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 Adams Family News |
Est. 1856
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Page 6
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December 20, 2001
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Adams & Young |
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concentrate
more
heavily on the mortuary business, said Janie.
In
1922, John purchased a large private home on North Adams Street and
moved the funeral home there.
Spunky little Janie says she was the only Flint
daughter to assist her father in the business of preparing the dead
for
burial by arranging the deceased person's hair.
"I
remember the first time, I didn't close my eyes all night," she
said. "I had never touched a dead body before. In those days
the mortician just embalmed bodies, dressed them and arranged their
hair -- that was about it,"
After John's death in the early 1940's, the mortuary was run for a
couple of years by his son-in-law, Janie's husband, George Adams.
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located
in the building now occupied by Seney's Drug on South Main.
In
the early days of Johnson County, a mortician could not make a
living from the business, so it was customary' to have a second
business to supplement their income, according to Bill Adams.
“There would often be, maybe, only20 funerals a year," said
Bill. "Many times undertakers had a furniture business and a
funeral business.”
Adams says most everyone
who became a mortician during his grandfather's era developed their
skills the same way.
"From chemical salesmen," laughed Bill. "They
would travel from town to town selling formaldehyde and teaching
would-be morticians.
The salesmen made available textbooks to them. Then the state
put in a law requiring all embalmers to be licensed and take an
exam.”
Mr. Stocks bought theMurry
Hill Hotel across the Street from the Episcopal Church.
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This later be came the Stockman's Hotel, which was torn down
in the 1980s to make a parking lot for the Chevrolet Garage
The site now serves as a parking lot for the Scully Theater
complex.
Flint
became involved in a men's clothing business, under the name of "Gilbert, Erhart and Flint."
The firm existed from the fall of 1911 until1926,
when John sold out to his partners.
John
also decided to go into business with Mr. Stocks in 1911. The
partnership venture was a profitable one, and in less than a year
John again paid off his creditors, this time with money left over.
The
partnership with Stocks would prove to be the first of a chain of
business ventures eventually leading to the formation of John's
own
mortuary, the Flint Funeral Home in 1926.
"When
the Depression came along, father decided to
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