of Frederick Field and his family which began about 11 years ago in 1997. Tyler Resch at the Bennington Museum, in Bennington, Vermont, and Linda French, of the Dorset Historical Society in Dorset, Vermont, were especially helpful with the Vermont portion of Frederick Field’s family and life while living there.
I also want to thank Charlene Duval of the Sourisseau Academy located at San Jose State University for finding the two very good photographs of the Excelsior Marble Works, which you can view in the “California” portion of Frederick Field’s Chronology. Fortunately, I was able to get in touch with some of the descendants of Frederick Field’s family, and they have added even more information and family photgraphs to his story.
There is still a lot of research to be done on Frederick Field’s life during his years in San Jose, and I hope to get back there some day to further my research on his and the other San Jose stone carvers and monument company operators.
If you have any information you would like to contribute to this and the main California Stone Carver/Monument Company section of our web site, please feel free to contact me. It is very satisfying for me to be able to make these men’s lives and company histories available to the public as in many cases only the signed cemetery stones remain to show their existence. Peggy B. Perazzo
Please Note: If you are a member of Frederick Field’s family or another Dorset, Vermont, pioneer family, or just interested in the Dorset marble quarry history, you might want to visit the Dorset Historical Society’s celebration - “It’s All About Marble” - scheduled for July 27, 2008. The Dorset Historical Society would like you to contact them if you are a descendant of one of Dorset’s early pioneer families. Below is a description of the event and the contact information. (If you would like to learn more about the presentations, visit the link above.)
Dorset’s Marble Heritage - the Dorset Historical Society Celebration for the Area’s Marble Quarries Set for Sunday, July 27, 2008, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. SUNDAY, JULY 27th - “IT’S ALL ABOUT MARBLE” - Dorset’s Marble Heritage, 12 - 5 P.M. at the Dorset Historical Society, Bley House museum, on VT-30, Dorset, Vermont. Free to the public. A celebration of the history of Dorset Quarries and marble industry sponsored by the Dorset Historical Society. Visit all the museum’s exhibits, which include the recently completed marble gallery. The event will also feature the unveiling of a sculpture carved out of marble from the Norcross-West Plateau Quarry. The afternoon’s activities will include topical speakers, marble carving demonstrations, food, and balladeers. For more information call (802) 867-0245.
Commercial use of material within this site is strictly prohibited. It is not to be captured, reworked, and placed inside another web site ©. All rights reserved. Peggy B. and George (Pat) Perazzo.