The year was 1923, Calvin Coolidge became president after Warren Harding’s death. The Yankees were playing their first home game at Yankee Stadium and won their first world series. Roy and Walt Disney founded the Walt Disney Company. This was also the year that Roy Schueneman purchased the Carpenter-Cavanagh Funeral Home that was established in 1909.
When Roy Schueneman first purchased the funeral home, it was located at 109 East Second Street. In 1940, he bought the Bowen property – which had been there since 1892 – at 219 East Second Street, which is where the funeral home is currently located. The Bowen property was remodeled into Cavanagh-Schueneman Funeral Home.
Roy’s son, Herman “Bud” Schueneman worked at the funeral home prior to serving in the US Army and graduating college, and then after. He purchased the funeral home from his father in 1965. Bud did a complete remodel and refurnishing in 1967. In 1969, Herman “Bud” Schueneman and Earl Stackhouse combined forces and shared facilities. They were the first firm in the area to serve families through two facilities. Prior to the early 1970s the funeral home also operated an Ambulance Service.
Mark Schueneman began working for his father, Herman “Bud”, in 1968 at the age of 16. Brock Tumbleson started working at the funeral home in 1974. Mark and Brock purchased the funeral home from Herman in 1997. Brock retired in 2017, making Mark the sole owner of the funeral home. In 2017, James and Brandee Golnick joined the funeral home and on June 5, 2019 they became partners with Mark Schueneman. They are looking forward to serving the families in the Kewanee area, carrying on the traditions of the funeral home, and bringing in some new ideas.
While our funeral home is proud of it’s past, we are always looking for better ways to serve you in the future. Whether that means adding more special services or making renovations to our facility, we are dedicated to our profession and committed to helping the people in Kewanee and Henry County who have come to mean so much to us.
Over the years, as more and more families have come to rely on us to help them through one of the most difficult times in life, we have found ourselves relying equally on the support of our community. We have always thought of this as a special partnership. Backed by 109 years of dedicated service, you can count on us to be here for your generations to come.