History
Ortonville
The 1899 Plat Book of Big Stone County traces funeral service back to the early settlers. The Plat Book lists “Undertaking a Specialty” for Ross & Benson of Clinton and H.L. Zwiener of Odessa. Directly south of Odessa Lived Leopold Brueche, a farmer and excellent cabinetmaker, who made caskets for the early settlers. He made them of butternut and pine, polished the butternut and painted the pine black, and finished them with silver handles. He glued the wood together. Mrs. Brueche lined and cushioned the caskets.
The origins of Larson Funeral Home providing funeral service to the community of Ortonville, and surrounding area, can be traced back to 1889, and the Schoen Funeral Home, which was established by Nels Schoen, operator of the Schoen Furniture Store.
The old records indicated that the first casket was sold in Ortonville in 1884 for $15. Nels Schoen opened a furniture store with a small stock of furniture in 1883. In 1896, he took his son Martin as a partner and changed the name to N. Schoen & Son Company. They built a three-story brick building in 1909 at the corner of Second Street and Monroe Avenue and advertised the third largest store in the state, with a mortuary as part of the business. Martin sold out the furniture in November 1918, and M.M. Johnson located in the building. After fire destroyed the building on January 19, 1922, Martin rebuilt on the same lot.
Schoen-Swenson went into business in February 1922, when Dr. E.N. Schoen and S.J. Swenson put in a small stock of furniture in Dr. Schoen’s veterinary clinic until the brick building was ready. After S.J. Swenson’s death in 1937, E.N. Schoen became proprietor of Schoen’s Furniture Store and mortuary. L.H. Thompson, mortician, bought an interest in the business after Dr. Schoen’s death on December 5, 1944.
The building on the corner of Washington and Second Street was purchased and remodeled into a mortuary, with an apartment remaining on the second floor. The new funeral home opened in 1946. Lieutenant Commander Warren E. Schoen returned from the navy and assumed an interest in the business. In the late 1950’s, Warren Schoen, Lilly Schoen (Warren’s mother) , and L.H. Thompson formed Schoen’s, Inc.
Robert Ekelund and L.H. Thompson purchased the equity of Schoen’s, Inc., on February 1, 1960, and were partners until the fall of 1962, when Ekelund became the sole owner of Schoen-Ekelund, furniture and mortuary. Ekelund continued for some time as the funeral director and owner of the furniture store building and then sold the building and funeral home business to Paul Larson in July of 1977.
The present funeral home building has been in operation since 1946. In 1993, renovations of the interior and exterior of the building were completed.
In 1986, Mr. Larson partnered with the Vertin Family, while remaining as the funeral director. Tom Vertin, a third generation funeral director, operates funeral homes from his hometown of Breckenridge, Minnesota. This cooperative venture was aimed at lightening Paul’s load as well as providing Larson Funeral Home with additional tools to continue serving the area communities well into the future.
While working together, the staff at Larson Funeral Home has continued the caring, professional service that you and your family have come to expect…a caring tradition they are proud to continue.
Graceville and Browns Valley
Thomas (1878-1952) and Eugene (1885-1946) Beaulieu became morticians and opened a combined Hardware, Furniture, and Funeral Home in Graceville in 1902. They built a new brick building in 1916.
Yaeger-Preston Mortuary, which for many years was located on Browns Valley’s main street, about in the location of the Hardware Hank Store today. When they decided to close, Mr. Thomas Beaulieu (1878-1946) and his nephew, Eugene Beaulieu (1885-1946), became morticians and opened a combined hardware, Furniture, and Funeral Home in Graceville in 1902. They built a new brick building in 1916.
The Beaulieu Family later began a funeral home in a house where the Community Clinic is now located. Years later they purchased the Guerts house where the present funeral home is. In 1930, Eugene and his wife Marie moved to Browns Valley to operate the funeral home. After Thomas Beaulieu’s son, Thomas, completed his education at the University of Minnesota, he joined his father and uncle and together they operated both the Graceville and Browns Valley Funeral Homes. Tom and his wife Fran eventually acquired both funeral homes and continued the operation until October 1, 1980, when Paul Larson purchased the Beaulieu Funeral Homes and did extensive remodeling in both. In 1986 Mr. Larson sold the funeral homes to the Vertin Family, along with the Ortonville location. A new funeral home facility was opened in Browns Valley in the summer of 2004.
Clinton
Furniture and hardware stores seemed a natural place for undertakers. Ross and Benson of Clinton advertised in 1899 that they specialized in undertaking. Ross continued the mortuary in the hardware store until Carlton and Anne Moberg purchased the funeral business from them in 1953. Paul Larson later purchased the funeral home and operated it until partnering with the Vertin Family in 1986.
Much of this information was written in 1981 and was provided by the Big Stone County Historical Society, Ortonville, MN. |
