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5 and ia.in the nema-masoniroughs now y four imain. e hoi-I(AP) ic, ae-pectedinler-d Mytriedtuncedhe 36-, offi-ssaultfourthiminale Myys the artiei-ic vil-Estion-n in-Foree Com-i pally,ed in eom-t Mein ur- pla-y Lt. whose by ac- ac-5.;.KQ-'ihati, n the tto offirst Gray and the first stonemason In Pine Grove Hollow.The trade was taught to each succeeding generation until it reached Shirley Gray who, after 22 years in stone work, is the youngest full-time mason in the hoiiow.Two other families, the -Pettits and the Weakleys, married into the Gray family and adopted its trade.Just as most of Pine Grove’s men haye been stonemasons, most of its families have been Episcopalians — because of an evangelical. mountain bishop ahalf-century ago.One of the most appropriate testaments to the skills of the hollow's masons is the solid, native-stone St. George’s Episcopal Church that stands halfway up the hollow.Both the spacious church, builtin 1932, and an adjacent parish hall, built only a few years ago, came from the stones of the hollow and the skills of its people.After Sunday services and during everyday meetings in the hollow, stonework and its decline are conversation topics.In simple words, the hollow’s men vividly portray their years of hard work with nature’s strongest materials.Their sturdy hands move as they talk and seem to be made for the steel mallet and chisel they have held for so many years. When these hands are co vered with the gray dust o! shattered stone, they seem to be made from the same material they shape.Anyone can be a stonemason if they slay at it, observes mason Gilbert Gray,It’s just plain hard work,” notes Ivan Pettit, who has been a mason 30 years. ~The hard .work comes not .only from hefting stone into place, but from the tediqits shaping and the creating of small building stones from boulders that range up to six feet. ’ -Pettit nqtes itht van average house can take over two months to sheath with stone — even in unbroken good weather.
Newspaper Details
Danville Register
Danville, Virginia, US
Fri, Mar 26, 1971
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
FL, USA 01 Mar 2017
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