American Monument& Granite Co.
(330) 325-2500
American Monument& Granite Co.
(330) 325-2500
Founded in 1922 by two Canton brothers, with a hill at the back dedicated to veterans. Where it is, who to call, how to find a grave, and how a headstone from a monument company like ours gets there.
Brothers Waite and Harry McClain of Canton founded Forest Hill in 1922. In its owner’s telling, they laid it out in circular sections ringed by winding roads, with two small lakes joined by an arched bridge, where children skated in winter. The lakes have since been filled in.
The hill rising at the back, overlooking the whole cemetery, was dedicated to veterans. A memorial tower was built on its crest with sound equipment, so organ music from local church organists carried across the grounds for funerals and Sunday concerts. The tower no longer plays. Today’s map shows two military sections.
A mausoleum with a marble interior and stained glass went up on the north side in the 1930s, and the brick office in the 1940s. The McClain Mausoleum and chapel near the front entrance followed in the 1980s. There are more than four miles of road, an interfaith chapel, and a cremation garden.
The cemetery is part of Dignity Memorial, the network of funeral and cemetery providers that includes affiliates of Service Corporation International. Its owner describes 68 acres; the Stark County Auditor’s two parcels come to about 63, all inside the City of Canton. North Lawn Cemetery, which is a separate cemetery, is about half a mile north on Cleveland Avenue.
Find a Grave records Will Powell, a founding member of Canton’s O’Jays, in the Oakmere section.
History and features are from Dignity Memorial’s Forest Hill page and the cemetery map it publishes; the acreage and city from the Stark County Auditor’s parcel records; Will Powell’s burial from Find a Grave. All checked 2026-11-02. The cemetery office is the authority on anything current.
There’s no online burial search for Forest Hill. The quickest way to find a grave is to call the office on (330) 499-7353 with the name and ask for the section and lot. Dignity Memorial publishes a map of the sections, from Evergreen and Oakmere to Memorial Hill, which helps once you know where you’re going. Find a Grave has volunteer listings, but they aren’t the cemetery’s records.
Decorations. Forest Hill hasn’t published its decoration rules or clean-up dates online. Before you leave a wreath for the winter, or anything you’d be sorry to lose, call the office and ask when things are cleared. Clean-up notices you may find online for a Forest Hill Cemetery in Piqua are for a different cemetery.
Checked against Dignity Memorial’s Forest Hill page on 2026-11-02. The office is the authority, not this page.
Forest Hill lists both flat markers and upright headstones among what it offers, and family estate lots that can take benches. It hasn’t published memorial rules: nothing online on sizes, on which sections take an upright, on foundations, or on stones from an outside company. We don’t publish rules we can’t source, so this page doesn’t guess at them.
What Dignity Memorial does publish is a general buyer’s guide to grave markers, not written for Forest Hill or any one cemetery. It says a marker can also be bought elsewhere and installed by your cemetery for a fee, and that the buyer is responsible for knowing the cemetery’s rules and choosing a material and size it accepts.
That second part is the reason to ask first. Before you’ve chosen anything, we’ll find out from the office what the section permits, what the cemetery requires for the installation, and what it charges, so what you fall for is something Forest Hill will accept.
From Dignity Memorial’s grave markers page, a general buyer’s guide rather than Forest Hill’s own rules, checked 2026-11-02. The cemetery office has the final word.
We’re a monument shop in Ravenna, about twenty miles from Forest Hill, and we work in every cemetery in Stark County. Forest Hill is one of them. The granite is cut, lettered, and finished by hand in our own shop.
We ask the cemetery first, every time. At Forest Hill that means the section, what it permits, and how the cemetery wants the stone installed, before you’ve chosen anything. If what you have in mind isn’t allowed there, you’ll hear it from us early, while changing your mind is still free. Then we make the stone and file what needs filing. At most cemeteries, the cemetery pours the foundation and we set the stone on it. Dignity’s general guide says the cemetery installs a marker bought elsewhere, so we’ll find out which way Forest Hill does it and arrange it with the office.
You don’t have to make the drive to order. We can start from a phone call and send proofs. If you’d rather see granite in daylight than on a screen, the showroom in Ravenna is open weekdays, with evenings and weekends by appointment, and there’s no obligation attached to walking in. North Lawn Cemetery is just up the road, and our Canton page covers the other cemeteries around the city.
The traditional standing headstone, for one name or two, or a family monument carrying several, where the section takes one. Shape, granite color, carving, and etching are decided with you.
Flat markers set level with the grass, in granite or bronze, and slants and bevels where the section allows them.
Solid granite benches, engraved. Forest Hill’s family estate lots can take benches, which makes a place to sit at the grave rather than stand at it.
Forest Hill has a cremation garden and columbarium niches. A memorial for cremated remains goes where the cemetery designates, so that’s the first question to put to the office.
Adding a date or a name to a stone already standing is done at the grave, once the cemetery has agreed. Straightening a stone that has leaned or sunk is part of the same service.
Start with what to say rather than what to buy. Our guide to what to write on a headstone covers names, dates, epitaphs, and emblems, and the free VA marker guide covers what a veteran is entitled to.
4414 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton, Ohio 44709, at 44th Street NW. The office is on (330) 499-7353. North Lawn Cemetery, a separate cemetery, is about half a mile further north on Cleveland Avenue.
Canton. The Stark County Auditor's records and the Census both put the grounds inside the City of Canton. They're in the Plain Local School District, which may be where the Plain label comes from.
It's part of Dignity Memorial, the network of funeral and cemetery providers that includes affiliates of Service Corporation International. The county's parcel records list the land under the Forest Hill Cemetery Association.
The cemetery's owner dates it to 1922, when two Canton brothers, Waite and Harry McClain, founded it. It says the hill at the back was dedicated to veterans, with a memorial tower built on its crest, and that a mausoleum followed in the 1930s and the McClain Mausoleum and chapel near the entrance in the 1980s.
There's no online burial search. Dignity Memorial publishes a map of the sections, and you can call the office on (330) 499-7353 with the name and ask for the section and lot. Find a Grave has volunteer listings, but they aren't the cemetery's records.
Dignity Memorial sells markers itself. Its general buyer's guide, not written for any one cemetery, says a marker can also be bought elsewhere and installed by the cemetery for a fee, and that the buyer is responsible for knowing the cemetery's rules. Forest Hill hasn't published its own memorial rules, so we ask the office before you choose anything.
The cemetery lists both flat markers and upright headstones among what it offers, but it hasn't published where each is allowed. That's the office's call, so we ask before you choose.
If the cemetery agrees, yes. Adding a date or a name to a stone already standing is ordinary work for us, and it's done at the grave, not by taking the stone away. We ask the office first.
When you’re ready, our family is here to help yours, with patience, care, and no obligation.
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