This chapter will deal with the so-called end as a common carrier or railroad collecting tolls and its conversion to a granite manufacturing company.

Early in its operation the stockholders realized that it would be more advantageous and profitable to quarry, handle, polish and sell granite themselves than to haul it for others. Hauling the granite blocks for the construction of the monument proved to them that it was a financial loss as it cost them twice as much as they received. The first contract calling for a price of fifty cents per ton from the quarry to the wharf by rail and an additional forty cents per ton from the wharf at Gulliver's Creek to Deven's Wharf in Charlestown by boat. But the contract fixed the price at 75 cents per ton for the whole distance.

On April 16, 1846 their charter was changed and an act authorizing them to "extend their railroad and for other purposes". This could only mean the purchase of more desirable quarry lands. I quote from notes on its early history in their charter. "At later periods, other extensive purchases of land were made comprising valuable rock ledges and farms; and the use of the railway as a means of profit from tolls ceased excepting so far as it reduced the cost and facilitated the carriage of the stone which was procured from their own quarries."

"Another amendment was added, allowing the company to extend their railroad in such a manner as to connect with the Old Colony and the Milton and Lower Branch Railroads, these roads having been built in 1846-47. Also, they could construct branch tracks or lines, not exceeding one mile in length, on any branch, between their own quarries and over their own land."

The Granite Railway Company continued in operation as originally laid out, until around the end of the Civil War. During the war years the road had become neglected and badly run down.

According to notes contained in the charter and bylaws, which also contain a brief history of the road, written in 1870, it says, "At the time of the death of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, in 1854, he owned almost, if not quite the whole of his property, which then passed by purchase into the hands of a few individuals, who continued the working of the quarries, with great energy and profit, until the latter part of 1864, when it came into the hands of the present stockholders, who have, in the opinion of your Committee, good reason to congratulate themselves on being in possession of a property which promises to prove so safe and profitable an investment and one so likely to make frequent and quick returns."

A list of the property of the company in 1854 is most interesting as shown below:-

From the above inventory it can be readily seen that the company owned considerable land with valuable quarries.

The Granite Railway Company continued to be a success in the granite industry and continued in operation until around 1940. Finally, with the granite business as a whole practically finished, the Granite Railway Company was sold at auction in 1946. This left the J.S. Swingle Company quarry the only quarry still active.

In 1854 the company issued a map, Figure 40, showing the property under their control. Figure 41 shows the house occupied by the superintendent and Figure 42 is the workmen's boarding house, both being located on Bryant Avenue which has since become part of the new Southeast Expressway. Figure 43 is a map showing the surrounding towns about 1854 when the Granite Railway was in full operation.