Washington Funeral Home History (1926-1956) - As written by J.J. Washington

In 1925, the idea of a funeral home in Tylertown,Mississippi, was born. The late Huey B. Raiford, who was at time an experienced burial association agent, saw the need of the funeral home service.

He prevailed with, and got, Prof. H.C. McClellan interested. Prof. McClellan wanted an associate in the venture. He thought of James J. Washington as a man who had what it would take to make it go; so Mr. Washington reluctantly took interest in the project.

In April 1926, a partnership was formed - THE MUTUAL BURIAL AND UNDERTAKING COMPANY. All went well until 1928, when all burial associations were required to post cash bonds. That was when things began to look dark. The only hope for continuance was to dissolve the partnership and one or the other try to carry on.

It fell to the lost of James J. Washington to take nothing, so to speak, and do something with it. Having started the business with a capital stock of the great sum of $250.00, you can guess what brother J.J. was up against.

Now, at that time he was invited to take stock in the Enterprise Burial Insurance Co., R.C. Cook, President. Along in the early 1930's, the bottom fell out of the nations economic basket.; money was asleep; the question was: HOW CAN WE SURVIVE? Having had some experience in the sale of junk discarded, like waste paper, junk iron, old automobiles, broken glass, rags, old car batteries, old car radiators, any kind of metals. So for 13 years, he was known in these parts as the THE WASTE PAPER KING. By the way, we shipped 5 carloads of dead cattle bones.

With the depression over, World War II comes; things pick up, money O.K., conscientious service pays off.

My wife and I, by this time, are getting very tired from our struggles. So we looked around for somebody to succeed us. Having had dealings with the Richmond Brothers, it was agreed that at such time they could take over and operate the funeral home. We would hold the deed for them. It worked out so, in 1956, the Richmond Brothers took over. For your information, this $250.00 business was sold for $21,500.00. The present improvements represent $125,000.00