The Redwood gazette., 1935-10-17
North Redwood Granite
Works Having Good Year
Will Continue Operations
Until December; Ship
800 Tons

Lengthening it's working year
from four to ten months is the
achievement of the North Red
wood Granite Works, Inc, which
with 20 men on it's payroll during
the heavy months, is one of Red
wood county's thriving industries.
Usually closing down after
Memorial day, the works has been
kept open this year and will con-
tinue to run until December or
later. Seven shop men and SIX
statesmen are now employed, draw
ing from a payroll which amounts
to $4,000 year. Minnesota, Wis
consin, North and South Dakota,
Iowa and Nebraska are the states
which representatives of the COM
pany visit.
Gross sales so far this year to-
tai about $4,000 and reasonable
expectations are that this figure
will be topped by $4,000 by Dec
ember. Monument tonnage ship
ped out, reaches the 800 mark.
Monuments, the product of the
works, whether hewn from blocks
of Belview red or Morton oriental
granite, are the most interesting
in their finished form after the
surfacing has been done with a
powerful electric and air driven
four pointed hammer, polishing
with shot, emery and felt wheels
has been completed, axing has
smoothed them to perfection and
lettering has been executed by
the designer who employs a com
pound of rubberized glue in his
work.
Then the human element enters
in. Preferences of relatives Tor
markers for the graves of their
dead are almost universally the
same, company officials say "Gone
But Not Forgotten" is an epitaph
which the sandblasting machine
used in lettering almost mechanl-
cally traces each time it is connec-
ted. "Asleep In Jesus" is nearly
as popular. The record epltaph
was shipped to Wheaton recently
on a grave stone which bore a
100 word verse composed by wo-
man for her dead daughter.
It is not unusual to receive or
ders for $1,000 and $1,000 tomb
stones although the majority are
much less expensive.
The newest thing in tombstone
design features porcelain picture
of the deceased, fastened in a pro-
minent position on the face OF the
block. Costing 81, they are not
rare in the northwest.
The business was organized IN
April 1929 when the company
worked it's own quarry, the most
popular product of which was the
North Redwood gray. Only few
small blocks of this are still lett
in the works yard, and when they
are gone the stone will not be pro-
durable unless the quarry is again
in operation. Growing to the lar
gest concern of its kind within a
so mile radius and as far north as
ST. Cloud, the company is unique
in that it completes all processes
from the "roughing" of the blocks
to setting up the stone in the
cemetery. Besides the Morton and
Belview granite, raw material is
brought from Milbank, South Da-
kota, Ashland and Wausau, Wis,
consin, st. Cloud, Ortonville and
Cold Springs. $4,000 worth OF
stone on hand comprises part OF
the $4,000 assets listed. Two
trucks, the building and machin-
cry complete the company's hold
ings.
Officers are Sylvester Teeri,
president; Fred Hooper, secre-
tary: and James V. Novak, treas
urer. That Mr.. Hooper is still with
the company is often surprise to
chance visitors to the office where
stands a headstone suitable to the
secretary's diminutive size, grlmiy
carved, Hooper.