Francis A. Sharrer

In the days before elaborate funeral homes and trained funeral directors, coffin-makers like Francis Asbury Sharrer played an important role in their communities. Sharrer learned cabinetmaking in Taneytown, but Westminster became the county seat and he probably felt it offered a better opportunity to establish a successful business. About 1846 he opened a combined undertaking and furniture-making shop there, then moved to the busy intersection of Washington Road and Main Street in 1851. When Carroll County

celebrated its 100th birthday in 1937, the firm of F. A. Sharrer & Son, now run by his

grandson, was still going strong after 91 years. Sharrer’s business hunch had proved

correct.

Historians and genealogists find the Sharrer account books to be an important source

of information because of the company’s records of coffin sales and local funerals.

The original account books are part of the Manuscript Collection of the Historical

Society of Carroll County. Entries show the name of the deceased, approximate date

of death, amount paid for a coffin, and sometimes additional information such as

funeral arrangements and cause of death. Deceased children, however, are often listed

only with the parent’s name, for example, “John Doe’s child.” Nevertheless, when

someone is buried without a headstone and the cemetery has no record of the burial,

the Sharrer accounts can prove invaluable in determining a date of death.

In a 1900 newspaper the firm advertised “A Fine and Assorted Stock of Coffins &

Caskets Always on Hand. We have just had completed one of the finest Hearses in the

State with which all funerals entrusted to our care will be attended.” This was

undoubtedly a horse-drawn coach and it must have carried many bodies to

Westminster Cemetery as well as other cemeteries in the vicinity. Twenty years later

another Sharrer advertisement proclaimed, “We are the owners of the only

Automobile Hearse in the City, always ready for our patron’s use. That is service. As

the oldest established undertaking business in the City, we deem it our duty to give

attention to the very smallest details, and assume every burden of responsibility which

our patrons choose to impose on us. That is Efficiency.”

It appears that a business which began making coffins and furniture evolved into

something similar to today’s funeral homes. Sharrer’s went out of business many years

ago and was replaced by several different funeral homes now operating in

Westminster.