Tombstones sometimes have "family history," too --- and I happened upon a paragraph about this mighty chunk of granite in the Chariton Cemetery the other day while reading (via digital images) The Knoxville Express of Sept. 4, 1901.
"Froggatt & Son sold last week to Mrs. Sefrit, of Chariton, one of the handsomest monuments that ever left their shop. It was a combination bronze-green veined granite, and was a beauty in style and finish. The price was $275, and it was the finest monument ever erected in the Chariton cemetery. This is but one of the many fine monuments this firm is turning out. If you are thinking of buying a stone of any kind, let Froggatt & Son figure on the purchase."
The "Froggatt" here would have been William L. Froggatt, native to England who with two sons operated furniture and undertaking businesses in both Knoxville and Chariton at the time. The Chariton son was Clarence; the Knoxville son, Wilbur.
None of the Froggatts had the skills needed to turn out a tombstone, so most likely they were acting as agents for an independent marble and granite works.
The stone, which presents as gray on a gloomy day like yesterday when I photographed it, certainly was not "the finest monument ever erected in the Chariton cemetery," but it is big.
Mary Anna (McDonald) Sefrit had commissioned it to commemorate her husband, Isaac, who had died at age 60 on Aug. 4, 1901. There is no inscription on the stone itself other than "Sefrit" and the initial "S." Smaller headstones mark the locations of graves on the family lot.
Anna herself lived for quite a few more years, passing on July 11, 1918, at the home of her son, George, in Delphos at the age of 77.
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