Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects The 'Madegood Family' Mark E. Hoskins

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Fairfield, Iowa
Saturday, May 2, 1925
Front Page and Page 4

NO. 6--MARK E. HOSKINS

Mark E. Hoskins, born on a farm in Blackhawk township, Jefferson county, Iowa, Septem--but wait! Hold on here! Just because this chap chances to be an undertaker is no reason we should be writing his obituary, for he is very much a live one. We'll try again.

What a grand thing it is to achieve your boyhood's most cherished ambitions! Few do. Most boys who watch the brawny blacksmi h (sic) with awe and envy yearn for the day when they may send the sparks flying from an anvil and chew plug tobacco, yet how many of them ever become blacksmiths.

'Tis a different matter with the you today as a prominent member of Fairfield's Madegood family, Mr. Mark Hoskins--only you will please drop the mister and the middle name, for he isn't fond of frills and says Mark is all the name his friends need to call him by. As we were saying, Mark Hoskins has lived to attain his boyhood's consuming ambition, for as a boy he could conceive of nothing greater to be desired than to be an undertaker.

Mark used to come to town with his parents pretty frequently when he was about ten years old. Something happened to draw him over to Frank Kerrick's undertaking parlors--there were no "funeral homes" in those days, they were just "undertaking parlors." This was years ago when Frank had his business place over on the south side. Mark found a wonderful fascination about the business. 'Twas a cheery place to spend a gloomy, rainy afternoon, in there among the caskets and whatever other jolly things they have in such places. And Mark got vastly interested in a trade paper Frank got every week, the "Embalming Journal." No Nick Carter, Cap Collier or Old Sleuth for him--he found the "Embalming Journal" far more exciting.

Got so Mark lost all interest in everything in town except Frank Kerrick's place; when the family was ready to go home some member of it was always dispatched there to get Mark. He even missed a circus parade one day because a new issue of the Journal had just arrived and he wanted to read it.

Now, when a boy gets the undertaking bug as bad as that it's a ten to one shot that he's going to engage in that business. So 'twasn't any surprise that Mark went up to Des Moines as soon as he could get away from the farm and got himself a job in an undertaking establishment at the numificent salary of a place to sleep ad laundry work furnished (sic). You see he didn't piddle around at other jobs--he knew just what he wanted and he went straight to it. After being in the business in Des Moines for a time he tackled the town of Keota, but later went on the road selling caskets. But he yearned to put his stuff over in the old home town, so about three years ago, he bought the John Davis place and opened business in Fairfield and he's been doing no only considerable undertakingsince (sic) he's been here but has also maaged (sic) to achieve a bit of accomplishment.

Mark's boyhood ambition has been achileved, but one of his youthful dreams has never been realized. When Mark got the undertaking bug it was in the days when undertakers wore long frock coats, white ties and plug hats, when cemeteries were called graveyards and the procession to and from them was at dirge step. Mark used to slip out at home and draw pictures of himself, attired in undertaker's make-up, on the back of the barn door. Wasn't a screaming success as ana rtist but managed to put the idea over to his own satisfaction.

So, to make the fulfillment of Mark's boyhood dream complete we have here presented him in the disguise he once thought he would be wearing as he tip-toes into the house of death, carrying his embalming case. He probably will now feel that life doesn't hold much of anything else really worth while.

Course, Mark isn't really an undertaker--he's an embalmer and funeral director. That's the new-fangled term, but he rather likes the old fashined word. But whatever you call him doesn't make any difference just so he is the one called--he does like to have you do that. And it might be mentioned in passing that they are calling him somewhat frequent, as naturally follows when a chapbegins (sic) at the age of ten and specializes in something so strong that he doesn't know much of anything else.

Lot of people think undertakers just sit around waiting and wishing for folks to die. This is a mistake, because Mark Hoskins bought a new ambulance the other day--one of those new-fangled affairs that ride just like the old feather bed at home--and is going to add ambulance service to his business. So you see udnertakers are pretty good chaps after all or they wouldn't be willing to rush us to the doctor or hospital when we are injured or sick in an effort to save our lives. Some people might be mean enough to say that Mark plans to get 'em coming and going--to the hospital. But they're not the folks that know Mark Hoskins very well.