Early American Funeral Undertaking- Test 2

Question 1

Funeral directing, as a specific occupation, sprang forth after the Civil War (1865). Prior to the Civil War the term “funeral undertaking” encompassed other tradesman and their efforts, more of less, as a sideline performing funeral service tasks. (Tradesman undertakers working part time).

Answer 1

Limitations of the Term “Funeral Directing”

Question 2

• A specific set of tasks for the care and disposal of the dead.
• As a business enterprise taking on professionalism by offering personal specialized service.

Answer 2

Funeral Directing Concepts

Question 3

Only on a small scale was the British style of this seen in colonial America and only in large population centers. Most came from the British upholsterer’s trade.

Answer 3

Tradesman Undertaker

Question 4

1. Cabinet Maker
2. The Protestant church sexton
3. Liveryman Trade

Answer 4

Introduction of Many Craftsmen into the Field of Undertaking in Colonial America (Prior to the Civil War as a Sideline)

Question 5

Upholsterer’s trade, coffin making.

Answer 5

Cabinet Maker

Question 6

Directing the burial, record keeping.

Answer 6

The Protestant Church Sexton

Question 7

Renters of hacks and carriages.

Answer 7

Liveryman Trade

Question 8

Increased as cities grew and material resources of townspeople increased. All of America’s old established funeral services evolved from the cabinet maker, the protestant church sexton, and the liveryman trade.

Answer 8

The Importance of Tradesmen

Question 9

The basic undertaking functions in colonial America and later on the developing frontier, from 1700-1860, were accomplished by:

Answer 9

Neighbors, Relatives, Clergy, Craftsmen, Doctors, Nurses, or the Family

Question 10

Earlier performers of the personal service that indirectly involved funeral services, often as a sideline betwen 1700 to 1820 were:

Answer 10

Nurses and Midwives- “Layers out of the Dead”

Question 11

The role of this person in early American Funeralization was most significant. As an extension of their role as nurses and midwives, they would wash, dress, and place the deceased in sate mostly on a slumber couch, bed, or if available at the time of death, a coffin (very often it took 2 to 3 days for a coffin to arrive).

Answer 11

Female

Question 12

Like a chaise lounge, only one end raises.

Answer 12

Slumber Couch

Question 13

This person was also using a rental slumber couch.

Answer 13

Tradesman Undertaker

Question 14

Tolling of the bell and digging graves was extended to include directing funeral processions, laying out of the body, being in attendence to families, furnishing merchandise, and paraphernalia, and record keeping.

Answer 14

Religious Functionaries in Funeral Service Specifically the Role of the Portestant Church Sexton

Question 15

• He would take charge of other undertakers’ funerals once inside the cemetery.
• He controlled cemetery and church policy as they related to rules, regulations, fees, statements or birth and death, scheduling funeral times, etc.

Answer 15

Sexton-Undertaker was the Most Powerful of the Three Trades to Enter Funeral Service as a Sideline in the Early 19th Century

Question 16

An independent Patterson, New Jersey Undertaker, in 1950 won his court case against the sectons’ monopoly in his area.

Answer 16

William Ensign

Question 17

• “Inviter to Funerals”
• Town Undertaker

Answer 17

Municipal Officers

Question 18

A licensed position in the colonies and common between 1650-1700. This licensed individual was paid by local government to be sure all were properly buried. He was the forerunner of the coroner.

Answer 18

Inviter to Funerals

Question 19

Developed between 1750 and 1800 and became entrenched in municipal government by the Ware of 1812. It was a definite advantage for this person to hold a public office in the health field as a coronor prior to the Civil War. Conflict of interest had really not been established in law as yet.

Answer 19

Town Undertaker

Question 20

A cabinet maker-undertaker from Baltimore, MD. Was appointed coroner in 1799.

Answer 20

Michael Jenkins

Question 21

By this war, 1861 to 1865, we find that undertaking had taken on the characteristics of a service occupation with a specific set of tasks and functions organized into a pattern of behavior toward the dead.

Answer 21

The Civil War

Question 22

• Placing the deceased in state; some embalming but mostly ice trays.
• Coffining
• Transporting the body to the grave.
• Furnishing paraphernalia of mourning clothing, emblems, etc. (sold or rented).
• Some paperwork filed. Not at the health department, but with sextons at local churches.

Answer 22

Specific Undertaking Procedure From Death to Burial

Question 23

Appears just prior to the Civil War (1840’s to 1850’s) as a wholesaler who supplied coffins and other funeral paraphanalia to the emerging undertaker who no longer had the time to devote to making his own goods (Becomes very powerful- origin of Funeral Supplier and Manufacturer).

Answer 23

The Furnishing Undertaker

Question 24

The furnishing undertaker encouraged others to enter the funeral service who were not these. He would be a silent backer for others to enter into Funeral Directing if all materials were purchased from him. (Until the Sherman Antitrust act 1890’s).

Answer 24

Cabinet Makers, Sextons, or livery Men.

Question 25

The cabinet maker still held this because he could cut out the middleman, namely the furnishing undertaker, prior to the civil war.

Answer 25

Economic Advantage

Question 26

The furnishing undertaker encouraged professionalism in funeral service by encouraging undertakers to devote full time personal service to bereaved families, freeing them from obligations to craft or trade.

Answer 26

After the Civil War (1865)

Question 27

The cabinet maker could no longer compete against the furnishing undertaker who by now developed mass production manufacturing techniques for all kinds of coffins.

Answer 27

After the Civil War, and by 1900

Question 28

1. Prior to 1840: Traditional wooden coffin handcrafted in a cabinet shop.
2. 1840 to 1870: Mass produced metallic Fish mummy case.
3. 1870 to 1900: Cloth covered wood and metal coffins mass produced by furnishing undertakers.

Answer 28

19th Century American Burial Receptacies Used