From Prairies to Plazas–From Meadows to Malls

by Ruby Emma (Blohm) Neal

Funerals

“Funerals were held in the home. People didn’t go to funerals as they do now. The undertaker would take the body to his rooms and take care of it, then bring it back to the home.

“If there was a downstairs bedroom the casket was put in there. A shroud was bought for the body; they did not put one of her dresses on as they do now. A large rosette (black) with long streamers was put in the front door so folks would know there had been a death there. (Also for peddlers.) Then it was the custom for two people to sit up all night in the home where there was a corpse.

“Living close to town and having a nice matched team of horses, Kenneth was often called upon to drive them on the horse-drawn hearse. In winter when the roads were blocked with snow, sometimes the casket was taken to the cemetery on a bobsled.”

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Oh, for a good photo of Grandpa Kenneth and his nice matched team of horses. And one of the hearse. All I could find seemed too fancy for a town of fewer than 900 souls. I couldn’t find one of a casket on a bobsled, but there is a photo of an old-style bobsled in this post.

These are the only photos of Kenneth Neal with a team of horses. The ones with the flynets are workhorses, ready to pull a scythe.

But I am thankful for Grandma Ruby’s remembrances of how small-town folks took care of loved ones when they died. I took flowers to the Dexter Cemetery for decades. So many of Dad’s relatives are buried there, including Kenneth and Ruby Neal, as we will be when the time comes. My story of about the Dexter Cemetery.