From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments
Transporting & Installing Monuments in Cemeteries in the 1920’s
Introduction
Through time many types of types of vehicles have been used to transport the cemetery stones to the cemeteries. The “Timeline of Transportation Technology” section of Wikipedia presents a list of various modes of transport from antiquity through the 21st century. In the “Transporting Monuments to the Cemetery” section below, you will see images of several trucks used in the 1920’s to transport the stones and other structures, such as coping or curbstones, etc. In the “Installing Monuments in the Cemetery circa 1920’s,” of a truck being used to place a cemetery stone.
If you would like to read an article about the 1920’s trucks that were used to transport cemetery stones during 1921, you can read about them in this article presented on our web site: “Motor Truck in the Monument Busines: What Retail Monument Dealers Think of the Efficiency of Motor Transportation for Memorial Work,” which was published in the Granite Marble & Bronze magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 1, January 1921, pp. 32-33d.
Transporting Monuments to the Cemetery
The following photographs are of trucks used to deliver cemetery stones in the early 1920s (the first four photographs are from Granite Marble & Bronze Magazine, January 1921, pp. 33a and 33b)
 Two-ton Little Giant Truck by Paine-Fishburn, Granite Co., Grand Island, Nebraska, equipped with solid tires |
 L.B. Slaughter & Co., South Bend, Indiana, use this Stewart 2-ton truck for deliveries |
 Truck of Bills Bros., Denver, Colorado, equipped with crane for handling monument work |
 Substantial truck of F.D. Black, Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is especially appointed for hauling monuments |
Auto truck used by H.J. Knipe, retail dealer at Columbia, Pennsylvania (from Granite Marble & Bronze magazine, Dec., 1916, pp. 32) |
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“Diary of a Headstone,” from The Monumental News, February 1907, pp. 165. |
Some Equipment Used in Monumental Work
The following images are from the Brunner and Lay tool catalog.
 Hand Power Pole Derrick (on right above) |
Stone Setter Grabs (top left) |
Grabs to handle polished marble, stone or granite for 1500, 2500, or 4000 pounds (lower left) |
Stone Hand Truck, Monumental Hand Truck, & Shop & Store Trucks |
Granite Cuters' & Letters' Eye Glasses (top left) |
Installing Monuments in the Cemetery circa the 1920s
Truck of J.J. Norton, Newton, Kansas, equipped with handy device for handling monuments. Cut Number 1 (above left) shows truck on arrival at cemetery. Number 2 (above center) shows legs loosed from body ready for extension. The weight of one man will raise front extensions. Man on wagon inserting bolt to hold same in place. Number 3 (above right) shows extension adjusted in proper place ready to back truck and raise device. Installing stone in cemetery
Cut Number 4 (above, left) shows device raised and ready to set monument – support removed. Number 5 (above center) shows base in air ready to place. Number 6 (above right) This device may be used over the side of truck or at any other angle.
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“Setting the largest private monument of 1908,” the Muhlhauser monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, from The Monumental News, January 1909, pp. 42. |
(left) “Setting the Muhlhauser Monument, Cincinnati.” (middle) Raising the spire” (right) “Harrison Granite Co. of New York, Contractors, Henry Hecklemann, Setter.” from “Setting the largest private monument of 1908,” the Muhlhauser monument in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio, from The Monumental News, January 1909, pp. 42. |
Carving Names & Dates on Cemetery Stones Already in Place
The first two photographs below on the left is of a “Air Take-off Device” produced by the Mount Brothers of Memphis, Missouri, that was used in the 1920s and 1930s to use the power of the automobile to help the carver to carver the names and dates into stones that are already in the cemetery. The second set of photographs show workers working on cemetery stones already in place in the cemetery.
Mount Brothers Air Take-Off Device (Advertisement beginning in 1927 in American Stone Trade Magazine) |
 Mount Brothers, Memphis, Missouri - Cemetery Lettering - Easy and Profitable (1934 Advertisement in American Stone Trade Magazine) |
 Portable compressor being used in a cemetery to provide the power to carve the cemetery stone (Monument and Cemetery Review, 1929) |
The advertisement below shows a stone carver using an acetylene torch to work on the monument in the cemetery (The Monumental News, 1917) |
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