CHAPTER LXI THE UNDERTAKING PROFESSION IN CHICAGO THE UNDERTAKER OF THE PAST AND PRESENT AN ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED STEPS FORWARD-LAWS GOVERNING BURIALS SAFEGUARDS SPONSORED BY PUBLIC MENTHE UNDERTAKERS JOURNAL-MEN OF LEADERSHIP. By J. A. GAVIN O review the undertaking business in Chicago it is necessary to go back into the opaque past. Back to that period which is still within the recollection of men who yet live. When the Chicago that we know today was but a struggling town of 4,000, surrounded by a straggling, widely scattered population who had come into the bareness of the West. These were the hardy pioneers who broke new trails into the greatest undeveloped confines of our country. With this fringe of civilization came the undertaker. For in all ages there have been men whose business it is to bury the dead. This act is the last respectful duty which man living is privileged to do for man dead. This preface, however, carries us at a tangent from the purpose of this article, the tenet of which is to review the history, development and personnel of the men who have contributed their talent and skill in making this line which is a combination of profession and trade, a business which has never lagged, even in the fierce pace of twentieth century progress. THE UNDERTAKER OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT To realize the broad significance of what progress has taken place in this field, it is necessary for contrast, to mull over briefly the pioneer undertaker, who was as he is now in rural outposts, the cabinet maker, the furniture dealer, the liveryman and what not, with the undertaking end in a welter with other lines. Information regarding the business when it occupied a place such as described in the above paragraph is impossible to gather so far as Chicago is concerned and the fact that it is not available gives us no twinge of conscience, for we know that it would add no feature to this article which could be connected, even minutely, to the business as it is conducted today. We go forward, therefore, from 1841, the year the first undertaking business was established in Chicago. John Gavin* who migrated from New York State in 1833 has the distinction No relation to the writer. Vol. III-25 of being the pioneer in the profession which today has 476 licensed places of business. We might mention in passing that James C. Gavin, the son of the dean of the business, still operates the establishment founded by his father seventy-seven years ago. AN ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED In every line of business progress may be gauged by organization and efficiency. These elements index progress in every endeavor. Thus we find a small group of men, thirteen in number, imbued with a sense of the solemnness of their calling and a desire to elevate it to its highest plane, assembled in the fall of 1879 to mould methods of carrying out their ideals. This was the first organization of its kind in the country. This date marks the inception of concerted effort on the part of the Chicago undertakers to render for themselves, their clients and the community, that quality of service which people crushed with sorrow have a right to expect, and which those in the business recognize and are anxious to extend. There is one element in the business, which we are proud to say has never changed. The ability to interpret the emotion of those who must come to them in their sorrow. It is a tribute to the men who have always been in the undertaking business. It existed in the days of the obsolete ice box, cavity embalming and other methods which are a nightmare now in the presence of modern science. Responsibility, dignity and sympathy however, are not elements developed in any age. They are human traits which identify man, and happily the men who have responded to our calling have always been generously dowered with those characteristics, which means comfort and helpfulness to stricken people. From the very inception of the Chicago Undertakers' Association the benefits of the organization have been manifest. Out of it grew the Illinois State Undertakers' Association and the National Funeral Directors' Association which draws its members from all over the continent. Joseph Rogerson, father of Edward Rogerson, who was elected first president of the Chicago Undertakers' Association, so ably ministered to the needs and advancement of the organization, that he, for seven consecutive terms held that office. The corps of officers and directors who have guided the destinies of the association have always been men who had a genuine and wholesome interest in making it a credit to the community it serves. When there have been practices that were questionable either within the ranks of the business or from outside influences the organization has been swift and fearless in striking to eliminate the wrongs and institute measures of protection and justice. Unfortunately there have been men in the past-and the present unhappily is not without them-whose mental slant at the ethics of the profession are not in accord with the higher conceptions held by those on our roster of members. This type, however, is few in number and we mention them only to indicate that regardless of how efficiently the organization and business is maintained we are still watchful in checkmating those who would by some act or practice bring discredit on the Chicago undertakers as a whole. STEPS FORWARD As we have mentioned before the proper preservation of the dead with ample safeguards of sanitation for the living is a new science, and we use the term advisedly. Today a knowledge of the art embraces a study of chemistry; for it is from the laboratory of the scientist that we have learned to make and blend the different fluids that preserve the human body after death. The anatomy of man too must be known by members of our profession. The arterial and veinous system must be diagrammed in the brain of the present day embalmer to enable him to scientifically use the preserving fluids that chemical research has made suitable for his use. The steps forward have been slowly made. An improvement here and an improvement there which at the time looked insignificant, yet the proper perspective of the whole is not gleaned until we look back across the achievements and accomplishments in thirty-five years of organization and then is the sum total of advancement as it exists today apparent to the observer. The true meaning of the group of men headed by F. Chaffee, A. B. Russ and M. Bonfield, who in September, 1882, endeavored to induce the board of Cook County Commissioners to allow the association to use the county morgue as a school for embalming, was misunderstood and the opportunity they sought to improve the profession was denied. The organization, however, had none the less faith in the merits of the plan and the rebuff made them none the less determined in their endeavor to establish a school. We find that in the following November of 1882 this committee representing the Chicago Undertakers' Association completed arrangements with the Bennett Medical College for a course of ten lectures and demonstrations in the art and science of practicing their profession. This plan which was launched in spite of impediments and expense to the undertakers of Chicago was a success. It demonstrated the necessity of learning if the membership was to go forward along the lines conceived by the progressive men who led the business to organization and adoption of measures which started the profession upward to the plane it occupies today. We owe a great debt to the far-sightedness and determination of the early leaders of the Chicago Undertakers' Association and it is a debt that is not alone confined to those of Chicago but to those engaged in the business in every part of the United States, for it was these men who supplied the impetus on which the profession has moved forward in all parts of the country during the past thirty-five years. SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION Many schools of instruction have since come into existence. State and city examinations have followed their wake to determine whether or not men had the knowledge to qualify them to practice their profession. The association has at all times rendered zealous help to these examining boards to assist them in getting only men who were qualified and whose decorum was such that they understood the dignity and solemnness of the surroundings in which their work is performed. LAWS GOVERNING THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD Quite properly there are most exacting laws in Chicago and in the state concerning the handling and disposition of the dead. Many of which seem complex to the casual observer, but when analyzed to fit some of the complicated cases that at times confront the undertaker, the layman begins to appreciate the value of the safeguards which govern the conduct of the business. It is obvious that laxity in any matter which concerns deaths and burials would represent a menace of unspeakable proportions. The contagious and communicable disease too is a constant hazard which must be handled according to wise, but stringent laws. The disposition of bodies brought to death by accident, violence or other undue means is still another element demanding wise and just supervision. In handling many of these complications there have been men who have permitted greed to carry them beyond the line which marked honor and honesty. No one was quicker to discover this than the Chicago Undertakers' Association, and by the same augury this association has never permitted a proposed bill or law, which was for the good of the community to be introduced in either the City Council or the State Legislature without getting solidly behind it with their moral and financial support, and we are glad to say that the best and wisest of the many laws governing the proper handling of the dead were put on the city code and the statutes of the state, at the insistent behest of this organization. There was a time when that crude appellation "the body snatcher" existed; furthermore he profited by practices which were entirely in keeping with the coarse terms which name him. He flourished, a creature of political graft; a leech devoid of humanity or scruple, preying on those already bent with grief. This type was protected by an almost invulnerable armor of politicians. He sprang up anew with changing administrations until honest officials heeding the voice of this association, cleared from the field these sharp practices and unworthy men. Unfortunately we cannot say in truth, that they have all disappeared, but we can say that they are curbed and their operations held at a minimum. To hold it there and minimize it more has been our ambition. The Chicago Undertakers' Association is today just as alert in guarding the standing of men who compose it and in protecting the community, as it was when the task was bigger by reason of a greater number of the undesirable type existing. SAFEGUARD SPONSORED BY PUBLIC MEN In accomplishing these results we had the ardent co-operation of many public men, among whom were ex-Mayors Carter H. Harrison, Jr., and Fred Busse; ex-Coroner John E. Traeger and the present incumbent Peter M. Hoffman; former Health Commissioners Arthur R. Reynold and W. A. Evans. Honest Peter Bartzen, elected president of the board of Cook County Commissioners in the fall of 1912 was the first person holding that office to recognize the fairness and justice of our demands that the public be protected from the ghouls and leeches that infested the county institutions. To his credit it can be said that he hearkened to our appeals and unshackled them from the grip of the "body snatchers," eliminating favoritism in the disposition of the dead at the Cook County Hospital and the County Infirmary. The precedent established by him has been fearlessly and faithfully adhered to by his successors, Alexander A. McCormick and Peter Reinberg, the present incumbent. Every chief of police since the time of Joe Kipley has harmoniously coöperated with us in eradicating abuses in the handling of the dead by that department. Dr. M. O. Heckard, registrar of vital statistics, has at all times rendered the association valuable assistance in its endeavor to elevate the standard of our calling. VOLUME OF BUSINESS What is the magnitude of the undertaking business in Chicago?, is quite a natural query. The fact that last year there were 38,055 deaths in this city gives one a better mental grasp of the bigness of our operations, and in mentioning this staggering figure, we hasten to add that one must not forget that we are a city of approximately two million and a half people. Statistics show that Chicago is now and has been for years one of the most healthful cities in the world. As we contemplate 38,055 burials in a year, however, it turns our mind to speculation as to what it all means, reckoned as a composite volume. We are therefore indulging in statistics to enable us to illustrate more forcefully, if you please, the work and responsibilities of the Chicago undertakers in caring for the dead. A bit of mental arithmetic tells us, that if there were an average of seven automobiles engaged to convey the mourners of the 38,055 dead, it would represent equipage totaling 266,385. Let us follow this estimate which is arbitrarily arrived at, a step further and we find that in the space of a year, if an average of six persons occupied each vehicle engaged for funerals, there would be 1,598,310 persons attending the last rites of the dead. As it is part of the undertaker's duty to arrange and provide transportation for mourners, we focus attention on the above statement with the hope of conveying the enormity of that side of our operations which are so little thought of in conducting the business. Caskets, robes, fluids, outside boxes and many other accessories would lend themselves to similar estimates and the results there from would be equally startling if totals were worked out. As this, howover, would serve no desired end, we shift to two outstanding catastrophies which tried the capacity of the Chicago undertakers, almost to the breaking point. On Wednesday afternoon December 30, 1903, a holocaust occurred in the Iroquois Theater. In a few minutes the lives of 575 people were snuffed out. There was scarcely a block or a neighborhood in the city into which death had not stalked with staggering, sudden fierceness. Through hours and days of suspense distracted people searched in feverish haste for their loved ones. Over night a condition had been wrought that balks description. A million sympathetic hearts and eager hands went out to help the stricken relatives of the dead, but in the end the physical work of that dreadful hour revolved about one group of men-the undertakers-it was on them that the burden must rest. We know of many in our profession who during those trying days went eighty-four hours without changing clothes or drooping their eyelids in sleep. A crisis confronted the Chicago undertaker and he met it with devotion to duty. In one brief week the mental manhood and resources of this organization had been tested more |