Civil War & Politics

From Abraham Lincoln''s visit in 1861 to President McKinley''s campaign trail, Alliance entertained many notables, such as:  Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Garfield.
During the Civil War, Alliance was headquarters for a military district and home to J. Ridgeway Haines who founded an underground haven for runaway slaves.
        In 1871, the Alliance Review was born; and Morgan Engineering, then the Marchand and Morgan Company, moved to Alliance from Pittsburgh.  But all was not well...
        An economic panic hit Alliance in 1873 and was prolonged by the great railroad strike, forcing more than half of the merchants out of business and many families out of their homes.

        It was during the second year of economic recovery that Joshua and William opened J.S. Cassaday & Sons, this was a highly respected furniture and cabinetry business as well as undertaking facilities.

        Alliance was changing...the first meetings of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Knights of Columbus took place and Mount Union was incorporated as part of Alliance.
        In 1903, just three years after the horseless carriage appeared in Alliance, Samuel Ervin Cassaday became a partner with his brother Daniel.  Two years later, Edgar H. Turkle, Sr., Daniel''s son-in-law, also joined the firm.


Cassaday & Turkle

        In 1914, D.B. Cassaday and Edgar H. Turkle, Sr., to meet the increasing demands of the growing city, assumed the funeral business of the firm under the partnership of Cassaday and Turkle.  The furniture business continued as the Cassaday Furniture Company under the direction of Samuel Cassaday and Charles W. Pettis.
        Funeral customs hadn?t changed much from past years.  Services were held in the family''s home where an oversized door allowed passage of the casket and pallbearers.  Cassaday and Turkle supplied caskets, transportation from the house to the cemetery and tables and chairs for use in the home.  The new location at 31 North Linden Avenue was no more than storage area and offices.
        Only three years after the founding of Cassaday and Turkle, Edgar Turkle was instrumental in forming the Alliance Rotary Club.  The same year, Alliance greeted another new service organization, the Red Cross.
        By this time, Cassaday and Turkle were also providing Alliance with motorized ambulance service.



One of the First

        1926 was a big year for Cassaday and Turkle.  In a progressive move to keep up with the changing needs of Alliance families, the firm bought and converted the D.W. Crist mansion on South Union Avenue into one of the first funeral homes in the state in which services could be held, instead of each family''s home.
        
        Constantly finding new ways to improve services, in 1960 a north entrance to the Cassaday and Turkle funeral home was added; and the parking lot was expanded, paved and lighted.
        Cassaday and Turkle again brought innovation to Alliance in 1963 when Ted helped set up the Alliance Ambulance Service, making it easier to get emergency service.

        
Continuing the Cassaday & Turkle Tradition

        In 1983 John Christian purchased the funeral home.  Mr. Christian promised to continue to provide the excellence in service that the previous generations had started.  In 1992 the funeral home expanded it''s facilities understanding the communities preference for ground level accessibility and to diversify the funeral home by giving the families they serve the ability to now choose from the historic original funeral home or the new contemporary spacious addition.  After being well received the increase in the number of families served by Cassaday-Turkle-Christian called for another expansion in 1999 the new 2,500 square foot addition adds two new chapels plus a larger ladies bathroom facility and a floral delivery room.

        Today the professionals at Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral and Cremation Service offer modern convenience and one of the largest facilities in the area.  But even more importantly, they still keep with the tradition of sincere and personal service, attention and respect for the wishes of the family.