Before organized emergency medical
services were introduced in the United States, funeral homes often provided emergency
ambulance service as well as transportation for sick patients. In the souvenir
booklet from Sandusky’s Centennial Celebration in 1924, Charles J. Andres’ Sons
funeral directors offered 24-hour sedan ambulance service. In the same
publication, the Frey Furniture and Undertaking Co. advertised an auto invalid
car “used exclusively for the living.”
In this picture from a 1924 parade,
the Andres Funeral Home vehicle had the word ambulance lettered above the white
cross on the front of the car.
The billboard in the undated
picture below from rural Erie County stated that the Frey Funeral Home also offered
ambulance service.
Listings in Sandusky City
Directories indicate that local funeral homes provided ambulance service from
the 1920s through the 1970s. An article in the June 25, 1964 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that during
the 1950s and 1960s, the Andres, Frey,
Keller, Quick and Suitor Funeral Homes rotated ambulance service on a monthly
basis, so that the calls were distributed fairly. David Suitor stated that he
personally delivered five babies while on ambulance calls in Sandusky.
Thank you for this cool post! This is informative and succinct and very interesting! I am a great-great granddaughter of the Andres line and it's wonderful to find some photos from the funeral home.
ReplyDeleteWant to say hi, I Jim Suitor, son of David Suitor owner of the David Suitor Funeral home. Knew your family. This article brings back memories.
DeleteI remember working on my father's ambulance service as a young man.
Even though this article was posted in 2015, this is the first time (Dec. 2019) I've read it. I recall that several decades ago (1950's), when the Quick Funeral Home, and Fred Frey's funeral home, were both still in operation, folks used to joke that there was a ruomr that these two funeral directors might merge thier businesses, and that it would be known as the "Quick Frey" Funeral Home.
ReplyDeleteDavid Suitor and my father, Eugene August Buddelmeyer, were very active in the Knights of Columbus.
ReplyDeleteWho used to use the old Cadillac ambulance that used to cover Sandusky speedway back in the 80s pre NCEMS.... I loved looking that huge beast.
ReplyDelete