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By your side since 1913
 The
Cass Funeral Home was established in 1913 by Mr. Melvin A. Cass. Mr. Cass
purchased the business and some equipment from Mr. Lucius Rand, who had been
operating a parlour in Fitch Bay. There were two horse drawn hearses, one a
beautifully decorated black carriage with large fancy wheels with an enclosed
roof panel and four glass walls for the summer, the other was a sled type,
somewhat smaller than the carriage with fewer decorations, used in the winter
months. Funeral homes as we know them today were virtually nonexistent. When a
person passed away the undertaker was notified, he would then transport his
equipment to the home of the deceased to perform his duties of embalming,
dressing, and all other necessary preparations for viewing. The body was then
set up in the parlour for visitation, symbolized by placing a black wreath on
the front door. The caskets were usually assembled locally, often by the
undertaker himself, as was the case of Mr. Cass. Melvin would build the casket
shell, and his wife Jessie would sew and install the linings.
 Melvin Cass and his wife, Jessie A. Whitney, had three children: Howard, Helen and Harold. Jessie died in 1917, just 21 days after giving birth to Harold, and a short three years later, Melvin passed away at the early age of 45, leaving Howard, now only fifteen years old, to manage his father’s business. Having no desire to pursue a career in the funeral business, Howard handed the business over to his uncle, Lewis O. Cass, with whom he now lived. Some time later, Harold showed interest in the business and Lewis took him under his wings.
In 1920 Lewis Cass moved the business to Beebe, Quebec and remained there until
the completion of a new funeral home in Rock Island in 1945. The business
eventually outgrew the Rock Island home, so in 1962 Harold purchased the
Steven’s house in Stanstead, where it is located to this present day. In 1965
the company expanded once again with the opening of the funeral parlour in
Ayer’s Cliff, Quebec, and a short time later, two more parlours were acquired:
R.L. Bishop, Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Gordon Smith in Sawyerville, Quebec.
From the small husband and wife business that began in 1913 in Fitch Bay,
Quebec, Cass Funeral Homes has grown to include nine locations throughout the
Townships: Stanstead, Ayer’s Cliff, Lennoxville, Richmond, Cookshire, Bury,
Sawyerville, Windsor and Rock Forest (Sherbrooke). It has a fleet of six
vehicles, and a staff of eleven employees, including the current shareholders,
R. Barry Evans, Jacques Laberge and Everett Boynton. Cass Funeral Homes is
proud to be one of the oldest funeral services business in the Eastern
Townships.
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