The year was 1877. Rutherford Hayes was elected president of the United States, the Great Railroad Strike began and Thomas Edison shouted, “Halloo,” into the mouthpiece of a strip phonograph, making that word the first ever recorded.
This was also the year the first copy of The Western Undertaker rolled off the presses. The Western Undertaker was founded as an advertising vehicle for F.H. Hill & Co. Ten years later, F.H. Hill sold the publication to Herbert S. Fassett, who became editor and opened up the publication to any advertisers in good standing.
In 1906, the Sunflower Undertaker, published by an NFDA president, merged with The Western Undertaker. In October 1917, Periodical Publishing Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich., acquired the publication, and a year later the name changed to American Funeral Director. With the April 1926 issue of American Funeral Director, the publication passed from Periodical Publishing to Kates-Boylston Publications.
American Funeral Director’s younger sister, American Cemetery, is really anything but young. When the first edition of this publication rolled off the presses, the United States was just weeks away from the stock market crash, which launched the Great Depression. The year was 1929. Herbert Hoover was president and the Philadelphia Athletics had just defeated the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Published in Chicago, the magazine was under the direction of the American Cemetery Association. An annual subscription cost $3 a year; a single issue was 30 cents. The magazine’s first editor was R.J. Haight, but it was later acquired by Edith E. Prettyman. And beginning with the November 1940 issue, American Cemetery joined the stable of Kates-Boylston Publications. Other products currently in that stable: the American Blue Book of Funeral Service directory, the Funerals of the Famous series and the Funeral Service Insider newsletter.
In 2002, Kates-Boylston Publications was sold to United Communications Group, but the legacy and integrity of the Kates-Boylston name – and the name itself – remains. |