Finding aid for the Saxton Funeral Home Records

History of Saxton Funeral Home

Saxton Funeral Home, (1872-1997) was established in 1872 as E. H. Saxton. It was located at various addresses on Pearl Street in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1901, it became known as Saxton and Son, located at 13215 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio. It operated under this name for several years. In 1924, Saxton-Daniels-Mastick, Inc. Funeral Directors was created, operating in conjunction with and at the same location on Detroit Avenue as the funeral home. In 1936 it became known as Saxton Funeral Home. The Saxton Funeral Home merged with several other funeral homes during its history including Daniels Funeral Home, Daniels-Parker Funeral Home, Klanke Funeral Parlors, Inc. and Saxton-Parker- Daniels Funeral Chapels. Daniels Funeral Home was established by William Daniels in 1915 and was located at 15800 Detroit Avenue, in Lakewood, Ohio, and went on to become Daniels-Parker Funeral Home in 1968.

Klanke Funeral Parlors, Inc. had its main location at 12629 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio, and the records in this collection date from 1936. When Saxton and Klanke merged to become Saxton-Klanke Funeral Home in approximately late 1971, it was located at the former Saxton location, 13215 Detroit Avenue. Around mid-1980, the Klanke name was dropped and the name returned to Saxton Funeral Home.

When Saxton, Parker and Daniels funeral homes merged together in 1987 as Saxton-Parker-Daniels Funeral Home, it used the location of 15800 Detroit Avenue. In the spring of 1997, Saxton-Parker-Daniels Funeral Home became a part of Busch Funeral and Crematory Services which operates several locations in the Cleveland area currently.

The clientele of the Saxton Funeral Home and its various components reflected the demographics of west side Cleveland and suburban Lakewood. Well into the twentieth century this area was home to families whose ethnic origins were western and northern Europe. The British Isles, Scandanavia, and Germany were listed as the place of birth for two out every three foreign born in a sample of 330 Saxton death records, with German immigrants accounting for half. This statistic is an echo of another fact; that until the 1890s Germans were the most numerous among the immigrants to Cleveland. The Saxton Funeral Home came to service these immigrants and their descendants through an informal network of families who were linked by their membership in one of several Protestant churches. As the population changed in more recent years, so did the ethnicity of Saxton's customer base. During the 1980s the deceased in most foreign-born funerals was a native of Asia or the Middle East although the native-born clientele were still mostly white protestants.

Scope and Content

The Saxton Funeral Home Records, 1882-1997, consist of affidavits, benefit applications, certificates, correspondence, court documents, cremation records, death certificates, death notices, deeds, financial statements, forms, funeral arrangement record books, funeral arrangement records, grave stone rubbings, holy cards, hospital records, insurance records, ledger books, legal documents, lists, memorial cards, military discharge records, newspaper articles, newspaper clippings, notes, obituaries, payment arrangements, photographs, purchase orders, social service records, and wills.

This collection is of value to researchers studying genealogy in Northeast Ohio generally with particular relevance to Cleveland's west side and Lakewood. These records are a snapshot into the German and other western and northern European immigrant communities on the west side of greater Cleveland. The financial aspects of the funeral records are indicators of the economic status of working and middle class families over several decades.

Those interested in the funerals that took place at E. H. Saxton Funeral Home, Saxton and Sons Funeral Home, Saxton-Daniels-Mastick, Inc. Funeral Directors, Daniels Funeral Home, Daniels-Parker Funeral Home, Klanke Funeral Parlors, Inc., Saxton-Parker-Daniels Funeral Chapels, and Saxton Funeral Home will find this collection helpful. The data in the funeral arrangement record books and the unbound funeral records and folders that genealogists will find useful includes birth and death dates, causes of death, address of the deceased, who the account was billed to, veteran status, physician's name, death notice information, and place of burial, among others. The collection is also of value to those wanting to know about the types of funeral services available and changes in the mortuary business in Cleveland, Ohio, specifically and the United States more generally from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century. Researchers interested in medical topics may also find the collection engaging due to information regarding causes of death and other vital statistics. The earliest records contained in this collection date from 1882.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 3531 E. F. Boyd and Son Funeral Home Records; MS 4908 E.F. Boyd and Son Funeral Home Records, Series II; MS 4805 McGorray Brothers Funeral Home Records; and MS 4809 Pease Funeral Home Records for other funeral home records collections.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___] MS 5069 Saxton Funeral Home Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Busch Funeral and Crematory Services in 2007.

Processing Information

Processed by Hannah Kemp-Severence, Tim Beatty, David Balog, Mike Klein, Sarah Richardson, Nick Durda, Kevin Klesta, Krystle Rivera, Katie Weaver and Kevin Johns in 2010.

Detailed Description of The Collection