Part II of the Isabella's building history

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
With Leonard Cash
 
In this week’s installment of “History on Main,” Cash continues his series on Isabella’s by discussing the history of the mortuary that was once located there. 
Cash has already done a series on Newcastle’s mortuaries, so additional information on the other mortuaries and funeral homes can be found in past News Letter Journal issues, but this week, he is solely focusing on the mortuary located in Isabella’s. 
According to the Sept. 24, 1909, edition of the News Letter Journal, A.M. Nichols, owner of A.M. Nichols’ Supply Co. (also known as the Weston County Supply Co.) and his son Lloyd left for Delaware, Ohio, because Lloyd was attending Ohio Wesleyan University to become a mortician. 
Cash said it was common for the supply companies and warehouses back in the day to also run the mortuaries because they had the supplies to build caskets. 
The March 31, 1911, issue reported that the undertaking department was nearly complete just as soon as the hearse arrived. Charles Manahan was the embalmer, funeral director and undertaker, and the article said he could “be relied upon for you all know him with fifteen years of experience in our county.”
In June, Manahan went to Moorcroft, along with five other undertakers from this corner of the state, to take an exam for his embalmer license, according to the May 22, 1913, paper.  
“Following the examination of these applicants the board went on to Thermopolis where they conducted an examination for the undertakers in the Basin Country,” the News Letter Journal article says. 
The Jan. 23, 1913, paper reported that the supply company was busy “moving the old building off the lots to the rear of the undertaking room preparatory to the erection of a large warehouse.” It was to be two stories and iron clad (this is the Isabella’s building). Fifty feet would run along Sumner Street, and 75 feet would be built along the alley.
“The building which stood on the lots to the rear of the Nichols undertaking room has this week been moved to a lot in the east end of town to make room for the erection by the Nichols Supply Co. of their new warehouse. The old building will be fitted up by Mr. Nichols as a residence cottage,” the Feb. 13, 1913, News Letter says. 
The following year, on June 18, 1914, the paper announced that Lloyd returned home from college in Ohio after graduating with “high standing in a class of 180,” earning his Bachelor of Arts. His parents left Newcastle for a month to attend his graduation.
The article said Lloyd also took an embalming course and received his embalming license for Ohio, and around April 15, 1915, he earned his Wyoming license. 
“He has pursued the study of embalming to some time having worked with Mr. Manahan for three years,” the 1915 article says. “Having received his license for Wyoming, he has engaged in the profession of embalming and funeral director and will have charge of the undertaking department of the Nichols Supply Co.”
According to the Jan. 16, 1919, paper, Lloyd, “who has been in the service of Uncle Sam (Cash said he thinks he was called to the military around 1918),” as the military undertaker at Fort Whipple in Arizona, was honorably discharged and returning home soon. Additionally, the same paper said that Mrs. Lester Johnson was the new assistant bookkeeper at the Nichols Supply Co. 
The Sometime Ago section in the May 1945 News Letter Journal reported that the Supply Co. bought a $5,000 auto hearse in 1920.
An announcement in the April 10, 1924, paper reported that Lloyd sold the business to W.R. Fox of Gillette and P.S. Jackson became the residential manager. Fox had already taken possession of the property and was working on getting ready for business. 
“Mr. Fox, who has undertaking parlors of Gillette, has arranged with Mr. P.S. Jackson to act as the resident agent in charge here of the new concern to give the same careful courteous service that was maintained by Nichols in the past,” the article says. 
Around Aug. 6, 1925, Jackson took the embalming examination, becoming the only licensed embalmer in town at the time. 
The Oct. 8, 1925, paper announced that M.C. Roberts bought the mortuary and its equipment from Fox, as well as purchasing a hearse. Jackson would continue to assist, and it became known as the Robert Mortuary. However, according to the mortuary records, in February of 1928, Jackson purchased an interest in the business, so it became the Newcastle Mortuary.
Jackson and Roberts added farm machinery to their business, according to a newspaper announcement in the Jan. 24, 1929, paper, and they were planning to have a sample line of various John Deere equipment, including tractors, engines, plows, cultivators and other items. 
Just before noon on a Tuesday in February, the fire alarm rang in the Robert and Jackson warehouse in the back of the Nichols building because of a gasoline spill, reported the Feb. 14, 1929, paper. However, it was quickly extinguished, and no damage was done. 
An advertisement from Feb. 28, 1929, touted that the Newcastle Mortuary had embalmers with licenses for both Wyoming and South Dakota, as well an Auto Limousine Hearse. It provided monuments and markers and “a full line of caskets and vaults.”
According to the March 13, 1930, issue, “the work of razing the old frame building” was to begin soon to make room for a “modern structure.” For this purpose, the mortuary moved to the south end of the lots because the front and corner sections were sold to Midwest Refining Company.
The mortuary relocated to the upstairs part of the building, according to the May 22, 1930, issue, because the downstairs location was sold to Midwest Oil Co. The upstairs was remodeled into “the first and only modern establishment of its kind in this section of the state.” The main floor consisted of warerooms and offices. 
“On a whole the establishment is one that our people may well be proud of,” the article says. 
A year later, they opened up a furniture store at the mortuary. According to the June 4, 1931, paper, the opening date for the Newcastle Mortuary and Furniture Co. in the “newly remodeled and redecorated first floor of their mortuary building” was June 13. 
“Filling a long felt need in the commercial life of Newcastle, M.C. Roberts and P.S. Jackson of the Newcastle Mortuary Saturday will formally open a new furniture store here in remodeled and redecorated quarters in the mortuary building,” the June 11, 1931, issue says. 
The article boasted that the “largest line of furniture” ever seen in the county would be displayed. The furniture store would occupy the display room on the ground floor and two upstairs buildings. 
“One of these will at all times be a completely furnished room that prospective home furnishers can see just how any given suite would look in their own home,” the article says. “The new store will … enable local people to completely furnish a home or select any piece of furniture they desire without going away from home to make their purchase.” 
Next week, Cash will continue his discussion of the mortuary.