Slate Pencil Manufacturing

In 1843, John Cain erected a slate pencil mill along Sucker Brook. Benjamin and James Adams bought the mill in 1853, and began mass-producing slate pencils as The Adams Manufacturing Co. Soon, after acquiring more land and business partners, the company was renamed Vermont Slate and Alum. At its peak, the company produced up to 100,000 pencils a day, which were shipped throughout the world. By the end of the Civil War, slate pencil manufacturing began to wane as wood and graphite pencils took over the marketplace. The company ceased production following a devastating fire in 1876 and foreclosed two years later. Remnants of the pencil mill can be seen along the brook from Pencil Mill Road.