A Little Funeral Home History

My husband, Jess Barton "Bart", is the fourth generation mortician in his family. His father, Jess, of course, is the third generation. Jess and Bart's mother, Lauranell, have some intriguing old photos from the family business. The photos are included below with a history complied from an interview with Jess.

In 1897, my husband's great-grandfather, J. E. Stewart, began a furniture-hardware-undertaking business on the main floor of The Columbian Theater building.

In case it doesn't show clearly, the words Hardware and Furniture appear on either side of J. E. Stewart and Sons sign. An Undertaking sign hangs below.


It may sound like a strange business combination, but it made sense for the times. Furniture makers often also made caskets and they needed hardware to finish the job. J. E. sold solid walnut furniture made by the Abernathy Co. of Kansas City, and he employed a local finish carpenter to build caskets.

When a person died, J. E. would go to the family's home to prepare the body for viewing. As was common for undertaking, the family kitchen was the hub of his work. The family then went into the store to select a design for the casket and plan the services. Funeral services took place in the home or the family's church. Jess remembers moving many chairs and floor lamps into homes when he was a boy.

Pictured above is the black team of horses with the funeral hearse. J. E. also owned a white team and the family chose which horses would transport their loved one.

In 1918, J. E. bought this hearse, which was the first motorized hearse in Kansas.

A wealthy businessman named Louis Leach lived in our town for many years. In the 1880s, he built the Leach Opera house.

He also built this beautiful home across the street. The two buildings were connected by an underground tunnel. The actors and musicians would stay at the Leach home and all would travel to the Opera House via the tunnel. Within the basement of the Opera House were Turkish steam baths and the tunnel made using the baths and returning to the home during the winter comfortable and private.

By 1918, Mr. Leach had been living with his children in California for a number of years. He wrote a letter to the city council wishing to sell the opera house to the city for $2000. He did not want to be paid but rather have the city donate the money to various local charitable organizations. The city turned him down. J. E. wrote to Mr. Leach and accepted his offer.

So the Stewart Funeral Home opened in the old Leach Opera House building. Now, the option of having J. E. come pick up the person who had died and make preparations at the funeral home was available. Many families chose this option right away and over time all did.

Because the vehicles used by funeral homes were often large and able to hold a cot, many funeral homes also ran the ambulance service. The Stewart Funeral home did as well from the early 1930s into the 1960s. The family charged $5 a call for many years. This was not a profitable amount, but Jess's father, Harold Stewart, viewed this as a service to the community.



Bart's grandparents, Harold and Ruth, lived in this sweet house next door to the Leach Opera House. It even has an "S" for sweet on the chimney. Ok, I know it was really for Stewart.

In 1998, Bart joined the family business and the current location was completed in the same year. The current location was designed by Jess and Jess, Lauranell, Bart and I worked together to make the construction and decorating decisions. The new location offers much more parking and is on one level to make it handicapped accessible. The design is more open and added a family hospitality area. So the fourth generation of the Stewart family continues to provide funeral service needs to the families of the community.

Those Adorable Boys

I came across the third picture in this group the other day and it prompted me to find the other two. All three pictures were taken when the boys were between 12 and 18 months. What a wonderful age!





They were intensely curious, happy-go-lucky and thrilled with making LOUD noises.

They would greet their dad or me as though we had been gone for days when it had only been a half an hour. Their favorite place when they were tired or not feeling well was cuddled up in my lap.

When Spencer was not much older than in this picture, a neighbor said to me with tears in her eyes, "God invented the teenage years so you will be able to let them go when the time comes". I smile at that now, 'cause I get it. That's the bittersweet part of being a parent. You have to let them grow up.

Honey, I Shrunk the Carrots

These teeny-weeny carrots were planted more than a month ago. Maybe, just maybe, this is normal growth, but I suspect our clay soil is stunting them a bit! Those are potato plants towering over them. We replaced the unbelieveably compacted clay soil in this location with "garden grade"...whatever that is. Our neighbors called us "cheaters" although their corn only grew to 2 feet last year!

I'm not heartbroken over the carrots as they have these itsy, bitsy leeks and some peewee green onions to keep them company. Does anyone have a magnifying glass?

I've been reading up on improving clay soil. One recommendation is to mix in 4 inches of organic matter each year and another recommends adding sand with frequent cultivation. Follow these measures and they say you will see improvement in 3 to 4 years. What??? Gasp, choke, spit...I'm NOT that patient! I'm gonna need to stick to cheating...clearly I'll still need to augment the soil as even the cheating soil contains some clay, but I'm ok with that.

The tomatoes seem to be doing fine. I've wrestled them into some cages and am hoping to keep 'em tame.

The corn looks swell and will certainly be "knee high by the 4th of July".

These green bean plants also look great! We're still eating lettuce and spinach...yummo! Next may be some tomatoes!

Garden Tour - Including A Classic Barn or Two

The nearby city of approximately 50,000, at least they are hopefully awaiting the official count, which has something to do with receiving more federal money, had a garden tour on Sunday. To my deep delight my husband agreed to go with me. He's the one who digs the holes for the new trees and shrubs, and builds fences, so we need to get him inspired!


We both fell in love with the setting of the second garden we visited. It's outside of town on a few acres. Both the husband and wife have horticultural degrees, so we arrived with a feeling of "not possible" for us and left inspired.

This is their organic vegetable garden. Ours is a teeny, tiny version of this one.

I simply must conquer my fear of growing roses! Any advice?

This is the view of the side yard garden standing on the steps of the very cool, rustic barn. The barn has an area that has been converted to a gathering space.

The next house was built in 2001 by the owners of a nursery. Most features would be next to impossible without a similar business ownership, but a few things caught our eye.

This patio with pergola could be the setting for frequent evening gatherings. The wisteria was my favorite feature! It's baby wisteria at this point, but image what it will look like more fully grown on the trellis.

The last house catches your admiration from the road.

The native, stone house was built in 1901 and many of the trees must have been planted at this time. A cottonwood tree in the backyard has a trunk more than 4' in diameter! Those are oaks towering over the house in the picture.

Just look at the treasure we found out back.



Alice, the tractor, needs a home just like that. Horses, please. How do you build a 100 year old barn?

The Heart of Our Nation - Part II

You may have thought I had forgotten about the Part I thing... y'know, usually followed by Part II and maybe Part III.

Here's part II.

This sexy guy was located in one of our favorite museums.

The Museum of Natural History

We loved this museum so much we returned for a second day. On the first day, we learned about prehistoric creatures of the lands and the deep waters.

The kids were clearly rivoted by our ongoing commentary on the points of interest.

Our second day at the museum found us checking out the dioramas, taxidermied animals and other exhibits more closely.

It's easy to poise, smile and be carefree in front of the stuffed grizzly bear...operative word "stuffed".

Close your eyes and think savana.





We saw a sign for the Hope Diamond and Bart and I gasped and said, "We have to go see the Hope Diamond"! We arrived in the room with the security guards and the long line. We patiently waited and finally reached the carefully lit case with the prize. Dane looked in and said matter-of-factly, "I thought it'd be bigger. A lot bigger."


For those of you who saw the movie, "Night at the Museum", you will probably get this right away. For the rest, in New York's Museum of Natural History, the exhibits come to life at night to the utter surprise of the new security guard. Whenever he passes a statue similar to this, the statue says, "I want gum gum, dumb dumb". I don't know how we convinced Dane to take this picture, but Bart and I laughed hysterically, not that he's dumb dumb, of course. Anyway, oh lord, please tell me my children will not be as corny as their parents.

Play Ball

If it wasn't for that "country van" (ours), you might think this was a family-friendly used car lot! Nope, it's the parking lot at the new Sports Complex. Completed this spring, the complex includes four ball diamonds, a generous smattering of tennis courts, a couple of soccer fields, an already heavily-traveled walking trail and vast amounts of mini-van/suv parking.

The ball diamonds are a bit imposing. Can you see what appears to be tiny kids out there? They are actually 11 and 12 year old boys. From the grassy knoll, you can view four games at once by slowly turning. It's really cool!



Dane took a moment before the game to get in the zone and it worked well for him. He struck out six kids in three innings and only allowed one run! Overall? They lost 10-9, darn it! Not to worry, we'll be back ready for more baseball on Monday evening.

On the Grill

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we had the pleasure of grilling out with friends one night, grilling out with my husband's sister and her spouse the next night and being invited to dinner at my in-laws the next night. We know how to eat around here! We enjoyed the three evenings very much.

I did not take pictures out of respect for the privacy of those close to me...it was a momentary lapse, I must not have been feeling well.




I did capture this precious moment between my husband's father and his great-granddaughter.

She found his hearing aid, examined it and asked many questions. She then looked at him very seriously and said, "You have another one of those". She turned his head and looked in his other ear and a triumphant smile broke out across her face.