Joseph Willis - Alamo, IN - Obelisks on Waymarking.com

In the Alamo Cemetery, on the edge of the small town of Alamo, in Montgomery County, Indiana, stands a thirty seven foot tall obelisk.

Joseph M. Willis, was a patent medicine maker near the turn of the 20th century and a man a newspaper of his day concluded was “peculiar to the extreme". He committed suicide, by a gunshot wound to the head, in his apartment, in Alamo, in November 1903.

The 37-foot monument Willis demanded in his will cuts a striking view. The obelisk made from 60 tons of Barre granite was shaped in New York. The only inscriptions are his name — “Willis” — on the west side, and his full name and dates of birth and death — “December 26, 1848 - November 11, 1903” — on the east

The monument Joseph Willis had built in his memory cost $2,600 in 1903 and had to be shipped from New York City, by railroad, to Waynetown, then by horse and cart, the eight miles to Alamo Cemetery in Montgomery County.

I wrote a blog piece about this monument, after an article appeared in the Journal Courier newspaper, from Lafayette, Indiana, in October 2012. You can read that here: (visit link)

Date Created/Placed: 1903 Address: CR 400 S Alamo, IN 47916 Height: 37 feet Illuminated: no Website: [Web Link]

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