Cram Monument

Williamstown, Ky., June 14 - As a money-making scheme a monument in a graveyard would ordinarily be considered a queer investment, yet in the Williamstown Cemetery there is such a monument that has answered the purpose and answered it well.  Twelve years ago a marble works company made a proposition to W. G. Cram, one of the rich men in Grant County, to erect a monument in his private lot, to be paid for once, but to bear that rate of 10 per cent interest, payable by the company to himself as long as he should live.  It was to cost $1500.  The company's terms were accepted, and the monument was built, a space being left vacant whereon to chronicle the birth and death of Mr. Cram, together with his good deeds.  Mr. Cram is yet alive, and bids fair to live many years, though he has passed the age of seventy, and the monument has already paid him in dividends $300 more than the original cost of building.  Last Thursday during a windstorm the shaft was broken off fifteen feet from the ground, but will be repaired at the company's expense.

reprinted from the New York Times, June 15, 1899