GALION – After nearly 150 years of memorializing its customers and their family members through tombstones, monuments and more, Galion’s longest-running business has etched its own name into the city’s history.

Longstreth Memorials opened in 1868 at 134 Harding Way West and stayed there until two months ago when it relocated to 1263 Ohio 598, also in Galion.

T.W. Longstreth – current owner, Sean Longstreth’s great-great-grandfather – opened the business three years after he fought in the Civil War. He apprenticed in Mount Gilead before moving to Galion to set up shop.

Longstreth Memorials later added locations at 77 East Chestnut St., Mansfield and 834 Kaler Ave., Bucyrus and acquired Jahn Monuments in Mount Gilead.

In 1973, the family also began burial vault manufacturing when it acquired Alexander Wilbert Vaults. It was located in Marion and Mansfield, but the new owners moved it to Galion near its headquarters.

“We were in two separate (Galion) locations, two separate manufacturing facilities, and this puts us all under one roof,” fifth-generation businessman Sean Longstreth said about the move from the business’s historic Harding Way location.

The new building combines the Galion-based manufacturing sites and offers about 10,000 extra square feet.

The Longstreths have built more than 30,000 monuments in total, and about 1,000 more are made each year under the direction of Sean and his wife, Terri. They anticipate the new facility will allow business to further grow.

The new location has conference rooms to provide more privacy to customers and giant flat screens where monuments can be designed in color.

“We call it telling a family’s story in stone,” Terri Longstreth said. “We try to tell their story so we ask them a little about themselves, and add a design based on what they say.”

“More often than not they don’t have an idea of what they want, and we just ask them to tell us about themselves or their family member: their personality, their favorite color, what they did for a living, what their hobbies were.”

She married into the business.

“It’s not a dream career,” she joked. “But it’s very, very rewarding.”

She works with families to create a monument that accurately portrays their loved one. Every detail matters to her.

“We try to make even the shape and the finish mean something. If someone is a sharp dresser … I would do an all polished finish for him.”

Her husband, on the other hand, is “rough around the edges,” so a monument for him would have rough edges.

One tombstone recently was shaped into a tractor. Another included a laser-etched picture of a car.

Sometimes they work with families who’ve recently lost a loved one, but they also frequently work with people who want to design their monument before passing. Sean Longstreth estimates that half their customers are still living.

“It takes the pressure off the family,” he said. “It makes as much sense as life insurance and estate planning.”

Longstreth Monuments also sells monuments that hold remains from cremation and vaults that can be customized for families.

Galion’s location is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and by appointment on weekends. For further information on hours and contact information, visit storyinstone.com.

The first Longstreth Memorial location at 134 Harding Way West will become Iron Vault Distillery, which is still under construction.