History of Memorial Stones

    When you first start shopping for your memorial headstone it is a little confusing. Most people
have never been in the situation where they have had to purchase a memorial. Over the years
memorials have been made out of several different materials. Wood, limestone,
marble and granite are a few.

Wood was used before the mid 1800's. It served its purpose for the time. During the early 1800's
settlers traveled often and rarely got back to visit where they buried a loved one. After awhile
they noticed that the wood was not very durable and did not last for an extended period
of time. This is when they started looking for other methods of making memorials.

    As you walk through many older cemeteries in our area and look at the memorials which
were placed in the mid to late 1800's, you will notice that you can barely read the
engravings.  You will also notice that when you touch these old memorials, it feels like
touching sandpaper.  During that time, memorials were made from limestone, sandstone,
and marble.  Compared to the wood grave markers which were previously used, these
materials seemed very durable. 

Limestone

Sandstone

Marble

   Limestone came next and is known as a sedimentary stone. Sandstone and marble also fall
in this category. Consisting of mainly calciferous minerals deposited on the ancient river
and ocean beds. When the layers of silt were put under huge pressure by more layers of silt.
These layers of mud hardened in muted colors as sandstone, limestone and marble. These are very
soft stones. These stones never polish up and stay dull and soft. This is why limestone is not used for monumental purposes anymore. It quickly deteriorated and became unreadable. They start
eroding from the inside out and wear away about 1/8 inch - ½ inch every 75 to 125 years. On the
hardness scale these stones rate between a 4 and 5 on the hardness scale.

   Today, we use granite to memorialize our loved ones.  Granite was created millions of years ago
by volcanic action.  Various minerals including quartz, felspar, and mica were melted by the
earth's core tremendous heat.  It was carried close to the earth's surface where it cooled
as a solid mass which now covers much of the earth's surface, just below the soil line. 

    Granite is an igneous rock and on the 1 - 10 hardness scale, it rates a 7 (compared
to a 4 & 5 for the sandstone, limestone and marble).  Granite is so hard that it does not
absorb enough moisture to "spall", but rather erodes from the outside in, as opposed to
inside out.  Because of this, we "estimate" that granite has an "Erosion Factor" of about 1/10
of an inch every two to five thousand years.  Memorials made of granite will last many
many generations into the future.