-A Brief History from 1900 to 2008
Gill Quarries Incorporated is located in East Norriton Township, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. There has been a family owned business on that site since the early 1900's. At that time, Harry Gill (the present owner's grandfather) moved to the Norristown area from Altoona Pennsylvania in order to marry and settle down. He bought a saw-mill on the property owned by Levi Shultz, cut the trees from the near-by hillside, along with trees cut from area farms and lands to create lumber. In the mid 1920's, his son, Irvin Brooks Gill, started to
sell
soil and building stone removed from that same hillside. He found a partner, Allen Wood. By 1929,
Gill & Wood, incorporated. Mr. Wood soon after passed away. Since then, the company has grown and
re-formed itself several times, spinning off several related companies.
In 1960, after Irvin's passing, Harry Rittenhouse Gill assumed leadership of the company. The East Norriton Plant was soon joined by locations in Eagle, Trevose, and Springhouse Pennsylvania. The pit in Eagle was never developed. The Trevose plant ceased production by 1970, due to the difficulty of crushing and processing that type of stone. The Springhouse plant was sold to Glasgow Inc. in December of 1999.
The origional and remaining site in East Norriton was then embroiled in a landmark court case. Act 67 and 68 were enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1999 in order to make allowances for certain businesses, such as mining, oil drilling, tree farms, i.e. any exploitation or usage of minerals, in every township. The ensuing court battle lasted over five years all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That court chose not to hear the appeal.
After several false starts in the other directions, the decision was made by Harry and Irvin Benezet Gill to re-constitute Gill Quarries and expand the dimensional stone division again. Expand is the correct word. While the main thrust of the company shifted crushed aggregates in the 1950's, building stone was still being produced. Irvin Brooks Gill taught Larry (Slim the Hammerman) Farman who took over that end as a sideline. He also became the plant superintendent for Gill Quarries. His son, Larry Farman Jr., has worked with his father at the quarry for thirty one years, learning the aggregate production business and how to cut/create various types of building stone. He became the superintendent upon his father's retirement and has agreed to supply his expertise to teach the new employees how to produce building stone.
When new help was needed, two new employees were added. Harry Frederick Gill and Michael Tholan (Irvin's step-son). This is fifth generation.