Monkey Ward Tombstones 1929

Honest--you could order a 'monument' from Montgomery Wards, the Chicago catalog house. The link is a twenty-eight page booklet showing Vermont Marble monuments shipped from Barre, Vermont.  There's a page of directions so you can save money by setting it yourself, too.  

I'm often surprised to find out where normal things came from years ago.  I'm sure there were other sources for monuments (especially here in the Cold Spring Granite homeland), and I'm still curious about where the ubiquitous white engraved slabs (left) came from.  They're the oldest stones in most cemeteries, at least around here.  
(These two are Sand family monuments from the cemetery here in St Joe--one from 1900 and the other from 1909.  They've lasted pretty well, I think).