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CHAPTER 6
EARLY AMERICAN FUNERAL UNDERTAKING
The Birth of American Funeral Directing
• Funeral Directing as an occupation was born in America during the 19th century.
• Tradesman Undertakers:– From 1685 we remember undertaking has
been an occupation involving:• Furnishing of the paraphernalia of morning.• Conducting funerals following other feudal
societies.• Few persons dedicated solely to the trade.
Limitations of the term “funeral directing”
• Provisions of a set of tasks for the care and disposal of the dead.
• A personal service which operates as a business enterprises.
The Birth of American Funeral Directing
• Now as we move to the Settlers of the Plains:– Social and class distinctions were not likely
to be introduced (there was no social status).– The Colonies worked against transplanting
the “Dismal Trader” of England to the Americas.
The Tradesman Undertaker
• Introduction of many craftsman into the field of undertaking.
• Importance increased as cities grew and material resources of the townspeople increased.
The Birth of American Funeral Directing
• Remember again from last time “undertakers” were not called undertakers except as underwriters of commercial business ventures.
• The first person in the middle of the 18th century that advertised as an “undertaker,” that we now know surprisingly enough was…..
You guessed it…….A woman!!!!!
The Birth Of American Funeral Directing
• Blanche White~– Advertised in the New Your Journal of General
Advertisers on January 7, 1768• “Blanche White, Upholsterer and Undertaker, from
London, on the New-Dock, next door but one to Alderman Livingston’s; Makes all kinds of Upholstery Work, in the newest Fashions and on the most reasonable Terms; Likewise all kinds of Field Equipage, Drums, Etc. Funerals furnishe’d with all things necessary and proper Attendance as in England.”
The Birth of American Funeral Directing
• English influence had made it to Canada as well~– In 1820 a Montreal directory of Merchant,
Traders and Housekeepers listed:• Mrs. Benjamin Birch, Funeral Undertaker,
20 Campeau Str. Forster & Fry
Upholsters & Undertakers, Cabinet
Makers, Furniture Show Rooms.
• Mrs. Birch was also listed as a shoemaker at the same address.
• In the Colonial period, Cabinet-making was often found with Upholstering, and undertaking was usually added to the business.
• It was more often that the Cabinet-makers, chair makers, etc., were only suppliers of coffins.
• Over time their functions moved from providing material goods (coffins, etc.) to including and providing non-material personal services.
• They were few in the early years, but with no clear cut or uniform church or state regulation over funerals, they were provided opportunity for development of these skills as added specialties to the current occupation…
• Remember the spirit of industry…– Everyone was creating professions.
Coffin & Cabinet Making
• Michael Jenkins-– A well known furniture maker in Baltimore.
• He was one of the first to combine “coffin making” with cabinet making.
• He was later appointed coroner in 1799 and then became an undertaker.
• Shortly after he extended his activities to include “undertaking”.
Coffin & Cabinet Making• Jacob Knorr-
– A German Quaker set up a 2 story joiner’s shop in Germantown, PA.
– In addition to his lumber yard he advertised that he made “coffins on demand.”
– Died in 1804• Children sold the business• Passed down from generation to generation• The coffin-shop-turned-undertaking-turned-funeral directing
establishment has existed now for over 194 years.
There are very few business with such long pedigrees
Coffin & Cabinet Making• Your book goes to great lengths to list firms
that make this point, but in no way does it exhaust the list of early cabinet-making and furniture business firms that began undertaking early in the 19th century.
• They have been included specifically to illustrate the fact of persistence of operation.
• Nearly all of them are still in business today under the name of the original founder.
Coffin & Cabinet Making• Thomas Chartres-
– Advertised in 1829 that besides selling cabinet furniture and making cabinets, “Funerals attended on the shortest notice, and Hacks and Hearse provided.
– Andrew Oaks-– Advertised in a Brooklyn City Directory not only
the practice of the various crafts, but….
lost children might safely be left with him until the parents could be found!?!?!?!
Coffin & Cabinet Making• The occupational advances made by
Sherman Blair show a pattern:– 1840-Sherman Blair, Cabinet Maker– 1841-Sherman Blair, Cabinet manufacturer– 1846-Sherman & R. Blair, Cabinet
manufacturer and undertakers.– 1853-Blair’s Cabinet Furniture, Upholsters
and undertakers.
The Furnishings Undertaker
• Another tradesman-undertaker.• Offered services on occasion at funerals.• He provided other undertakers with
necessary supplies and paraphernalia.• His appearance tool place concurrently with
the small combination operator. (cabinet maker, carpenter, sexton & liveryman who only did funerals as a sideline).
The Furnishings Undertaker
• The small combination operator was not likely to have all the necessary supplies and paraphernalia on hand.
• Where do you think we get our supplies today?
The Furnishings Undertaker
• Suppliers– Product mix– Service– Technical support– Product effectiveness– Pricing– Incentives
The Furnishings Undertaker
• The Furnishing Undertaker served to encourage more people to enter the field…..Why do you think this happened?
• Newcomers to the industry would not have to lay initial capital for the merchandise and equipment required to start the business.
The Furnishings Undertaker
• Not only was the field opened wider to new practitioners, but
personal service, unhampered by obligations to craft or trade could
become a central preoccupation of the Undertaker.
• What value does personal service have with the Modern Funeral Directors?
The Furnishing Undertaker• Personal service became important during the
colonial period.
• Because of increasing distances to the graveside, rental of carriages and buggies became more common.
• Foot processions became very rare.
• By the first quarter of the 19th century, the use of carriages and horse drawn hearses began to spread.
The Furnishing Undertaker• Horse drawn hearses…
The Furnishing Undertaker• Following several decades certain phases
in the advertisements became standardized, especially “will attend personally and take proper measure that a decent order be preserved. Pg. 236
Something to think about:
The Furnishing UndertakerGARDNER T. SWARTZ
Livery Stable Keeper, Undertaker
Tomb Proprietor and Dealer in ready-made coffins, of all kinds and at all
prices, near the corner of
Pine and Dorrance – Street
Providence
The Furnishing UndertakerZ. Cotton & Sons
• Now, if Andrew Oakes could take care of lost children as well as dead bodies, so could Z. Cotton “undertake,” pull teeth, and frame pictures. Pg. 146
Earlier Performers of Personal Service
• 1. Friends and neighbors were the first to
come to the aid of the bereaved.
• 2. Nurses and mid-wives.– Nurses and midwives practiced healing arts
outside of particular families and cared for the sick in the small communities and in the case of death they extended their personal service to include “laying out of the dead.”
Earlier Performers of Personal Service
• 3. By the end of the 18th century the “Layers our of the Dead” was a specific category of advertising.
• Although the mid-wife often shared with the nurse many of the tasks involved in burials, by the end of the 18th century, laying out of the dead in larger cities had become a specialty in its own right.
Pg. 147 figure 5 & 6
Earlier Performers of Personal Service
• Despite their early appearance in the emerging occupation of undertaking, women became less conspicuous in such endeavors as the 19th century got well underway
Why do you think women started to become less likely to go into the profession?
Do you think they have a foothold in the industry today?
Religious FunctionariesRole of the Church Sexton• Churchyard and church cemetery burial,
though not universal, continued until the 19th century to be the major mode of sepulture in America as well as England.
• Like wise the church caretaker, or sexton has always been associated with churchyard burial and the care of the cemetery.
Religious FunctionariesRole of the Church Sexton• At the beginning of the 19th century to the
conventional “tolling of the bell” and “digging of the grave” and such new undertaking tasks as laying out the body, being “in attendance,” directing the procession, and, later, furnishing undertakers with merchandise and paraphernalia of funerals were taken over by the sextons.
Religious FunctionariesRole of the Church Sexton• Samuel Winslow-
– Was first listed as a housewright 1796.– Listed as housewright and sexton in 1807.– Listed as sexton in 1818.– Listed as sexton and undertaker in 1834.– In 1843 still as an undertaker, although the
general registry indicates he had not given up sexton’s work altogether.
Religious FunctionariesRole of the Church Sexton• Reverend Stephen Merritt-
– Began his undertaking in 1846.
– He was also a cartman, assistant captain of the watch, lighter of the oil lamps, assistant foreman of Mazsppa Engine Co., an assessor, and spent his evenings at the Episcopal Methodist Church as sexton.
Undertaking was still found as a sideline or specialty along with many other tasks.
Why would they need to do so many
other things?
Religious FunctionariesRole of the Church Sexton
• The sextons also controlled the permits to the cemetery.
• This monopoly on burial to bury in churchyards and church cemeteries had its advantages, this is why there was such a rapid expansion in their numbers in the first half of the 19th Century.
Municipal Officers Role• They invited people to funerals.
• The town undertaker was often a municipal officer.
• Often the town undertaker would be the town health official or the city registrar which was the person who approved funeral charges.– Hollis Chaffin in Rhode Island was one of the town’s
official undertakers and surprisingly ran the old peoples’ asylum (nursing home), and kept the city pound.
Municipal Officers Role• By the nature of his work the undertaker
traditionally has been expected to have the technical skills and knowledge qualifying him for the role of coroner.
• This specialty has remained in close affinity to the undertakers work for more than a century.
What is the difference between the coroner and Medical Examiner?
Undertaking Review• 1. The Woodworker-
– In earliest colonial times made a coffin upon demand, as society and economic opportunity expanded about him, he found that it made economic sense to turn part of his shop into a warehouse of coffin warehouse.
Undertaking Review• 2. The Sexton-
– Found that in addition to tolling the bell and digging or supervising the digging of the grave, he could direct the funeral arrangements and provide materials and equipment which were more and more in general demand.
Undertaking Review• 3. The Proprietor of Hacks & Coaches-
– Found that funerals, in a land were distance was no object, often involved rather extended journeys and the order of the funeral procession could not simply be left to chance or individual discretion. Thus it was a short step from furnishing a hearse or coach for funeral use to the furnishing of other funeral paraphernalia and to assuming a processional directing function
Undertaking Review• 4. The Midwife & Nurses-
– Found that extending her function to include placing the body in a coffin, conducting the funeral ceremonies, organizing the procession and leading the rites found little justification in a male-dominated society.
– There was only small precedent for female services or trade functions, although female undertakers were no novelty in England.
Specific undertaking procedures before 1859
• Undertaking had taken on characteristics of a service occupation with a set of tasks and functions organized into a pattern of behavior toward the dead that basically included:
• 1. Laying out the body
• 2. Casket or Coffining the body
• 3. Transport the body to the grave
Specific undertaking procedures before 1859
• The role of the clergy was important as well.
• 1. Supplied the funeral sacred ritual.
• 2. Gave spiritual comfort to bereaved.
Specific undertaking procedures before 1859
• The 1st half of the 19th Century is therefore crucially important in the evolution of the
modern funeral director, because this period witnessed all the basic undertaking
functions being gathered and organized under a conventionally recognized name,
the “Funeral Undertaker,” or more commonly , the “Undertaker.”
Something else to think about:
