The
Shanes Crossing Historical Society president, Norm Van Tilburg,
presented a check to Mr. Ed Kuhn, art teacher at Parkway High School.
Mr. Kuhn's advanced painting class painted the mural in the background
at the new Rockford village building where the historical society is
making into a museum. 
At
the April meeting of the Shanes Crossing Historical Society, held in the
Rockford Methodist Church, Marcia Ripley Stansbury, descendent and
fourth generation funeral director of the Ketcham-Ripley Funeral Home in
Rockford, spoke to a group of 30 members.
She
recently closed the furniture-flooring store on Main Street and
relocated all of her business
activities (she had been there 32 years) to the Ketcham Ripley Funeral
home on First Street in Rockford. She moved into a bigger office and
actually moved the Ketcham-Cotterman Safe, as well.
What she remembers about the furniture store is that it actually
started in Mercer and was later
moved
to Shanes Crossing, Ohio. She does not know if her Great-grandfather
William Ketcham started or bought it, but does remember her Uncle Ralph
and Grandfather Tom Ketcham working in the second floor
mortuary/preparation room with the furniture and flooring business on
the first. They were cabinet and casket makers, and she remembers
Grandma Ethel Ketcham running the store and visitation as well. the prep
room was eventually built at the current location of the funeral home
which was also where Grandmother Ethel lived.
She
was recently honored by the National Funeral Directors' Association for
over 100 continuous years in service in their family with a plaque this
past summer of 2005. The sign at the is an old one from the front of the
building.
Gene
Barna visited the store during the close-out and move and reminisced
about the restaurant he owned across the street, where the Rockford Fire
Station now sits. He and Marcia were looking at the old elevator that
moved bodies and caskets up to and dwon from the second floor prep room.
The elevator has a huge wheel that was pulled by a rope woven by the
late Rockford resident Pete Temple. Gene and Marcia agreed that
the thick rope, woven from twine, was an art form. Gene was one of the
many individuals who helped at the furniture store and funeral home when
needed.
Marcia's dad, Carl Ripley, joined the company and became a licensed
furneral director along-side his wife,
Lucille
Ketcham Ripley. Carl was a veteran of WWII and the Korean War. He was a
Marine. He added the flooring business and worked with John Deitsch, who
had been with Ketcham's for 40 years having begun there part-time in
1954. He still does carpeting and linoleum work on his own. At right he
works on flooring at Marcia's home as Marcia's daughter, Devon Stansbury
watches.
Marcia displays the contents of the
"tool" kit for morticians back in the days of her
Grandfather Thomas Ketcham.
The tool kit, similar to a doctor's kit carried for home visits.
The wicket body basket above was used for taking a body from home to be "prepared" at the funeral home
While cleaning out the
Ketcham Furniture and Flooring
store, Marcia located this journal of the
War Mothers of Dublin Township Club
Mark Woods dragged the Ketcham and Cotterman
safe on its cast steel rollers to its new home on First Street.
Although this newspaper clipping is difficult to read, it is a picture of the Rockford American Legion cooking up barbeque chicken. Thorsen Henkle and Carl Ripley were working the grills.
Dated February 29, 1888, this bill of sale from the Ketcham-Cotterman Furniture and Undertaking Store fits into the unusual category when it comes to age.
Dee Van Tilburg displays a
religious fan typical of the days
when there was no air conditioning.
Imprinted with the Ketcham Funeral Home
logo, it would have been used at a funeral or church.
Shanes Crossing Historical Society, Community Members and the Village of Rockford Council Collaborate
The Shanes Crossing Historical Society has been looking at buildings in downtown Rockford for the past few years that could be used as a museum. We have collected many items of interest from the community and keep most of them in storage above the city hall. We could never find that building that fit our needs and financially was suitable for us.