Jones County, TX - History - Lueders Limestone - 1939

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The Jones County Observer 
Anson, Jones county, Texas 
Friday, September 18, 1939


Lueders Limestone for Los Angeles building Lueders Limestone deposit only one in
United States Comparable to Limestone, Stanford for United States. The quarrying
of Limestone at Luerders in Jones County, Texas, is one of the big industries of
Lueders, and accordning to Mr. J.J. Kell, owner and operator of the Kell Stone
Company, will develop in the next 10 years into one of the biggest industries in
Texas. Already Lueders Limestone has been used on public and business buildings
as far away as Los Angeles, California. The Lueders limestone deposits,
according to Mr. Kell, are the only limestone deposits in the United States
comparable to the Indiana limestone which is accepted in this country as a
standard. The Kell stone company opened their stone business in Lueders in 1931.
At the Lueders plant the stone is put through all the stages of cutting,
polishing, finishing and ornamenting. Most of the stone now being used at the
plant is being quarried from land belonging to the city of Stamford. Stone is
also being quarried on the T.A. Putnam farm and on several other farms in and
around Lueders. The plant is now engaged in cutting, polishing, finishing, and
ornamenting stone for a hospital at Lubbock, the Plains Clinic. A job for the
First Christian Church of Amarillo was also under way at the plant this week.
Recently a job of exterior and finishing stone was completed at the plant for
the Plains High School of Plains, Yoakum county. One of the by-products is the
making of building blocks for stone or rock veneering from waste materials. The
waste rock is put through a giant pressure machine where it is broken up into
blocks of convenient size. Part of the equipment includes two diamond studded
saws, the larger of which contains 540 rough diamonds of a total value of
$650.00.  This saw is left out in the open on the machine for weeks at a time,
for no person could find a buyer for it if he was foolish enough to steal it.
This saw is attached to a machine costing $4,000.00 J.W. Kell, son of the owner
of the plant, does much of the designing and ornnamental cutting of the stone.
There are 17 men on the payroll which amounts to $550.00 per week.