Funeral Homes
Updated - 10/28/2023
"Funeral Homes" are a location for the living to pay tribute to the deceased. Although this transitional phase is hardly a period for levity, occasionally the innocent name of a funeral home can be mildly amusing. For example, the Amigone Funeral Home of Buffalo, New York is an established business using an honored family name, but it begs to question "Am-i-gone"? Auburn once housed the Geschwindt Funeral Home. Although "Geschwindt" is also a family name, it has a rough English translation of "Go Quickly". Included in the category would also be any independent undertakers. Below is a list of those businesses who provided such a service.
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"A. B. Binner & Son -
Embalmers and Funeral Directors" - The "A. B. Binner & Son" funeral home had been previously erroneously posted as being located at the corner of Pearson Street and Second Street of Auburn, conveniently near the Auburn Church of God cemetery and the St. John's Church cemetery. This was the confirmed location of his son George's "Binner Funeral Home", and therefore was presumed to have been the same location as the "A. B. Binner & Son" funeral home since it was confirmed that George "took over" his father's business. However, due to a recently contributed copy of the obituary for "A. B. Binner", that location is no longer presumed to have been the site of his funeral home. The obituary states that A. B. Binner lived at the corner of Third and Washington Streets in Auburn. Confirmation was made that he took residence at that location in April, 1922. Furthermore, prior to his Washington Street location, A. B. Binner had a residence (and most likely his funeral home) at an unspecified location on Orchard Street. As a result of further research conducted by AAHS Lifetime Member Brian Bohr, and due to the recollections of AAHS Lifetime Member Kenneth "Heiny" Heinbach, Amandon B. "A. B." Binner's residence and funeral home location as been definitively placed at the (current) address of 246 Washington Street (the northeast corner of the intersection of Third and Washington Streets). Ken not only recalled the fact that A. B. Binner had his residence there, but verified the belief that the "funeral home" was established within the same building as the family home. As a result of vintage advertisements and invoices, it has been confirmed that "A. B. Binner" was an undertaker in Auburn by February, 1905 (if not earlier); and that the "A. B. Binner and Son" business operated from at least July, 1922 (if not earlier - possibly as early as 1905) until at least September, 1939 (if not later), but no later than 1942 by which time the business had been transferred solely in the name of the son (George Binner). Amandon B. "A. B." Binner was born in Berks County, PA, on 08/28/1862. He was the son of Johannes "John" Binner and Sara Belleman Binner (A. B. Binner's obituary) or Sarah Bellman Binner (grave marker inscription). He was a brother of Elias B. Binner and Rebecca Binner Scharff. Amandon married twice. The first time was to a Lizzie A. Moyer Binner, who did not have much information available about her, nor was she listed on the website findagrave.com. There is no record of children from this union on the website. The second time was to an Emma Elizabeth Patchet Binner. Amandon had the following children by Emma: Allen Amandon Binner, Annie Binner (who only lived three years, one week and one day), George Binner (who apprenticed under Amandon and eventually took over his funeral home business), Henry Herman Binner (who only lived approximately ten years and ten months); and Howard J. Binner. At some point, A. B. relocated from Berks County, PA, to Schuylkill County, PA, settling in Summit Station. Vintage newspaper snippets place him at that location from at least July, 1896 until at least July, 1902. After having practiced as an undertaker in Summit Station for a period of years, A. B. Binner appears to have relocated to Orchard Street in Auburn no later than February, 1905 (if not earlier); and later relocated to the corner of Third and Washington Streets, Auburn, on April 4, 1922, thanks to newspaper snippets documenting the events. A. B. purchased his Washington Street residence from a William H. Auchey. In addition to his undertaking business, his obituary mentions he was also a professional "cabinet maker". (A common practice of undertakers who built their own coffins was to also specialize in the building of furniture to supplement their income between funerals.) Perhaps more interestingly, early newspaper articles confirm that A. B. Binner also worked as a contractor, having constructed several residences in the town of Auburn, as well as having constructed the Auburn Church of God Parsonage (circa April, 1908), and a "factory and knitting mill at the corner of Front and Washington Streets" in 1922, (which would have been the Artistic Knitting Mill at that time). In 1918, A. B. was a contractor working on the raising of the Auburn Knitting Mills roof (to add another structural "story" to the building) when the roof collapsed, pinning him beneath the rubble. Although not detailed, the newspaper article implies he was not seriously injured by the time he was extracted from beneath the debris. In the summer of 1928, "The Call" newspaper informed the public that "A. B. Binner & Son" had purchased a "handsome auto-hearse". It is believed that Amandon retired from the undertaking business (and possibly his contractor work) in 1942. In that same year, the Pottsville Republican carried a newspaper snippet informing the public that an automobile had crashed into the front porch of A. B. Binner's residence, causing moderate damage. Amandon died in Auburn, Schuylkill County, PA, on 05/22/1946 and was interred within the St. John's Church "new" cemetery, West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County, PA. (NOTE: His obituary apparently misspelled his mother's first and maiden name; as well as stated his surviving wife was Anna Patchett Binner, when in fact it would have been Emma Elizabeth Patchet Binner.) |
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"Gary H. Geschwindt Funeral Home" -
Unfortunately, very little public information has been published about the "Gary H. Geschwindt Funeral Home" or the proprietor of that business. As a result, little information is available on this website currently about this enterprise. No information is available currently about when the business began or ended in Auburn. The funeral home was located at 124 Market St., Auburn, Schuylkill County, PA. The business later moved to 25 E. Main Street in Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill County, PA, where it merged to become the "Geschwindt-Stabingas Funeral Home". Ironically, the word "Geschwindt" translates from "old" German to English meaning "Go Quickly". Hopefully, that was not the case for many of his "customers". The structure which the funeral home once occupied was originally built in 1928 by Francis Irwin "Irwin" Eckert to be used as a combination family dwelling and boarding house. In the 1930s, "Irwin" expanded his business there to include a butcher shop/meat market and restaurant. At some point the structure transitioned into the funeral home but an exact date is unknown. After the funeral home vacated the premises, the building was repurposed as rental apartments. Sadly, in 2005, the sturdy structure met misfortune when a child playing with a cigarette lighter in bed caused a fire which so badly damaged the interior of the structure that it was deemed not salvageable and was subsequently demolished. |
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George Binner - Funeral Director
(a.k.a. - "Binner Funeral Home"; "Binner's Funeral Service"; and "Binner Leichte Heemet") (NOTE: The phrase "Binner Leichte Heemet" appears to be a mixture of Germanic and Pennsylvania "Dutch" terms roughly translating to "Binner Light Home".) "Binner's Funeral Home" (or any other version of that same entity) appears to have begun operation no later than 1942 and possibly as early as 1939. The funeral home was located at the corner of Pearson Street and Second Street of Auburn, conveniently near the Auburn Church of God cemetery and the St. John's Church cemetery. Prior to George Binner owning and operating that business, he apprenticed under his father, Amandon B. Binner, at the corner of Third and Washington Streets, when the business was called "A. B. Binner & Son Embalmers and Funeral Directors". A customer could contact "Binner's Funeral Home" by calling "Auburn 9-R-2", "Auburn 11-R-2"; or some years later calling "Auburn 2581" on the telephone. George Binner was born in Pennsylvania on 03/14/1900. He was the son of the aforementioned Amandon B. "A. B." Binner and Emma Elizabeth Patchet Binner. He was a brother of Allen Amandon Binnner, Annie Binner (who lived only three years, one week and one day), Henry Herman Binner (who lived only approximately ten years and ten months); and Howard J. Binner. George Binner married Leetha Leibert Binner. The website findagrave.com has no listing of any children from this union, and presently no children have been confirmed to have come from this marriage. Additionally, George's great-niece has stated that George did not have any children. In addition to initially apprenticing under his father's business prior to owning and operating the funeral home on his own, George served as a past President of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors' Association. He also served as past President of the Berks-Lebanon-Schuylkill County Funeral Directors Association and was a member of the National Funeral Directors' Association. George was further employed as the Secretary for the Auburn School District. George was a member of Auburn's Civic Club, the Auburn Fire Company, the Auburn's Lions Club, and the Auburn Veterans of Foreign Wars Staller-Luckenbill Post 3975, all of Auburn, Schuylkill County, PA; in addition to the Deer Lake Fire Company, the F. & A.M. Lodge 138 (of Orwigsburg, Schuylkil County, PA), the Lions club ambulance committee, the Safety Club of West Brunswick Township, and the Stone Mountain Road and Gun Club. George's wife, Leetha, was a member of Auburn's BPW organization (Business and Professional Women's Club) as well as the Auburn Civic Club. Ironically, although the BPW was a worthy organization which empowered and recognized women's accomplishments in both Business and Professional fields, many of these accomplished women were simply identified in newspaper articles solely as the wife of their male spouse...in other words, "Mrs. George Binner", a common but unfavorable practice that existed for many decades but has thankfully faded from occurring in recent times. Leetha had her own claim to fame in March of 1967 when she was reported in the Reading Eagle newspaper as having observed a "UFO" (Unidentified Flying Object) in the skies over Schuylkill County, PA. Although many people may have scoffed at Leetha's report, two days later a newspaper article was published which seemed to validate Leetha's claims. The article stated other individuals in the Auburn-area had also witnessed the UFO to include two employees of the Auburn Brick Company plant, a gas station owner, a bus driver and a postmistress. George died on 03/03/1964 at the Samuel G. Dixon Hospital, South Mountain, Quincy Township, Franklin County, PA, and was interred within the St. John's Church cemetery; Rt. 895; West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County, PA. |
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"W. H. Christ Furniture and Undertaking"
(a.k.a. "William H. Christ, Undertaker, and Manufacturer of and Dealer in Furniture") - The advertisement pictured on the right informs us that "W. H. Christ Furniture and Undertaking" promoted "Repairing and Embalming a Specialty" in Auburn, PA. While this may initially seem like a strange combination of careers, many early undertakers also built their own caskets or coffins, so they required woodworking skills which they then put to different uses to supplement their income. Thanks to the vintage business invoice dated 1896 pictured on the right, we know that William H. Christ was in business of both furniture making and undertaking by that year, and possibly many years before and after that one. The other thing of interest is that he sold a bed to Samuel Dewald (of Auburn) for a total cost of $4.25. In today's society, you'd be lucky to find a single piece of lumber to start building a bed for that price, much less get the finished product for such a deal. Also pictured on the right is a long bench that was supposedly constructed and sold by William H. Christ. Unfortunately, we have no further information about a price, a date, a customer or the current location of this bench to supplement the picture. Auburn-area amateur historian Kermit Mengel recalled that William's business was located on the east side of Front Street in Auburn. The enlargement of an 1896 map depicting a portion of the town of Auburn (pictured on right) in which William H. Christ's business and residence is shown adjacent to Front Street verifies Kermit's recollection. The structure is labeled on the map as "Store & Dwelling". William H. Christ was born in Berks County, PA, on 03/07/1863. He was the son of Thomas Christ and Hannah Hiester Christ. He was a brother of Anna Amelia Christ Killmer, Elisabeth Rebecca Christ (who only lived four and one-half months), and Maria M. Christ (who only lived thirteen years, ten and one-half months). William married Mary Ann Degler Christ. They had the following children: Edna Christ Ney, Lillian Christ Bolton, and Pearl Christ (who only lived thirteen years, eleven and one-half months). William died in Auburn, Schuylkill County, PA, on 04/02/1947 and was interred within the St. John's Church cemetery, Cemetery Road, Auburn, Schuylkill County, PA. |
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