It was here that the funeral parlor, or funeral home, became the norm. After the war, industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of the middle class facilitated further modernization of funerals. The Civil War changed that massive numbers of dead soldiers from across the country prompted new funerary practices, such as embalming and preserving for long trips. Then, they were either buried on the family homestead or in the cemetery by their church.
Before that, most American families held a wake (now called a “viewing”) in their home, in a room often named the parlor. The funeral parlor, or funeral home, became a mainstay of American life in the late nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Indiana Memory.ĭuring the month of Halloween, it seemed fitting to do a blog about the history of funeral parlors and funeral homes in Indiana.
