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Page A29
NOVEMBER 2014
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
Funeral Directors Research,Inc.
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Allen’s Main Chapel
Allen’s Secondary Chapel
Newly Constructed Allen Funeral Home on Main Street, Endicott
in 1937
J. Rennie Allen
Chris Putrino
J. Ward Allen
Jack Clarey
Mark Rollo
Allen Memorial Home: Innovation since 1884
days made “house calls” –
washing, shaving, dressing
and otherwise simply pre-
paring the deceased, and
using a special ice-packed
coffin to keep the body un-
til the day of the funeral.
At age 14
“J.R.” Allen
(as he was always called)
began as a full-time assis-
tant to his father – driv-
ing the horse-drawn hearse
and helping in every detail.
In 1899 the State of New
York required the licensing
of Undertakers and Em-
balmers. John J. was granted a license automatically since
he was already in business.
J.R. attended
Dr. Eckel’s School of Embalming
in Phila-
delphia and was graduated with a degree as embalmer af-
ter only six weeks. (His formal education, incidentally,
had not gone past the eighth grade, but his education as
an Embalmer and Mortician never ceased.)
J.R. moved from the Allentown farm into the village
proper of Maine, NY. In 1905 he married
Jessie A. Dud-
ley
. Their two sons
Audley Dudley Allen
and
J. Ward
Allen
were born in Maine.
The first automobile hearse in all of Broome County,
NY was a
Meteor Motor
hearse owned by J.R. in the Vil-
lage of Maine. One of the first, if not the first, motorized
fire trucks in Maine was converted from a used hearse
given to the fire department by J.R.!
J.R. could not make a living as a funeral director alone.
He supplemented his income by holding down other
jobs. He was Town Clerk of Maine and worked in Tyme-
son’s General Store and Creamery. It is of passing inter-
est that in the old records still kept today at the
Allen
Memorial Home
in Endicott, payments for funerals in
those days were often made by barter-showing receipt of
potatoes, cord wood, hay and other commodities and
some personal services as credits toward funeral service.
J.R. and Jessie made the decision to move to a larger com-
munity. After weighing all factors the die was cast in favor
of the new community of Endicott which barely won out
over the more established village of Marathon. In 1915 the
Allens moved their funeral business to Endicott.
In 1937 J.R. (a visionary for his time) purchased prop-
erty on East Main Street in Endicott, NY and constructed
a state of the art all brick facility, complete with air con-
ditioning, for a total construction cost of $37,000. Most
of his colleagues in funeral service questioned his sanity in
building such a grand and costly facility, seeing as most fu-
nerals at that time were still conducted in the home.
J.R. continued to run the business until his death in
1953. His son
Ward
took the reins until his retirement
in 1971, when
Jack Clarey
took over at the helm. Jack
was associated with the firm from 1951 until his pass-
ing in 1997. In 1967 Ward and Jack, realizing the need
for expansion, put an addition on the building at the
cost of $150,000. It paid off. Within a period of two
years they had doubled their call volume.
In 1977, seeing a steady rise