Businesses Past

 by Richard D. L. Fulton

The Creager Funeral Home

The Creager Funeral Home in Thurmont was established in 1840 by James Jacobus Krieger when Thurmont was still known as Mechanicstown (the name was changed to Thurmont in 1894). The change of spelling from Krieger to Creager occurred sometime after the business establishment was founded.

According to an article published in the August 20, 1975, edition of The (Frederick) News, the business had initially been established for selling general merchandise, which was then soon changed into a funeral home and furniture business.

Casket makers in the 1800s and early 1900s were also frequently manufacturers of furniture, given their woodworking experience, combined with having established sources of wood and also having the proper tools already at hand for casket production.

Mechanicstown was known for its skilled artisans, mechanics, and craftsmen (thus the original name of Thurmont). The arrival of the Western Maryland Railroad in 1871 further fueled business for those engaged in the various trades.

Creager, who was born in 1817, became an entrepreneur as such at age 15 in 1832, when he had engaged in providing a variety of services, including sales and construction work, according to an article published in the July 6, 1990, edition of the Gettysburg Times.

During 1840, at age 23, he had gained enough carpentry skills to have established his own funeral home and made coffins of various sizes, as the need demanded, and had become skilled at making furniture, according to an article written by Margaret E. Myers, then Frederick County’s only registered genealogist, which was published in the September 13, 1975, edition of The (Frederick) News. Thus, what would prove as having been a highly successful funeral home, and a future furniture store, were then launched.

Creager had two sons, John Wesley Creager (J.W.) and Martin Luther (M.L.) Creager, both of whom worked with their father at what was then called James Creager & Sons. 

However, that association was dissolved in 1894, as per the legal advertisement published in the June 25, 1894, edition of the Catoctin Clarion, after J.W. apparently had previously decided several years beforehand to establish a business of his own by producing lumber, rails and posts, according to an article published in the October 4, 1895, edition of The (Frederick) Citizen.

The company was then reorganized on the same date that James Creager & Sons was dissolved and reincorporated as James Creager & Son (M.L.).

James Creager passed away in 1900, resulting in M.L. thereby inheriting the business, which was then renamed as M.L. Creager (also known as M.L. Creager Furniture and Undertakers).

In 1913, the Creagers acquired their first motorized hearse, a new Cadillac model. According to Myers, “It was the first motorized hearse used in Frederick County.”

Of course, the funeral homes’ hearses were originally horse-drawn carriages, a memory of which was recalled by Raymond Creager—son of M.L., who joined his father in the company in 1922—in an interview published in the August 20, 1975. edition of The (Frederick) News, in which he had stated, “The hearses were very valuable, and during funeral services, someone would have to stay and watch the horses, which he frequently volunteered to do to get out of school.”

When M.L.’s son joined the company, it resulted in another name-change, this time to M.L. Creager & Son. When M.L. passed away in 1948, his son, Raymond, became the owner of the operation.

After Raymond Creager retired, the furniture store was taken over by his twin daughters, Mary Ellen and Clara Jean, who sold it in 1987 to Ken and Lois Fraley, according to the August 2020 edition of the Thurmont Lions Club’s newsletter, the Lion Breeze.

Over time, the funeral home and furniture store had changed locations, the funeral home finally ending its days at 104 East Main Street in Thurmont, and the two had been operated as separate entities. 

The building was sold in 2012 to Stauffer Funeral Home, which occupies the building to
this day.

The Creager Funeral Home at 104 East Main Street in Thurmont in 1944. Courtesy of Thurmont Images.