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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Someone told me Chariton Monument is owned by a funeral home. Is that true?
A. No. We are a privately held corporation, not affiliated in any way with any funeral home.

Q. Are your monuments available at area funeral homes?
A. No.  None of the funeral homes in the Chariton Iowa area are authorized to sell our products.

Q. My father just passed away.  Why am I being asked to pay a fee to have his date of death inscribed on his monument?  Wasn’t that cost included in the purchase price of the monument?
A. No, the process of adding a death date to an existing monument, (usually referred to as “cemetery lettering”) has never been included in the purchase price of the monuments and markers we sell. This decades-old, industry wide policy is clearly explained in writing on the sales agreement at the time of purchase.

Q.  While making funeral arrangements, the funeral home offered to have my father’s death date inscribed on his monument. Will the funeral home contact Chariton Monument to do the work since you furnished the memorial?
A. Probably not, and here's why;  If we do the work, the funeral home doesn’t get a commission on the engraving fee, so they usually employ a contractor to do this work for them, bypassing us.
This bears repeating for the sake of clarity: Just because you bought the monument from Chariton Monument, it doesn’t mean the funeral home will automatically call us on your behalf.

The only way to guarantee we will get the order is to contact us yourself, which you can do here. Tell your funeral director to leave the monument alone.

Q. What's the difference?  Why should I care who does the cemetery lettering?
A. Only we have access to the original design specs of the monuments we build. There are hundreds of combinations of fonts, sizes, kerning, outlines - the list goes on. Without the original specs, who knows if it's going to match? (We've seen some that don't!) 


Q. Do you install monuments purchased from internet monument sellers?
A. Usually not. We concentrate on taking care of the families who have purchased directly from us.  Many internet monument sellers attempt to lure you in with a low price that seems too good to be true while playing down or trivializing the cost of having the monument professionally installed in your local cemetery.  By the time you add in your installation expenses, you usually could have saved money by buying locally, and you would have the added peace of mind of dealing with a local company instead of a stranger in another state.

Q. My father was a Veteran. Will you install the bronze marker that is furnished by the Veterans Administration?
A. Absolutely! Just give us a call or email us and we'll take care of it for you.

Q. How do I order a Veterans marker?
A. We have the neccessary forms, or you may download them yourself at: http://www.cem.va.gov/hm_hm.asp. (Link will open in a new window.) 
You want VA Form 40-1330, Application for Standard Government Headstone or Marker.

Q. Why do some internet listings show Chariton Monument Company’s address as 916 North Main Street?
A.  Here’s a case where the internet is wrong.  Our street address is and always has been 916 South Main Street, Chariton, Iowa.  North Main street in Chariton is a residential neighborhood.  There is no monument company on North Main Street.  Even if your GPS device insists on routing you that way, you won’t find us there.

Here’s the easiest way to find us; We are located at the junction of highways 34 & 14, at the south edge of Chariton - at the entrance to the Chariton Cemetery. Check the map on the "About Us" page, or use these coordinates in your GPS device: 41.003878, -93.307502

Q. What is your mailing address?
A. Our mailing address is:

Chariton Monument Co. Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Chariton, IA  50049-0249



  
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