About the Crawford Family
We are not special. We are just a family that finds satisfaction in doing our very best to care for the land trusted to us -- a land that holds hundreds of years of memories of those who've gone before us.
Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey was established in 1875 as a public cemetery. In 1920, William Karl Crawford was hired as the superintendent. In 1930, Albert Crawford was hired and later, in 1961, Karl Crawford began working summers mowing lawns and doing all the jobs related to a cemetery.
Since that time, many Crawford family members have spent at least a portion of their working life doing whatever necessary to keep the grounds spotless and the records perfect. It is that attention-to-detail that enables us to help you design a monument that will fulfill your wishes and blend in to the particular section of the cemetery where your lot is located.
Our Heritage
The territory we service is the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the Eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula. However, we have sold markers in all areas of Michigan and into other states as well.
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Our focus is satisfied customers. It is not our desire to make the most expensive sale, but to sell the best product for the site and to best suit the needs and wishes of the customer. Monuments and markers do more than mark a grave -- they memorialize the life of a loved one after they're gone for all of the family and friends of succeeding generations as they return to visit the gravesite.
Quality Materials
Many people think there is no difference in the quality of granite or marble - "after all, it is all rock." That is true, it is rock, but some rock is porous while other rock is not. Some rock cracks quite easily and other rock seems to crumble away.
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If you notice in older cemeteries there are some markers that are almost impossible to read because the lettering has deteriorated, those markers are almost always marble. I have had requests to re-letter them or to place bronze plates over the old lettering so the original inscription can be read. Granite memorials, if, of a good quality and workmanship, should be easily legible many centuries from now.
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Bronze is good for a memorial and some cemeteries require them. They do tarnish and some require refinishing over time but the lettering and carving should be legible for many years to come. In this day and age bronze is more expensive than a similarly sized granite marker.
Our Product
The main products of this company are monuments and markers to memorialize the life of a deceased loved one. These may be placed in a cemetery but are sometimes installed at a place of significance in the life of the person being memorialized. That may be at a home, farm, hunting camp or at a lakefront cottage.
The material we sell is granite because of its price and durability. We also sell marble, bronze and some man-made materials.
Our Warranty
Most monument companies do not include a warranty with their memorials or they may include a one- or five- year guarantee. It is not often that a granite monument would need to be replaced but it does happen. Each granite memorial we sell comes with a warranty that states that the granite "will not crack, chip or disintegrate in any manner" or it "will be replaced without cost or expense to the purchaser or his or her heirs upon request." The company making that guarantee has been in business since 1917.
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In the 40+ years that I have been selling memorials, I have had to replace five or six markers because of problems within the granite. The warranty has covered each one with no cost to the customer. Sometimes the marker was replaced without the customer ever knowing there was a problem because I noticed it and corrected it before the family was aware of the problem.
