From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments
Signed Cemetery Stones Found in the Central Part of California, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento Area, & the Gold Rush Country
Introduction to Signed Marble Cemetery Stones
Many of the marble stones from the latter half of the 1800’s through the early 1900’s were signed by stone carvers or monumental companies as a form of advertisement or a way to take credit for the beauty of the monument. Sometimes monument companies located at the entrance of cemeteries usually provided the majority of the stones in that cemetery. In that case, the company may not have signed the stones they created.
Most signatures on the stones were not carved very deeply and were carved in much smaller lettering than on the main stone so they can be difficult to find today. Many times an apprentice or less experienced stone carver would be responsible for carving the company/carver name onto a the bases.
You will usually find the signatures on the base(s) of the cemetery stones. If the stone does not have a base, the signature might be found near the bottom of the main body of the stone. Unfortunately, many of our old marble stones have been broken off at the base just above the signature, so they are no longer readable.
All of the early cemetery stones on which I found signatures were the early marble stones in northern California, the only area that I have surveyed so far. I have not found any signatures on granite or any other types of stones. There is a granite stone in the Davis Cemetery in Yolo County, California, on which there is a discreet piece of metal placed at the back of the stone near the bottom. Below is a photograph of that stone. In the section following the images of the “signed” granite stone, you will find examples of signatures on marble cemetery stones from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.
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 Company identification on metal tag at base of cemetery stone in the Davis Cemetery, Yolo County, California |
Links Relating to Signed Cemetery Stones
- 17th, 18th, 19th Century Gravestone Carvers Represented in Barnstable, Massachusetts
- The Association For Gravestone Studies
- Carvers of Gravestones, A Generation Apart, Chapter nine of “Reflections of Change: Death and Cemeteries in the Boonslick Region of Missouri,” by Maryellen Harshbarger McVicker, 1989 (This book is no longer available at the link below, but you can access the book using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine link above.)
<http://www.mo-river.net/history/boonslick/> - Connecticut Gravestone Network
- John Silva of Silva Memorials, Antioch, California – 1997 Interview
- Headstones of the Gold Rush Era: Sculpting Masterpieces in Marble, by Leeanna Rossi, Golden Notes, Vol. 43, Number 3, Fall 1997, Sacramento County Historical Society, Sacramento, California, 1997. (The booklet can be obtained from the Old Sacramento City Cemetery.)
- Historical California Stone Carvers, Stone Cutters, & Monument Dealers, on the Stone Quarries and Beyond web site.
- Tombstones, and the Men Who Created Them, presentation by Mary-ellen Jones, Nov. 26, 1996, from the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society newsletter.
Note: If you are interested in learning more about the individual parts of the cemetery stone monuments, you can visit “Headstone” on Wikipedia.
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