Historical California Stone Carvers

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Historical California Stone Carvers, Stone Cutters, & Monument Dealers

Introduction
Alphabetical List of Stone Carvers & Monument Companies, text and photographs compiled by Peggy B. Perazzo.
“Citation List of Leeanna Rossi’s Research Notes,” compiled by Leeanna Rossi.
From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments, the progression of the rock in the quarries and ending with the marble cemetery monuments created in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s found in our northern California cemeteries today.
“Sculptors, Monument Companies, and Iron Works,” compiled by Leeanna Rossi.
“Tombstones and the Men who created them,” by Mary-ellen Jones, article from Diablo Descendants Newsletter, November 1996.
Interview of John Silva of Silva’s Memorials in Antioch, Contra Costa County, California April 30, 1997.
Monumental Magazines Available Online (American Stone Trade; Granite / Granite, Marble, & Bronze; The Modern Cemetery AKA Park and Cemetery and Landscape Gardening; The Reporter, Devoted to the Granite and Marble Monumental Trade; Stone: An Illustrated Magazine; The Stone Cutter's Journal; etc.) [Use back button to return to this menu]
Some Contra Costa County Monument Records (1874 - 1918) - Transcriptions from Contra Costa County, California, Historical Documents.
Some Stone Carvers & Monument Companies that Produced the Yolo County Cemetery Stones in the late 1800s-early 1900s, brochure prepared for the Cemetery Tour at the Stroll Through History in Woodland, California. (Many of the stone carvers whose stones can be found in the Woodland Cemetery also signed and produced cemetery stones in other California cemeteries.)

The first part of this section is a list of some of the stone workers and monument companies in California who were responsible for the mostly marble cemetery stones from the latter half of the 1800s to the very early 1900s. The list only includes a small number of those involved in the industry as there are many more. In the list I have I have compiled, I listed the people I have come across in my own research on San Francisco Bay Area stone workers and other sources as indicated. (I have only gone through a few of the relevant city directories, so these people/companies will appear in many other years and locations that are not listed here Many of the entries listed below are taken from the signed cemetery stones.)

Some of the stone carver/monument company sections include research material compiled by Leeanna Rossi, in which you will find material from her research of the Sacramento/Gold Rush stone carvers and monument companies. She has written a very interesting book on some of these men entitled, Headstones of The Gold Rush Era: Sculpting Masterpieces in Marble. (This book is available at the Old Sacramento City Cemetery.) Leeanna has generously allowed her research notes to be included on our web site so that others interested in the subject can benefit from all of her research. (In order to view all of the material for stone workers and companies that both Leeanna and I researched, you need to view the sections that present Leeanna’s and my material as they have not all been combined to any great extent.)

A note about duplicate or similar names: In the instances where I have found a carver’s name using initials (such as E. R. Roberts) and I also have an entry for a person with a full name working in the same location (such as Edwin R. Roberts), I have created two entries. Unless I have a record that clearly shows that these two entries are the same person, I have not combined the entries. Please be aware of these possible duplicates as they may or may not be the same person.

If you have any California stone workers or monument companies you would like to have added to this list, please contact me. Unless indicated otherwise, the photographs were taken by me. Peggy B. Perazzo

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