Old Cemetery Stone Fountain - Merz

The following are excerpts of from the series "Saga of the Sanpitch" and entitled "The Red Fountain" and written by Louise Johansen.

Adolph and Hyrum Merz, brothers from Switzerland, wanted to do something nice for the community of Mt. Pleasant. So they conceived the idea of a fountain to be placed in the center of the city cemetery. They both had learned the monument trade while living in Switzerland.

They looked around the valley for material to build it with and found some red stone east of the Moroni City Cemetery. A large stone weighing better than a ton was brought to Mt. Pleasant Marble Works by Lewis Johansen. The wagon was driven close to the hill where the stone was rolled onto it with the help of crowbars. Everything from this point had to be done by hand. They placed the stone in the back yard of their monument business establishment and built a shelter over it to keep the hot sun and rain off their heads while they worked. The stone was not hard, but it was very dirty, and consequently it was necessary to sharpen the steel instruments very often.

The fountain was sculpted to represent the stump of a tree with the bark and knots chisled in to resemble real wood for washing hands. The drinking water came from a bronze lizard's mouth in a continual stream and went back into the ground. The washing compartment formed three petal shaped bowls with the center one for washing, the others to enhance the beauty of it. The bowls were made of a separate stone and mortised into the tree stump.

In order to shape this large square stone into a natural looking tree stump and get the shape, length and width they wanted, they had to use a single jack (hammer) and chisel to rough it down to shape, and this required going over it many many times.

At first they used a pointed chisel, and as it smoothed down they used a blade chisel and a seven pound wood mallet. John A. Matson, an employee, assisted them for five months of painstaking hours before their dream was realized. This work was all done free gratis with no cost to anyone except the kind hands who built it.

The fountain was removed from the cemetery when the cemetery was placed under perpetual care in 1965 with new roadways and sprinkling system, but the fountain will never be forgotten. It is now located on the lawn in front of the Relic Home. It stands as a symbol of craftmanship as well as of courage, faith, love and civic pride of the Merz brothers,
Adolph and Hyrum from Switzerland