It was August 1871, and the members of the Oswego ladies Association were one happy bunch. After years of fundraising, they’d finally reached their goal.
The women had started out joining together during the Civil War to send off a variety of items, ranging from blankets to socks and gloves to Oswego solders serving in the military. They’d modified their goals after the war to raise funds to benefit the entire community. And now they were ready to celebrate their purchase for the community of its very first…hearse.
As Kendall County Record Oswego Correspondent Lorenzo Rank reported in the paper’s Aug. 31, 1871 edition: “A few more days and death will be no longer any terror; the new hearse is ready for delivery. The ladies who brought about this achievement of a free hearse through raising of moneys in fairs, socials, etc. now wish to finish their labors and enjoy the fruits of it. The greatest harmony and goodwill was maintained during the endeavor and their several years of joint labor, and it is now hoped that no jealously will spring up between them, and that the honor of its first usage may not create any envy among them.”
By 1871, the community’s undertaker was Charles Shaver. Like his predecessors, Shaver owned the village’s furniture store where he not only sold, but also made furniture. And among the things he made were coffins. Across the U.S. of that era, especially in small towns it was taken for granted that the local furniture store owner also doubled as the community’s undertaker.
Furniture store owner and carpenter Thomas Greenfield was apparently Oswego’s first undertaker, operating the business in conjunction with his furniture store.
According to the Rev. E.W. Hicks’ 1877 history of Kendall County, Greenfield arrived in Oswego in 1842. In the 1850 U.S. Census, his occupation was listed as “carpenter.”
After the devastating Oswego fire of February, 1867 that destroyed all the businesses on the east side of Main Street between Washington and Jackson streets, Greenfield was one of the Oswego business owners who combined to build the new brick Union Block.
In a collection of framed Oswego business information and memorabilia in the collections of Oswego’s Little White School Museum, undated but probably dating to the late 860s, Greenfield advertises himself as “Thos Greenfield, dealer in Furniture. Special attention given to Undertaking.” His advertisement in the frame includes various metal furniture parts such as hinges, along with two different handles that look identical to the ornate handles illustrated on caskets of the era.
In April 1874, Greenfield traded his Oswego building, along with his furniture and undertaking business, to Charles F. Shaver in exchange for Shaver’s farm in Specie Grove along modern Minkler Road southeast of Oswego.
Shaver had moved into Oswego from his farm in November 1871, the Kendall County Record’s Oswego correspondent reporting on Nov. 23, 1871: “Mr. H.A. Barclay has sold his residence on Madison street to Charles F. Shaver.”
Shaver continued to operate his very successful furniture store in conjunction with his undertaking business, becoming well known for both. On July 27, 1887 the Record’s Oswego correspondent reported: “Perhaps there are some now that would like to have their funerals take place right away so as to get first use of the magnificent new hearse received by C.A. Shaver the other day. It is a beauty, by it the terrors of death are made all to disappear.”
Then in July 1888, the Eastman family moved to Oswego from Yorkville, Mr. Eastman joining Shaver in the furniture and undertaking business. As the Record reported March 6, 1889: “Shaver and Eastman rendered the undertaker’s services at the funeral of John Carroll, near Plattville, Sunday. The body was taken to Aurora for burial in a Catholic cemetery.”
And on May 1, 1889 the Record reported: “The funeral of Dr. C. Weirich took place Sunday afternoon from the house, conducted by Shaver & Eastman.”
By October 1890, Eastman had left the business. Then in April 1894, Shaver apparently sold the furniture and undertaking business to his son-in-law, Dr. William T. Putt. It’s possible Shaver’s business went broke like so many other businesses due to the financial Panic of 1893 a severe economic depression that resulted in the failure of every bank in Kendall County. Along with Shaver’s business, Putt also took over Levi Hall’s drug store, which he soon after sold to Scott Cutter.
Putt originally partnered with John Huff to form a company with one of my all-time favorite Oswego business names: Putt & Huff Undertakers, the Record reporting on April 11, 1894: “’Putt and Huff’ makes a nice looking and nice sounding name for a firm, which is the newly established firm here for undertaking. They very efficiently carried out their first service in conducting the funeral of Mrs. Rieger.”
Putt & Huff didn’t last long in the partnership business, however. The very next year, George M. Croushorn partnered with Putt, Huff apparently having left the business. The Record reported on Oct. 25, 1895: “Putt & Croushorn is now the title of the proprietorship of the furniture store and undertaking business. G.M. Croushorn bought a half interest in them.”
When Charles Knapp built his new two-storefront brick building on the west side of Main in the middle of the block between Washington and Jackson streets, Croushorn moved the business there. The business was in the modern Masonic Hall, 71 Main Street.
Besides running his downtown furniture and undertaking business, Croushorn was also a rural mail carrier, the May 29, 1907 Record explaining: “George Croushorn, the Oswego undertaker, furniture man, and rural mail carrier, was raised to the master Mason’s degree last week by Raven [Masonic] Lodge.”
By 1931, Croushorn was looking to get out of the furniture business and concentrate on the undertaking business. Along with a partner, he did it, the April 1, 1931 Record reporting from Oswego that: “George M. Croushorn and his son-in-law, J. B. Thorsen, recently opened a new funeral home in the Oliver Hebert homestead, one of Oswego’s landmarks built in 1852. They have as fine a commodious and thoroughly modern a funeral home as can be found anywhere in the country. The entire first floor is given over to service rooms and another floor to the display of funeral merchandise of all kinds. There will be a formal opening of the home on Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12, when the public may come and inspect the home.”
The firm’s grand opening was a grand success, with the April 15, 1931 Record reporting: “Between three and four hundred people attended the opening of the Croushorn & Thorsen funeral home April 11-12. Mr. MacCorsin of Evanston, a traveling salesman for the National Casket company, said this funeral home would do credit to a town of 10,000 population. The former Hebert house has been redecorated inside and out and presents a very neat and appropriate appearance. One front room is reserved for funeral services, one for an office, and in other rooms caskets are on display.”
Unfortunately, the elderly Croushorn didn’t live very long to enjoy the business’s new location. On July 12, 1933 the Record reported his death: “George M. Croushorn, age 79, one of the best-known men of Kendall County, died early Saturday morning, July 7, 1933. Mr. Croushorn had been in business in Oswego for more than thirty-five years, first conducting a furniture store and later an undertaking establishment, and a few years ago he converted the old Hebert stone residence into a funeral home with his son-in-law, Jake Thorsen of Leland conducted the Croushorn & Thorsen Funeral Home. Three children survive him: Mrs. Susie Roswell of Centralia, Wash., Mrs. Myrtle Thorsen of Leland, Ill, and J.R. Croushorn of Aurora; seven grandchildren, George and Mary Roswell, Virginia and Jack Thorsen, and Herbert, Warren, and Margaret Norris; two brothers, Albert of Yorkville and J.B. Croushorn of Aurora. Mrs. Croushorn died in October 1927 and a daughter, Mrs. Sadie Norris, died last March. The funeral was held from the Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Croushorn had long been an elder on July 10. Burial was in the Oswego cemetery.”
After this date, the business was known as the Thorsen Funeral Home, as the Record noted when it reported on March 27, 1935: “The Thorsen funeral home is now equipped with ambulance service.”
The ambulance arrived too late to assist in what was undoubtedly Thorsen’s most famous—or perhaps infamous—undertaking event. When the FBI finally located the badly decomposed body of John Dillinger Gang member John “Three-Fingered Jack” Hamilton in a shallow grave just north of Oswego in 1934, the Thorsen staff was tapped to process the body. Thorsen gave the job of preparing the decayed body for burial to trainee Ron Smith. Smith later said the smell and condition of Hamilton’s body persuaded him that he needed to consider a completely different career path.
J.B. Thorsen maintained ownership of the business until October, 1938. The Record reported from Oswego on Oct. 5, 1938: “The Thorsen Funeral Home has changed ownership. Mr. Thorsen of Oswego sold the business to Mr. McKeown of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. McKeown will live in the upstairs apartment of the establishment.”
The McKeowns continued to not only own the funeral home and mortuary business, but also continue operating the community ambulance service begun by Thorsen.
When World War II broke out in December 1941, the McKeowns didn’t know what the future might bring. Everett was definitely of draft age and the couple didn’t have any children at the time. They found out in June 1943 when Everett, along with Oswegoans Walter Smith, Bob Ritehour, and Les Weiss were drafted. Then the question was what to do with the business. Evelyn knew how to run the business, but she was not a licensed mortician.
But on June 16, 1943 the Record reported the McKeowns’ Yorkville friends had come to their aid: “Mrs. E.M. McKeown has reached the decision to carry on the funeral home during the absence of her husband, who leaves shortly to enter the Armed Services. The decision is one that will face more and more wives as the war goes on and Mrs. McKeown is to be congratulated for “keeping the house in order” while her husband is serving his country. A licensed embalmer and director has been secured and the business will go in with the usual high type of service as in the past.” That Yorkville friend was Leonard Larson of the Larson Funeral Home.
When the U.S. Army got Everett McKeown through basic training, they decided that with his background as a mortician, a good fit might be to train him as a medic. Which they did. And in April 1944, he shipped out for the European Theatre.
Then in July 1944, Evelyn received the alarming news that Everett had been wounded during the D-Day invasion, the Record reporting on July 5: “Mrs. McKeown has received a letter from her husband, Pfc Everett McKeown, in the medical Corps, in England, that he was wounded in the invasion of France, one leg fractured by a mortar shell, after he had landed to set up their company on the continent. He is now in England in a hospital.”
Little did she know, however, that Everett’s war was far from over. After being evacuated back to England, Everett recovered, and was sent back to the front—just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.
On Dec. 26, 1945 the Record reported that Everett was back home in Oswego after his eventful military service. As the newspaper recapped his service: “Everett McKeown, who before his honorable discharge, Dec. 18, was Sgt. McKeown, a combat medic, went into service in June 1943 and was overseas for 23 months, going from England into Normandy on D Day, was wounded in the invasion, was returned to England and hospitalized for six months, then to France again, joined the 1st Division and was in the Battle of the Bulge, being in Czechoslovakia when the war ended. He has four battle stars, an invasion arrowhead, a combat medic badge, and the purple heart. The people of Oswego and vicinity could well decorate Mrs. McKeown with a medal as she has continued the business of the McKeown funeral home with the assistance of a Yorkville funeral director, Leonard M. Larson, for the duration, including ambulance service. Mr. and Mrs. McKeown went to Stronghurst to be with his mother for Christmas.”
Like so many young soldiers discharged from their military service, Everett McKeown was ready to do more, both for his community and for his business. Three years after his discharge, the McKeowns decided to move their business down the street a couple blocks to more palatial quarters.
On Sept. 8, 1948 the Record noted that: “Mr. and Mrs. Everett McKeown have purchased the large residence on the corner of Madison and Tyler and expect to be located there by October 1. They will use the house as a residence and a funeral home. Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Saunders, who sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. McKeown, have moved to Warrenville.”
In a follow-up on Sept. 22, 1948 the Record reported: “Sept. 22: Mr. and Mrs. Everett McKeown and baby have moved into their new home on Madison street. Mr. McKeown’s mother, who has been here for several weeks, returned to her home in Stronghurst the first of the week.”
Along with running the ambulance business and funeral home, Everett McKeown was deeply involved with the Oswego Lions Club and as a member of the Oswego Volunteer Fire Department. He also served as the longtime treasurer of the Oswego School District. He was also, in 1956, appointed a member of the first Oswego Plan Commission and served as on the first Oswego Community Bank Board of Directors. In 1961 when the Oswego Grade School and Oswego High School districts merged into the Oswego Community Unit School District 308, Everett was elected to the board and appointed board treasurer. Meanwhile, Evelyn was a long-time fixture in the high school business office.
By the late 1960s, Everett and Evelyn McKeown were looking to wind down their busy civic and business careers in Oswego. The Feb. 22, 1968 Oswego Ledger reported that: Everett McKeown of the McKeown Funeral Home, Oswego, announced the addition of William F. Dunn to his firm. Bill is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Richard F. Dunn, Oswego. Dr. Dunn is the plant physician for Caterpillar Tractor Company. Bill attended Marmion Military Academy but graduated from Ottawa Township High School and from Worsham College of Mortuary Science. He also attended Bogan Junior College in Chicago, Aurora College, and the U.S. Armed Forces Institute. Bill moved to Oswego in December 1965 just prior to entering the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps, from which he was honorably discharged on Jan 18, 1968. A member of St. Anne’s Parish, Bill is a member of the Oswego Jaycees, a deputy coroner for Kendall County, and a licensed funeral director.”
In 1972 the McKeowns decided it was time to retire. Bill and his wife, Patricia Pearce Dunn, bought the business, including the funeral home on Madison Street. The firm’s name was changed to McKeown-Dunn in 1978, creating the current McKeown-Dunn Funeral Home. On May 3, 2010 the Dunns opened their new Dunn Family Funeral Home with Crematory at 1801 South Douglas Road in Oswego. The former Madison Street funeral home is no longer used for that purpose.
And just within the past couple years, Oswego gained a second funeral home for the first time in history when Bauman Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services moved into their quarters on U.S. Route 34 just west of the Oswego Bridge. It’s been a long and winding road from Oswego’s first furniture dealer, carpenter and part-time undertaker Tom Greenfield, to today’s professional morticians serving the Oswego community’s bereaved. But it’s also been an interesting one, involving a fascinating piece of the Oswego area’s history.
historyonthefox 