The Harrison Granite Company of New York City founded in 1845, had quarries and works at Barre, Vermont, mailed out brochures January of 1918, featured a sculpture of a kneeling woman with her head in her hand in grief. The brochure says, “Recommended for expressing beauty”. Several sources suggest that the sculpture is a representation of the Greek Goddess Niobe while another source says it is an expression of the “Morning Prayer”. The Harrison Granite Company brochure does not shed light on which is accurate. The mystery remains.

This sculpture has been found at least five time—the Gray Family Monument at the Oakland Cemetery at Atlanta, Georgia; the Haggard monument at the Mount Olivet Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee; The Inez M. and James Dunn Family Monument at the Glendale Cemetery at Akron, Ohio; the Mary Norcott Bryan London Monument in the Elmwood Cemetery at Charlotte, North Carolina; and The Mary Salmen Monument at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery at Evansville, Indiana, are clearly look-a-likes.

Gray Family Monument at the Oakland Cemetery at Atlanta, Georgia

The Haggard monument at the Mount Olivet Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee

The Mary Norcott Bryan London Monument in the Elmwood Cemetery at Charlotte, North Carolina

The Mary Salmen Monument at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery at Evansville, Indiana

The Inez M. and James Dunn Family Monument at the Glendale Cemetery at Akron, Ohio.

This Harrison Granite Company catalog and many other gravestone and monument company brochures can be found at the Stone Quarries and Beyond Website: http://quarriesandbeyond.org/cemeteries_and_monumental_art/cemetery_stones.html.

The Stone Quarries and Beyond Website was created by Peggy B. and Patrick Perazzo. It focuses on historic stone quarries, stone workers and companies, and related subjects such as geology. Whenever possible links of finished products are provided on the Website. There is a “Quarry Articles” section that presents articles, booklets, and links from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including the 1856 “The Marble-Workers’ Manual.” The “Cemetery Stones and Monuments” section provides references and resources, including many old monument magazines, catalogs, price lists, and a photographic tour “From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments.”