Before the modern funeral home existed, when it was common for folks to have in-home wakes, there stood a “funeral emporium and furniture house” in nearly every town.
In modernity, this kind of business may seem quite odd, but back in the days when furniture stores were run by the furniture makers themselves, it also was quite practical for them to make funeral caskets. Thus, they would also commonly take on the title of undertakers for this profitable side affair.
One such store of this variety once stood in Monticello. It was run by Fred Gee, a New York native who was born in 1857 to Josephus and Sally Gee of Virgil, N.Y.
By the age of 23, the 1880 Census provides that he was living in Fairview Township, Lyon County, Minnesota, and on May 4 of the following year he married Helen Canfield, who was at that time 18.
The pair would eventually find their way to Monticello and, by 1899, he had constructed and was operating the above-mentioned business.
The photo shown here is from the Great Northwest Magazine dated December 1909, which presented many advertisements from throughout Wright County and it describes Gee’s local influence quite thoroughly in it’s excerpt of his business:
“The reputation which this firm has established in ten years’ operation in this locality is a guarantee that in dealing with him you are sure of complete satisfaction. In the variety and completeness of stocks he can boast of the first place. In the quality for the price, he can prove his offerings to be of superior grade.
Practically everything to lay the foundation of a cozy and comfortable home can be purchased from Fred Gee. For Mr. Gee carries an immense stock of couches, davenports, chairs, tables, buffets, bedroom suites, carpets and linoleums. He also carries paints, oils and wall paper.
“Mr. Gee is a true type of Minnesota manhood, and has given his best energies to the development of this business and has taken rank among the high class funeral directors of the county, being an undertaker and embalmer. Mr. Gee has a fine hearse which he operates in connection.
“This genial gentleman believes in the future greatness of this busy city and is a loyal citizen. He was a member of not only the city council, but the school board as well. All who have dealt with Mr. Gee have learned to respect his judgment and to appreciate his uniform courtesy and fairness.”
He would keep his business footing at the location of this building until around the time of his wife Helen’s death in 1934, and by the 1940 Census he was a retired man that rented his home to lodgers.
On Dec. 11, 1942, he passed away at the prodigious age of 85 and left a legacy through his building, which has long since been forgotten by the hoi polloi.
Ayden Irwin is an eleventh-grade student at Monticello High School. An avid local history buff and genealogist, he serves as the city’s unofficial historian.
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