The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-09-10
VI OGDEN fins.

The business OF manufacturing
wooden cotfins has fully kept pace with
the advances in other departments OF
woodworking. Years ago every neigh
borhood and village had its local un-
dertaker, who kept small stock of
coffin stuff, and made coffins for his
customers when ordered. As q gener-
a. rule in this country the best collins
were made OF black walnut, finished on
the outside simply with beeSwaX and n
hot sadiron. The cheapest coffin was
made OF pine, poplar, and other light
wood, with fiat tops, and merely stained
black. An undertaken who could make
a neat walnut coffin with raised lid
was considered 'boSs" workman.
During the war the demand for cof-
fins placed the business of their manu-
facture in the hands of contractors,
who erected factories and equipped
them with special machinery. The bus
mess was found so profitable that the
factories We're not only continued after
the war, but greatly enlarged, aud their
numbers have constantly increased
since. There are in the United States
about forty coffin factories, located
principally west of the Alleghenies,
where suitable lumber is more plenti-
tul and cheaper than in the east. The
largest concern is located in Cincin-
natl, and another at St. Louis which
has flooring space Of SS, 900 square
feet and employs one hundred men,
besides several women, who are en-
ployed in making burial clothes and
shrOuds, business that is of recent
do % o,,I -bioh T-
The coffin manufacturers of the Uni
ted States are banded together under
the name of the National Burial asso-
citation. They meet four times year
in different cities, and probably they
can control the price OF their products
better than any other similer organiza-
ton. A few years ago there was quite
rage for metallic burial cases, but of
late the preference is for wooden cof-
fins. A considerable number of Amer
lean collins are shipped aboard, mostly
to England, South Africa, Cuba, and
the South African States. Those made
for export are the ''knock-downn style,
and are put together at their places of
destination, except those shipped to
England. They are made of white oak,
perfectly air-tight, tOngued and grooved,
and the lid fitted with a rubber tlange.
Walnut is mostly used for the best
class coffins, but some very finely pol
ished ones are made Of sweet-gum.
When finished up finely it resembles
cherry somewhat, and is called satin
walnut. Z" Poplar is used to a greater
extent in the business than any other
wood. 1t is cheap, easily worked, and
1da rntaI TO fha Df, ha h,,,
mess.
Neither the kind of wood of which a
coffin is made nor its probable durabil
lty affects its price TO much extent, for
the price depends upon the style of fin
ish, and ranges from 81 or So up to the
full extent OF the customers ability to
pay. Much of the wealth and labor of
the country is annually buried in the
soil through a fashion that calls for
ridiculously expensive funerals. An
impression prevails that the coffin bus
mess is free from the fluctuations that
affect other lines, but it is erroneous.
Like all others, it is good when times
are good, and dull when times are hard.
Neither does 1t receive q boom when
cholera, yellow fever or other epidem-
les prevail, as might naturally be ex-
pected. The demand for children'S
collins is greater in the summer, but
the seasons have very little effect upon
the demand for adults coffins. During
hard times, when money is scarce, the
trade in high-priced collins falls off,
but, on the whole, business is governed
pretty much by the same rule as 9TH
ers, The coffin factories are among
the best and most reliable customers
the lumbermen have, ana use very
considerable part of the poplar cut of
southern Southern L2tnl6ey1Rdn