Property: Dorchester, Undertakers
Transcriber: Janet

Surnames: BURSELL FUCHSGRUBER GRAF HABECK HOEPER KRAUT MAURINA MEHNER NAGEL PAULSON SCHMITT SMITH

----Source: Historical Sketches of Dorchester, Wisconsin (1873-1973)

Dunn Bursell

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The first undertaker in the village of Dorchester was a Mr. Dunn Bursell, who concucted an undertaking business and furniture store on the corner of West 1st avenue and 3rd St., the present site of the Mrs. Carl Habeck home. Mr. Bursell was not in business very many years, the time being around 1902. In those days the body lay in state at the home of the deceased with services now performed in funeral parlors also being performed at the home.

Ed J. Fuchsgruber Ed J. Fuchsgruber and his mother came to Dorchester Aug. 9, 1911 and opened a furniture store and undertaking business on the lot where the Graf tavern presently stands, on Front Street. The building and stock were lost in the fire of May, 1923. In 1926, Mr. Fuchsgruber established an exclusively undertaking business in the same building as Mr. Bursell, the previous undertaker, was located. A few years later, approximately 1929, he moved his funeral parlors to Front Street, on property just north of the present Frontier Bar. (Part of this building was the old real estate office of Ed Mehner and Frank Nagel.)

Mr. Fuchsgruber was born May 7, 1887 in DePere, Wis., married Isabell Schmitt on July 11, 1918 and had three daughters, Ruth, Dawn and Gretchen. With over 50 years in the undertaking business in Dorchester, he retired and sold a portion of his business to Mr. James Maurin in 1962. He died August 6, 1971.

Donald Kraut

For a period of three years, Dorchester had two funeral parlors located in town. Donald Kraut of Curtiss started an undertaking business in 1939 on the corner of Front Street and 1st Avenue (presently storage building of Neal Smith, Inc.) Being called into military service, he sold his stock in 1942.

Maurina Funeral Home

In 1962 James and Barbara Maurina purchased the former Edna Paulson home, remodeling it into a funeral parlor downstairs and living quarters above. A two-story 16X32 additon was added in 1968 to the building, providing more room for their business, in Dorchester.

Today the body remains at the funeral home for visitations by relatives and friends and often religious services are conducted at the funeral parlor.

A merger, effective Jan. 1, 1973 with the Hoeper-Kraut Funeral Home of Owen, Wisconsin resulted in a new name for the establishment. Now known as the Kraut-Maurina Funeral Service, Inc. the two funeral homes in Dorchester and Owen are under the direction of James T. Maurina and Donald L. Kraut.