By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Abbottsville Monuments celebrated 50 years of family history, and 47 years on the corner at the Darke County Fair.

After having his parents open the business in 1973, Greg Brown advised he “was kind of born into it (the monument business).”

“I had a full time job most of my life, but I helped install when they needed help. I decided to take over in 2013 when dad got sick,” Brown said.

Today, in 2023, Brown is proud to say his own son, Brent Brown has also taken an interest in the business as well.

The business covers approximately nine counties making monuments and capturing snapshots of a person’s life.

“We are known for our specialty monuments,” Brown said. “They’re monuments that tell a story. Which is kind of my thing.”

Brown said the idea to tell a story with his monuments stemmed from memories he has riding his bike as a child. He would ride his bike by the cemetery and would occasionally get off and read the monuments.

“You didn’t know much more after you read it than before, so I kind of like the ones that either tell a story or at least have a picture,” Brown said.

Those who have explored Greenville may have seen the Treaty of Greenville monument Brown had partook in the creation of. He said that if you look closely, there are fingerprints on the top of the monument. This is from picture takers posing with his monument and grabbing the top.

“I’m a history buff, and it’s important to me to know and see people admire my work,” Brown said.

Some future projects Brown would like to create involve farming and the cruise-ins that used to take place in Downtown Greenville.

“If it works out, I would like to do a big 15 foot long, two feet high black granite plaque with people cruising,” Brown said.

He said capturing a moment in time for someone, giving them life after death, and telling their story is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. He is fond of the Virginia McClintock memorial.

“She had played the piano at church for 45 years, so we did a hole inside of the church and sat her at the piano. It’s where she was always at, and we added her whole family into the first pew,” Brown said.

“There are so many stories, and we even do built in wind chimes as well,” Brown said.

Brown said his biggest question he gets is “how long will the design last,” as the designs are not deep into the stone.

“When we polish the granite, it darkens the granite. What we are doing when we etch it, is we are scrapping that polish off to get to the real color of the granite, and since it is the real color, it is never going to go away,” Brown said.

He said black polish will eventually wear and go back to the original stone, but it will take up to 1,500 years to be weathered to that point.

“Mount Rushmore is made out of granite, as the government did a study,” Brown said. “It wears 1/10th of an inch every 1,000 years, and this is five times harder than Mount Rushmore.”

Brown said he wanted people’s stories to last because it is his favorite part of the job. Meeting people and hearing the stories and being able to transcribe them into the stone for family members is what he is proud of.

“Hopefully we will be here another 50 years,” Brown said.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].