Foothills Genealogical Society - Research - Clear Creek County - Business Records

Boyer's Funeral Records - Including Related Information from Other Sources

Compiled by Opal Longino

Section 1 | Section 2

Henry Boyer of Georgetown, Colorado, kept account books of his undertaking business beginning in 1874. Mr. Boyer was a dealer in furniture and upholstery, as well as city undertaker. His handwritten ledgers record names of the deceased as well as other persons involved, costs of various services provided, cemetery lists, a smallpox list for 1877, and remarks. A first account book covers the period from January, 1874 through October, 1888, with pages 3 - 49 and pages 77 - 88 entitled “Coffin List” or “Undertaking,” pages 50 - 52 entitled “St. Mary’s Cemetery,” pages 66 - 76 entitled “Glendale Cemetery,” and page 123 entitled “Small Pox List, 1877.” This is referred to in this publication as Section 1. This book generally listed the deceased by name, or by relationship (e.g., John Jones’ child). A second account book, with a slightly different format, begins with February 5, 1885, through August 27, 1913, on pages 1 - 365, and is referred to herein as Section 2. Due to the overlapping dates, duplicated information between February, 1885, and October, 1888, which appeared in both account books is listed in Section 2 since the second account book was more complete. Information from the cemetery lists is also combined with that from the undertaking list. Names may have been spelled in more than one way, in which case we have included all spellings. Entries in the second account book begin with the name of the individual or organization responsible for contracting Mr. Boyer’s services, and usually, but not always, designating the deceased by name or by relationship (e.g. wife, child, etc.) In some instances there is only a size of the casket which might suggest a child, but in other cases we could not determine the identity of the deceased.

The records were compared with information from “The Annals of Clear Creek County,” designated with *, which included a “Chronology of Deaths,” a list of deaths reported in newspaper articles and compiled by Jesse Randall, who was publisher of the newspaper, “The Georgetown Courier,” for many years. A second comparison was made with Clear Creek County Death Certificates, designated with **, which were issued beginning in 1901. These comparisons were made, especially to determine the identity of the deceased as nearly as possible. Again in these lists, various spellings of the names appeared, and have been noted. Discrepancies will be found in the death dates compared to the dates entered by Mr. Boyer for his services. We have entered them as we found them in the records.

A complete list of death certificates recorded in Clear Creek County has been published in the Foothills Inquirer by Foothills Genealogical Society beginning in Volume 18, #3, Volume 19, #1, #2, and #4, and Volume 20, #1. An alphabetical listing of the deaths listed in “Chronology of Deaths” can be found in the Foothills Inquirer, beginning in Volume 20, #3, and continuing in subsequent issues.

We especially thank the Western History Department of Denver Public Library, and the Clear Creek County Archives Department for making these records available to us.