A little Chariton funeral home chronology ....

This vintage image, taken as it turns out 1929-31, has caused some confusion over the years about the chronologies of two grand old Chariton houses converted into funeral homes --- The Dr. John and Gertrude Stanton house on East Court Avenue, now a private home again after housing both Downs and Mosher funeral homes, and the Frank and Minnie Crocker home on South Grand, home first to Beardsley, then Beardsley-Fielding and now Fielding Funeral Home.

The question has been, why is a "Downs Funeral Home" sign hanging above the entrance to what obviously is an early version of Beardsley Funeral Home?

The Crocker house, in its earliest incarnation, was built during 1888 for Frank and Minnie Crocker (he, a Chariton banker) to a Queen Anne revival design by Minneapolis architect Edward Stebbins, Frank's brother-in-law. About 1900, the Crockers enlarged the house and added colonial revival porches. Then Frank, cashier of First National Bank, bankrupted the firm and killed himself on Oct. 31, 1907.

For the next three years, ownership of the house was in limbo. Minnie Crocker moved to Minneapolis, where she buried her husband. The receiver of the failed First National Bank claimed the house as an asset but Mrs. Crocker claimed it as part of the share of her husband's estate that she was entitled to. Finally, in 1910, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the house belonged to Mrs. Crocker.

Minnie Crocker moved immediately to sell the house and  during late October of 1910 it was purchased by Horace Greeley and Willie (Hollinger) Larimer, he a partner in the Hollinger & Larimer retail firm, she, the boss's daughter. The Larimers occupied the house for 18 years, but Horace died at age 52 on Feb. 26, 1928, and his widow soon thereafter decided to move to smaller quarters.

In the meantime, Ralph Downs (1883-1976), member of an Albia undertaking family, decided to establish himself in Chariton. This was a sound business move, but another motivating factor may have been the unpleasantness of his recent divorce and remarriage to Fern Leedom, at age 18 some 26 years his junior. So Ralph and his father leased the Crocker house from Willie Larimer and opened for business there --- hence the sign in the photo above.

The Chariton Leader of Nov. 19, 1929, reported that "Not long since Ed S. Downs & Son secured the large building on South Grand Street, former residence of the late H.G. Larimer family, and fitted it up for a funeral home, it being roomy and so arranged that it is well adapted to that purpose. The first story has larger rooms, and these are convenient for an establishment of this character, waiting rooms, chapel, storage, work room, etc. the house throughout is well furnished and elaborately arranged and most convenient. The stock is varied, large, and there is everything in the line of undertaking to select from, when fate decrees the necessity of choosing therefrom."

The established undertakers in Chariton at the time were Sam and Edith Beardsley, whose funeral home was located at 527 North Grand Street, in the northwest corner of the block now occupied entirely by Chariton High School, Johnson Auditorium and the Chariton Community Center.

The Beardsleys were looking for opportunities to expand and during February of 1931 purchased the home then occupied by the Downs Funeral Home from Willie Hollinger, in effect pulling the rug out from under Ralph and Fern and leaving them funeral homeless. The Beardsleys were to take possession on April 1. 

The Leader of March 3 reported that "Ralph Downs, of the Downs Funeral Home, stated today that no location had been definitely decided upon for the future of his institution. 'We shall continue in Chariton with the same type of service we have rendered in this community in our new location, no matter where that location shall be.' Numerous locations are now under consideration by Mr. Downs and a definite decision will probably be made within a few days."

The new location turned out to be a larger two-story home, still standing, at 604 North 7th Street. 

Once the Beardsleys took possession, they launched an extensive program of expansion and renovation that would turn the old Crocker house into what probably was the finest funeral home in the south of Iowa at the time --- complete with air conditioning. They opened for business at the South Grand location the following November.

Meanwhile, the new Downs Funeral Home location on North 7th had proved to be too small and Ralph began the search for a new location, deciding upon the Dr. John and Gertrude Stanton home on East Court Avenue, only a block and a half east of the square. The Downs opened at their new location during October of 1932.

This had been the Stanton home at the time of Dr. Stanton's unexpected death, age 60, during 1922, and also informal headquarters for the Chariton Cemetery, then owned by Dr. Stanton. His widow, Gertrude, continued to live in the home until late fall, 1929, when she sold a majority of her household belongings and moved to Chicago, where two of her daughters lived.

At the time of Dr. Stanton's death, he was engaged in a wrangle with the city of Chariton, dissatisfied with the state of the cemetery under his ownership. Two years after his death, during May of 1924, his widow and daughters agreed to sell the cemetery to the city for $10,000.

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Sam Beardsley had only a few years to enjoy his new funeral home --- he died of a heart attack on April 25, 1935, at the age of 54. Edith carried on, however, and was operating the funeral home in partnership with Keith and Mary Fielding at the time of her own death during 1958 as the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

Ralph Downs had the satisfaction of outliving nearly everyone --- he was 92 when he died during 1976 and Iowa's oldest licensed embalmer. Fern died the following year after selling the somewhat dilapidated funeral home to Merrill E. Mosher.