Our History

Our History

It was late October 1926.

Two men on their way home to Potomac, IL, pulled into the filling station at Gordon Junction, where Routes 1 and 33 cross. While the attendant filled the Model T, he asked what had brought them down this way.

The younger of the two, J.E. Goodwine, had just graduated from mortuary school. He and his father, Wilbur, had been in Bridgeport that day, calling on a funeral home they hoped to buy. The attendant told them another was for sale in the village just east of the intersection. A place called Palestine.

The Goodwines opened their doors on October 31st, 1926, on the second floor of the Fife Opera House.

In 1957, J.E.'s son Jim came home to pick up what his father had started, and what came of that is most of what you see today. One location became four: Palestine, Flat Rock, Robinson, and West Union. When more families began asking for cremation, Jim brought the first crematory to this area. He understood that families needed room to talk somewhere other than a funeral home, and he gave them the Resource Center in Robinson, where they still meet today.

Jim eventually handed the work to his son Doug, and Doug to his son Curt. Each has spent his life caring for his neighbors.

A hundred years is a long time in one community. The customs have changed, and we've changed with them. What hasn't changed is that every one of those years came down to a family deciding to call us on the worst day they'd had. This community is the reason we've been able to do this work, and we intend to keep earning that trust.