May 2021

Page A22 MAY 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was his answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’” On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was seated in the presidential box at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. to see the play Our American Cousin. Shortly be- fore 10:00 PM, 26-year-old actor John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer, entered the box and shot the President. Booth then jumped onto the stage, breaking his left leg. Yelling “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (which means “ever thus to tyrants”), he escaped from the theater. The bullet from the one-shot derringer entered the back of Lincoln’s head. Later examination showed that its course was obliquely forward toward the left eye, crossing the brain diagonally and lodging a few inch- es behind the left eye. In the track of the wound were found fragments of bone, which were embedded in the anterior lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain. The mortally wounded Lincoln was taken to a room in the Petersen Boarding House across the street from the theater where Lincoln died the following morning, on April 15th at 7:22 AM. His body was returned to the White House that day. The embalming surgeon firm of Brown & Alexan- der were engaged to embalm Lincoln’s body. The actual embalming procedures were done by Henry P. Cattell . Lincoln lay in state in the East Room, as in his dream, on April 17th. His solid walnut casket was lead lined and covered with black broadcloth. On April 18th, about 25,000 people came to view Lincoln’s body. On April 19th, sixty clergymen and President Andrew Johnson attended funeral services in the East Room of the White House. On that evening, Lincoln’s body was taken to the rotunda of the Capitol, where all the next day it lay in state. Thousands more people, including the war wounded, passed the fallen President’s casket. Lincoln’s remains were placed on board a seven-car funeral train on Friday April 21st at 8:00 AM. The of- ficer in charge of the funeral train said, “History has no parallel to the outpouring of sorrow which followed By Todd Van Beck The compelling story of the life of Abraham Lincoln is familiar to millions. Lincoln was born in a log cabin, was raised in near poverty, and was self-educated. He studied law and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836 before serving in the state legislature and as a member of Congress. Lincoln entered into a series of famous de- bates in the senatorial race in Illinois against Stephen A. Douglas, and these debates poll-vaulted him to nation- al prominence. In 1860, Lincoln was elected president, and his entire term of office coincided with the Great American Civil War. He spent his presidency trying to hold the Union together during the country’s time of greatest trial. He was re-elected as president in 1864. One night in the second week of April 1865 – the very week that General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox – Lincoln had a dream which seemed to foretell of his assassination. In relating it to his wife and others, he said, “I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered, and before me was a catafalque on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. A braham L incoln the sixteenth President of the United States of America Rest in Peace, Mr. President. That was the hope... that our presidents would rest in peace, but that has not always happened. For example, between 1865 and 1901 Lincoln’s remains were moved 18 times. Funerals are a reflection of how people live their lives, and this remains true for the funerals of our U.S. presi- dents. This series offers a glimpse into the deaths and fu- nerals of our presidents, while offering overdue recogni- tion to the scores of funeral professionals who labored ceaselessly to carry out the wishes of the presidents, their families, and in some cases, the wishes of the United States government. Each account tells an interesting sto- ry. I hope you enjoy this new series. —TVB Todd W. Van Beck is associated with John A. Gupton College in Nashville, and has been an author, teacher, practitioner, and speak- er for over 40 years. On May 30, 2018 Van Beck celebrated 50 years in funeral service. You can reach Todd at 615-327-3927. FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS www.nomispublications.com Monthly Columns online at Rest In Peace, Mr. President the funeral cortege from Washington to Spring- field.” The funeral train stopped in the follow- ing cities so that Lin- coln’s remains could be viewed: Baltimore, Har- risburg, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Co- lumbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, and finally Springfield, Il- linois, where the train arrived on May 3rd at 8:00 AM. Lincoln’s body lay in the State Capitol in Springfield where 75,000 people passed his open casket. On May 4th, a funeral procession moved from the State Capitol to Oak Ridge Cemetery , where thousands of mourners listened to hymns and prayers. On November 7, 1876, a gang of counterfeiters broke into the tomb to steal Lincoln’s body. The sarcophagus was opened, and Lincoln’s casket partially taken out. The counterfeiters planned to demand cash and also the release of their master engraver, who was in the Illinois State Pris- on. Luckily, a paid informant alerted the Secret Service, and the plan was foiled. In 1901, Robert Todd Lincoln, the President’s eldest son, visited the monument disguised as a workman. He said that his father’s remains were still in danger of being sto- len. Lincoln’s body was then placed 13 feet in the ground and surrounded by more than 10 feet of solid cement. As indicated the populations of Canada and the Unit- ed States rose sizably since 2001, 22.2 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively. The United Nations population numbers for Canada in 2020 were 37,742,000 and 331,003,000 for the United States. The exhibit also shows the number of United States fu- neral homes shrank from 22,499 in 2001 to 21,324 in 2020, a 5.2 percent decrease in 19 years, pretty much declining each year. The loss of 1,175 United States funeral homes is signif- icant. While a 0.27 percent reduction per year in funeral home rooftops seems small, 20 or 30 years of small loss- es add up. Imagine that in another 19 years we could see another 5 percent reduction of nearly 1,100 rooftops. In contrast, Canada’s numbers show a 6.6 percent de- crease in funeral home rooftops since 2001. Interest- ingly, the number of Canadian funeral homes rose in 2018 with 2019 and 2020 holding in the 1,800 funeral homes area but showing declines the last two years. The annual decrease in Canadian funeral homes amounted to 0.35 percent per year, slightly higher than the United States decline. Looking at the population per funeral home, we found that in 2020 the United States averaged 15,523 people per rooftop, reflecting a steady increase in the popula- tion served by each funeral home since 2001. Likewise, Canada’s numbers show a 2020 average of 20,624 per person served by a funeral home. Clearly, Canada still holds the advantage by serving more people per firm. Using the more advanced cremation-oriented Canadi- an numbers regarding population per funeral home, we determined that based on the Canadian experience, the United States would need just 16,049 funeral homes. Considering that the United States houses 21,324 roof- Too Many Rooftops-2 By David Nixon, CMC, Nixon Consulting, Inc David Nixon In my 42 years working with funeral homes, one ongoing lament from owners has been the overabundance of funer- al homes in the United States. To be certain, not every state, county or municipality hous- es more funeral home rooftops than needed. However, some cities and states may have 50 percent more funeral home ca- pacity than others, based on my findings. Continued on Page A23 My cremation numbers are based on the CANA figures as published in The Cremationist of North America maga- zine. The population numbers appear in the United Na- tions Population Division- World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision report. Lastly but equally important, the number of funeral homes used in my research was graciously provided by Nomis Publications in their fu- neral home listings report. I should point out that the 2019 United Nations re- port contained changes in prior population counts that revised the numbers from my original article. These changes affected the excess funeral home calculations as compared to our earlier report. In 2015 I first wrote about the overabundance of fu- neral home rooftops in my article, Too Many Roof- tops? As a refresher, my observations pointed to a 20-25 percent excess number of funeral homes in the United States – 24.6 percent too many in 2015. That method- ology used Canada as a baseline. Canada has far few- er people but also a cremation rate that since 2001 has been as high as 22.7 percent above the United States rate. In 2019 using CANA research, Canada’s cremation rate (73.1 percent) was reported as 18.5 percent greater than the United States (54.6 percent). The calculations use Canada’s numbers as a proxy for the United States considering they already lead the United States in their cremation rate. To provide an easy initial comparison for 2020, the United States has 8.8 times as many people as Canada but 11.7 times more funeral homes as our northern neighbor (a find- ing that has not changed dramatically since 2001). S E N D U S Y O U R N EWS ! PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 1-800-321-7479 info@nomispublications.com www. vischerfuneralsupplies.com