History
GROCERIES, HARDWARE, CLOTHING, AND COFFINS:
That's what the marquee might have read back in 1918 if there had been such a thing as a marquee in the little Allison's Gap village near Saltville, VA, when D. R. "Ribe" Henderson started his funeral business.
Coffins were on the shelves of the general store along with sugar, coffee, overalls, hammers, and nails. Coffin purchases were delivered by horse and wagon to the home of the deceased where friends and neighbors had "laid out" the body. The funeral was carried out by the same folks, with the assistance of a local preacher, many times Frank Maiden, the yard foreman of the old Mathieson Alkali Works in Saltville.
Coffins in the general store were priced from $10 to $85, which included an outside wooden box and all services. Seldom did any service exceed $100, and many times the records show payment was made with chickens, a cow, a mule, or sometimes labor.
Ribe's career as a funeral director began under these circumstances by first delivering the casket or coffin, then "laying out" the body for the family and later helping with the funeral service. Embalming was little known at that time, and there was no "funeral parlor" as such.
About 1927, families began to request embalming, so Ribe went to Raleigh, NC and took a six week embalming course taught by a doctor.
Ribe's first funeral parlor was esatablished in the old Saving Bank building on Main Street in Saltville.
Ribe died in 1948 and the D. R. Henderson Funeral Home is operated today by grandson David R. Henderson, II.
Many companies and corporations in this country began under similar meager circumstances and exist today because of a sincere determination to attend to detail, serve relentlessly, strive for excellence, and show compassion. The needs of people today are just as they were in 1918. Our supreme goal is to serve people in life's darkest hour and to lighten their burden of loss. If we can do this, then our existence as funeral directors may be justified in some small way.
--Taken from an article written by Mark Farris