Salina Post proudly presents Flashback Friday in partnership with the Smoky Hill Museum. Enjoy a weekly tidbit of local history from the staff at Salina Post and the Smoky Hill Museum as we present "Salina-Flashback Fridays."
By SALINA POST
As Salinans began filling Santa Fe Avenue with businesses and shops at the turn of the Century, Lon Smith and his son, Rush Smith, moved to town to purchase the Phillip Young Undertaking business.
Once the father-son duo purchased the business at 131 N. Santa Fe Avenue in May 1906, it began a long history of growth and change for the century-old funeral home.
In 1909, the business moved to the T.W. Roach Building at 141 to 143 S. Santa Fe Avenue, which today houses Apron Strings [LINK], and combined with a furniture store.
For about seven years, the Smiths continued the undertaking business alongside selling furniture until they purchased land at the corner of Ninth Street and Iron Avenue and began building the Lon Smith and Son Funeral Directors business.
Just over a year later, the father-son pair moved into the building, and it became one of the first funeral homes exclusively built for embalming and funeral services.
Rush and Lon Smith also provided a new service to Salina residents — motorized hearses that replaced the ordinary horse-drawn carriages of the time.
In 1918, Rush Smith purchased the business from his father and continued the business as Rush Smith Funeral Home. According to the Smoky Hill Museum, Lon Smith operated their furniture business until the Smith family sold it to the Gebhardt and Jilka Furniture Company.
In 1936, James Geisendorf moved to Salina from Sedgwick County after graduating from the Williams Institute of Embalming and Mortuary Science for his first job at Rush Smith Funeral Home in Salina.
According to an article by Gordon Fieldler from the Salina Journal in April 2012, provided by the Smoky Hill Museum, Geisendorf began working for $12 a week and continued until he moved to Independence a few years later but moved back in 1945 with his wife, Marjorie Geisendorf.
Once Geisendorf returned to Salina, he continued his career at the Rush Smith Funeral Home for 14 years. On July 1, 1959, more than 40 years after taking over the business from his father, Rush Smith sold his funeral home to Geisendorf.
READ MORE: 📸 Flashback Friday: Salina Post - Glendale Township - Vol. 35
After the purchase, Geisendorf became a staple in the community.
In that April 13, 2012, Salina Journal article, many said they knew Geisendorf as more than a funeral home director but a local historian documenting Salina's history throughout the 20th Century.
Lisa Upshaw, the curator of collections and research at the Smoky Hill Museum in 2013, recalled that Geisendorf helped her with her early career and educated her on the town's history.
"He was so kind," Upshaw said in the article. "He took the time to drive me around town and show me all the historical spots."
Not only did Geisendorf help document Salina's growth from a "Depression-era flour milling town of 14,000 into a regional trade center of more than 40,000," he also focused on the history of funeral homes and embalming practices.
This turned Geisendorf into a celebrated business in the region, which he operated until he retired on Jan. 1, 1986, and sold the funeral home to long-time employees Roger and Tedi Brent.
By 1997, the Brents sold the funeral home to Carriage Services in Houston, Texas, who owned the business until November 2002, when Mike and Helen Carlson purchased Geisendorf Funeral Home.
According to the Smoky Hill Museum, the funeral home moved from its historic location at 401 W. Iron Avenue to a state-of-the-art location at 500 S. Ohio Street, complete with an on-site crematory.