The funeral business
Apr 20, 2018The Chiles family bought it in 1928 and has been involved in the funeral home business since then. The interior of Chiles Funeral Home, pictured in 1957. Lewis Chapel Funeral Home is now known as Chiles-Laman Funeral and Cremation Services’s Eastside Chapel. In 1951, Chiles & Son Funeral Home billed itself in a News ad as “A Family Dedicated to Service.” The Reminisce feature in The Lima News is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society. ins{background:none;} LIMA — When Thomas R. Chiles bought the J.W. Bowersock Funeral Home in 1928, he laid the foundation for a business which had a bright future in a profession with a colorful past. Today, the funeral home is in its 87th year and third generation of ownership by the Chiles family.In 1908, Bowersock was in partnership with Floyd Whitley in an undertaking firm which also offered a horse-and-buggy ambulance service. In November of that year, Bowersock sold his interest to Whitley and “is now back as mail carrier, where he was previously engaged,” The Lima News reported Nov. 23, 1908.Whitley, the Lima Sunday News reported March 10, 1918, “embalmed all unidentified bodies which came into his possession with a peculiar fluid which he invented. The result of the use of this fluid is almost identical with the results which were achieved by the ancient Egyptians more than 3,000 years ago …”In 1912, Whitley tested his “peculiar fluid” on “Old Mose” and “Silent Smith.” “Old Mose” was found naked in a south side barn with what the newspapers described as an “Italian stiletto” driven firmly into his heart. His murder was never solved. “Silent Smith,” meanwhile, was a vagrant who, according to the News “died very suddenly in the county infirmary after persistently refusing to talk or in any way reveal his identity in the two months he was an inmate of the home.”“Silent Smith’s” silence, of course, led to some spectacular conclusions being jumped to. “It was suggested at one time,” the Sunday News wrote Feb. 11, 1917, “he... (Lima Ohio)
