Historical California Stone Carvers, Stone Cutters, & Monument Dealers

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CONDON BROS., Marysville, Yuba County, California.
(Marble Works)

1880-1881 - The following excerpt from Pacific Coast Directory, for 1880-81...of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, and British Columbia, L. M. McKenney & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, Cal., presented on the Golden Nugget Library web site, by Nancy Pratt Melton.

(pp. 631) “Condon Bros, marble works - Second and High.”

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William COOK, Pino, Placer County, California.
(Quarryman)

1880-1881 - The following excerpt is from Pacific Coast Directory, for 1880-81...of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, and British Columbia, L. M. McKenney & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, Cal., presented on the Golden Nugget Library web site, by Nancy Pratt Melton.

(pp. 705) “Cook, Wm, quarryman.”

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Hugh COYLE, Columbia, Tuolumne County, California.
(Marble Works)

1880-1881 - The following excerpt is from Pacific Coast Directory, for 1880-81...of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, and British Columbia, L. M. McKenney & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, Cal., presented on the Golden Nugget Library web site, by Nancy Pratt Melton.

(pp. 825) “Coyle, Hugh, marble works - Washington.”

The following information is from a presentation by Mary-ellen Jones to the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society in 1996. (From “Tombstones, and the Men who created them,” in the Diablo Descendants Newsletter, November 1996, Vol. 11, No. 11, pp. 89, 91.)

“‘Another stone cutter, who broke with tradition, was Hugh Coyle, born in Ireland. I am not sure where he learned his trade, but he learned it well. He was erratic at times, but highly skilled. While I was doing an article for the Contra Costa times, I heard from a woman who claimed to be Mr. Coyle’s grand-daughter. At first I thought it was a joke, but it turned out to be true. She did not know Hugh, but her mother, Hugh’s youngest daughter, lived with her. She still had her mother’s rocking chair. Hugh came to the gold rush town of Columbia in 1861. His stone of choice was from the local Columbia marble belt, and he opened a yard in 1865, using his own designs. Mr. Coyle used a lot of semicolons, which I thought unusual, but they are shown in the patterns....”

“‘In 1875, after mining had virtually ceased and Columbia went in to decline, Coyle moved to Sonora where he founded the Sonora Marble Works. For the next 10 years he created some of his best works. He created original carvings, sometimes on huge slabs of white Columbia marble. One stone that I photographed several times showed that the background had changed; this stone was obviously moved. The Mountain View Cemetery in Sonora is full of Coyle’s stones. He was a strange worker, producing some very good works, and some with jagged edges. His grand-daughter confirmed that he had a drinking problem, a family trait.

“‘Here is a stone signed by McCready, but obviously a Coyle stone. Probably it was his last, maybe left unfinished.

“‘Hugh Coyle died of pneumonia October 16, 1886, and now lies beneath a garish monument provided by a partner that Coyle never would have created in his wildest moment. His works can be found throughout Sonora and the Mother Lode.

“Mary Ellen Jones ended by saying that ‘these craftsmen truly deserve the recognition that they did not receive in real life, and no one deserves recognition more than Hugh Coyle.’”

 

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