“Memorials of Quality since 1910” is the motto emblazoned in stone on the front of Josh Eddleman’s business, one of Cullman’s oldest – rivaled only by Buettner Brothers – Cullman Marble & Granite.
Eddleman knows being such a longtime company has its perks, saying, “We have been in the same building, basically, since 1910, as far back as we can date it. This used to be the old 9-0 Cafe which some previous owners bought, and parlayed into the whole shop now. The shop originally was actually a little room of the building where it all started. So we never moved, just got bigger, just took over more space in the building.”
Headstones, mausoleums and grave markers aren’t usually dinnertime conversation, but instead a service the community needs.
Eddleman said, “We provide more of a service to the community, for sure.” It’s a service that everyone will need sooner or later, but one people don’t usually think about until it’s needed. Costs associated with purchasing a marker for a loved one can be high, but Eddleman said, “I tell people and I say, ‘You know, my wife may remodel our kitchen 10 times in our lifetime, but if I pass she’s only going to buy one stone for me.’”
Granite is the second hardest stone found in nature, and is also the stone used for markers and headstones, as its hardness and sustainability allow some respite from weathering, ensuring a lasting memorial.
Creating these stones is no easy process; engraving tools have to be made of diamond, or a lab created equivalent, and the sheer weight of the stones alone exceeds a ton in some cases.
Said Eddleman, “Gray granite is 183 pounds per cubic foot, black is 210 pounds per cubic foot. So most of your colors are heavy. It’s heavy, it’s hot in the summer, it’s cold in the winter. You know? It’s just a process. It’s a process most people don’t know about.” Once the raw stones are received by Eddleman, a computer program creates a stencil that is glued on and sandblasted to ensure proper depth of lettering. Eddleman said, “The deeper the lettering is cut, the longer the words will last.” When the initial sandblasting is done, the stone heads to Mark Ballew, longtime employee of Cullman Marble & Granite since the early 1980s. Eddleman continued, “After everything’s done cutting, it goes to the next stage which is Ballew’s booth and he does the shade carve, where basically he free hands all the designs, so that’s an amazing process and he’s a very, very talented man.”
Ballew has saved the shop on more than one occasion, according to Eddleman. Backlogs and shortages have touched Eddleman’s business in the past; Ballew was there to jump in when production halted.
Eddleman recalled, “Mark’s been here for years and the process that he was raised or learned on was actually rubbing a design on it and cutting it out freehand, so it was all hands-on. So we went back to the old-school way: rub acetone on it, tape it so it holds everything together and freehand the cutting. The knowledge that Mark had and knowledge from the company being here that long, if we’d have been a fresh start-up company, we’d have been like everybody else, we couldn’t do anything.”
Going back to the “old ways” did add time to each job, but Eddleman said he would rather lose time on completing a project to his own high standards, than lose quality. “It’s a process and it’s just lengthy and that’s the thing – there’s no way to speed it up because if you speed it up you lose quality, and that’s one thing we have always worked for – quality, quality, quality – from the workmanship, to the setting, to the finished product, and that’s what really we stand on. So you can’t you speed it up, we take our time or you lose quality and then your product is no good anymore.”
Cullman Marble & Granite runs a small team, with less than a handful of employees to share in the burdens of these heavy pieces. Safety stays at the forefront of Eddleman’s mind when bringing in new team members. “I had to hire and let go a few people because they had no concern for their own safety or the safety of other people. Dealing with stuff that heavy you don’t get a second chance; if it falls on you, you don’t get a second chance. You really have to get a good crew, take care of them and they’ll take care of you, you know. But we have a good crew. There’s four of us here and they’re a good bunch of guys. I trust them on everything. They all do their one certain job really good; they all come together and do the ultimate goal.”
Cullman continues to grow and with increases in births and population, come increases in deaths and funerals; Eddleman’s demand for markers and headstones has skyrocketed. Wait times between ordering a stone and the time Eddleman and his team could place it were steadily at six to eight weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Now that time has shifted to six to eight months. Quarries shut down, exports from other countries were prohibited or, if allowed, subject to a high tariff. “We had a long straight time of just zero production, but yet people were still coming in and purchasing,” he said.
Eddleman said he and his team are slowly catching up on the backlog, each week chipping away at the waiting stones, and Eddleman is thinking to the future of his shop, as well.
“This place means a lot to my family. Hopefully it stays in my family, but you never know. My daughters have their own lives, their own path and that’ll be their journey,” he said, laughing, “They’re going to have to marry a good man or something.”
Copyright 2024 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
