Whitney Monument Works

05/23/2026

Memorial Day weekend is here! 🇺🇸

All of us at Whitney Monument Works
wish you a safe, relaxing, and meaningful weekend with family and friends.

As you enjoy the holiday festivities, take a moment to remember and honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and the freedoms we enjoy every day.

Freedom isn’t free.
United, We stand ❤️🤍💙

05/08/2026

Don’t forget Memorial Day is coming up! 🇺🇸

When?

Memorial Day — Monday, May 26th

What?

Memorial Day is a federal holiday to honor U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. It’s observed every year on the last Monday of May.

Ways people commemorate the day:
🪖 Visiting memorials and cemeteries
🕯️ Attending remembrance ceremonies
🎗️ Flying the American flag (at half-staff until noon, then full-staff)
🌺 Placing flowers or flags on veterans’ graves
🤝 Taking a moment of silence at 3PM local time

Fun fact:
It’s often confused with Veterans Day, which honors ALL who have served.

Memorial Day is specifically for those who made the ultimate sacrifice 🙏

Take a moment this May 26th to remember and reflect. Freedom isn’t free ❤️🤍💙🇺🇸

05/04/2026

What a beautiful day for a delivery! ☀️

A big thank you to the team at Behner Funeral Home & Crematory for letting us be a part of their exciting remodel and capturing the moment! ☘️

04/07/2026

Custom Memorial Etchings ✒️

Memorial etchings are personalized images, text, or artwork that are permanently engraved into memorial headstones.

At Whitney Monument Works we do our etchings in-house with a diamond tip etcher which uses a small, ultra-hard diamond point to physically strike or abrade the surface of the granite.

What can be etched?

- Portraits or photographs, reproduced in fine detail on the stone
- Religious symbols, icons, or scenes (crosses, angels, doves, etc.)
- Nature imagery (flowers, trees, landscapes, wildlife)
- Hobby or interest-related artwork (golf clubs, musical instruments, military insignia, etc.)
- Meaningful quotes, poems, or scripture verses
- Custom scenes or illustrations that reflect the person's life

We'd love to help you create something truly personal and one-of-a-kind. We will work with you every step of the way to design a custom etching that's uniquely yours!

10/21/2025

150 Years of History, Craftsmanship, and Community - and it wouldn’t be possible without all of you!

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating 150 years of our family business! We had a great time and hope you all did too!

Special thanks to Mendy McAdams and the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce for helping us promote and put on this event.

07/25/2025

Dear Southeast Iowa Community,

We'd like to say thank you to those who have entrusted us through the years and to the generations of families whom we've have had the privilege to serve.

As we celebrate 150 years of service and craftsmanship at Whitney Monument Works, we would love to hear your stories and memories — whether about previous generations or your own experience working with us over the years.

📣Please feel free to share in the comments below or send us a message directly📣

Our 150th anniversary celebration has been postponed, and we will announce the new date as soon as it's been set.

We will be offering tours of our facility as well as light snacks and refreshments. We look forward to celebrating this incredible milestone with all of you.

Thank you for being part of our story and our 150th year of preserving legacies. We couldn't have done it without you!

01/27/2025

🌟 𝟏𝟓𝟎 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 🌟

It’s a monumental moment for Whitney Monument Works as we celebrate our 𝟭𝟱𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆!

Since 𝟭𝟴𝟳𝟱, our 𝟲𝘁𝗵-𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, family-owned business has been dedicated to creating permanent memorials that honor the legacies of those we love.

As we look back on 150 years of hard work, quality craftsmanship, and personalized service, we’re more excited than ever to continue building the future of memorialization.

We’re eternally grateful for the trust and support of our community and customers. We wouldn’t be celebrating this milestone without you.

As we move forward, our commitment to quality and care will always guide us as we help families create tributes that reflect the lives they’ve lost and the memories they hold dear.

Here’s to 150 years of remembrance, and to the many years ahead of providing meaningful memorials to families across Southeast Iowa.

Thank you🙏

08/02/2024

Congrats to Scott and Rachel Brown on their first year of business as owners of an historic Fairfield establishment, Behner Funeral Home & Crematory! You're both a wonderful addition to the Fairfield community!

Behner Funeral Home is a proud partner of Whitney Monument Works, offering personable assistance in selecting a monument engraved and installed by us as a convenience to families using their services.

Thank you, Scott and Rachel, for maintaining the standards of excellence and care that those before you established and upheld at Behner Funeral Home & Crematory!

05/24/2024

Please consider donating to our local cemetery this Memorial Day to help support efforts to preserve and revitalize Evergreen Cemetery!

Evergreen Cemetery would like to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Thank you all for your continued support of our cemetery.

As many come to visit their loved ones this week/weekend, we'd like to humbly remind everyone of our Endowment Fund Campaign that was established last year. Evergreen Cemetery is a special place of beauty and tranquility to honor and remember our loved ones. Our hope is to remain financially viable and independent, which will allow us to preserve and revitalize the beautiful cemetery grounds for future generations.

Contrary to common belief, we are a private, non-tax supported, perpetual care cemetery. Today we are facing serious financial challenges in maintaining our community’s cemetery. Historically, the funding of the cemetery came from lot sales, burial income, occasional donations, grants and a small stipend from the City of Fairfield to maintain the Old City Cemetery section. This is no longer enough due to the escalating costs of maintenance, combined with the downward trend of burials, upward trend of cremations and declining population.

The board came to a very critical decision to set a goal of raising a minimum of 2 million dollars to invest in the Endowment Fund. This will enable us to continue to operate independently and maintain the high standard of care, as we do not receive any state or government funding, other than the city mowing stipend. The alternative would result in the cemetery being taken over by the city, becoming the responsibility of the taxpayer. In the first six months we have been able to raise over $250,000! While we still have a long way to go, we're incredibly grateful to all who have donated thus far.

No donation is too small. Each dollar will go toward maintaining our Fairfield Evergreen Cemetery. We are a 50l (C) (13) organization allowing all donations to be tax deductible. The 501 (C)(13) identifies cemeteries.

Checks are to be made payable to Fairfield Evergreen Cemetery Endowment Fund and can be delivered or mailed to 510 E Stone Ave., Fairfield, IA 52556.

If you have any further questions, you can contact the cemetery at 641-472-2509 or email [email protected].

Thank you all so much and have a great holiday weekend!

05/09/2024

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was an absolute honor to help the town of New London after they were hit by a tornado last month. The tornado traveled through Burge Cemetery, knocking more than 300 headstones off their bases (Even taking down one that was over 4,000 pounds!!!).

When we heard the news and saw the devastation, we knew we had to step up and help. It was overwhelming, but through the collective effort of cemetery President Jesse Howard, Allen Gugeler, Colton Gugeler, Burlington Wilbert Vault Works, Harrison Monuments, Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility, and other community volunteers in just three days of work over 300 headstones have been set back on their bases and resealed, and the trees have all been removed and cleaned up thanks to Exceptional Edge LLC. (Also a big thank you to the ladies at the VFW who kept us well fed throughout!)

As we worked our way through the cemetery, I saw over a dozen monuments that my grandfather Lewis had installed, as well as one of the first monuments that my dad made when he returned to the family business. While we don't have any family buried at Burge, our name is attached to it through our work, and we firmly believe that we should always stand by our promise to permanently memorialize our customers' loved ones.

Me and my team felt a surreal feeling of pride driving out of the cemetery yesterday and seeing all the stones standing again. The cemetery, in fact, is on its way to looking better than ever. It's truly a testament to what we're capable of when enough caring people come together in a shared goal, and that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to take the first step.

Gratefully and humbly,

Jordan Whitney

An EF-2 tornado wiped out more than 300 headstones and 18 trees after it traveled northeastward through the entire cemetery on April 16.

11/10/2023

Honoring the sacrifices many have made for our country in the name of freedom and democracy is the very foundation of
Veterans Day.

It is an honor for Whitney Monument Works to have designed and erected the Veterans Memorials for the towns of Winfield, Milton & Cantril in 2023.