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Ferguson's O'Leary and Tyne Valley Funeral Homes "Islanders serving Islanders" |
Located on Route 142 about three miles off Highway 2 lies the community of O'Leary, where one can find Canada's only Potato Museum and the home of the Potato Blossom Festival. In the center of the community stands the former Canadian National Railway Station, which is adjacent to the Confederation Trail. A short drive down Highway 142 brings one of the West Point areas with its historic 1875 lighthouse. A few miles travel will bring you to the beautiful area of Tyne Valley. When shipbuilding ended at nearby Port Hill in the late 1800s, Tyne Valley became the heart of activity in this area. The railway passed through here and fox farming, carriage shops, lumber mills and a cheese factory thrived. Near Tyne Valley is a shipbuilding museum at Port Hill and the Yeo House which symbolizes the wealth of a golden age in Prince Edward Island when the shipyards drove the economy of the British colony. Local fisherman may be seen harvesting oysters on Malpeque Bay, off the region's North shore. Oyster shucking is one of the major events in the annual Tyne Valley Oyster Festival.
The year 1998 also commemorated one hundred years of funeral service in the community: "Islanders serving Islanders" for the first sixty years Claude Jelley and his family owned the firm. Once upon a time the family built carriages in addition to providing funeral arrangements and caskets. For the last forty years now, Ferguson's Funeral Home has provided the village with dignified funeral care and has been an integral part of the community. Douglas V. Ferguson was born to a family in Tryon, PEI and was raised in Hampton district. Doug has been reported as saying that as early as age eight he knew funeral service would be in his future. He did, however, try his hand at broadcasting, working briefly at the Summerside radio station. The jovial Ferguson began his Funeral service Career in 1953 when he apprenticed with N.D. MacLean of MacLean Funeral Home in Charlottetown, PEI.
Doug met Georgina Cairns that year when Georgina was training as a nurse at the PEI hospital, and the couple married in 1956. Their first apartment was above the MacLean Funeral Home. It was in 1958 when Doug became licensed as a funeral director, and in August of that year bought the historic O'Leary funeral firm from Claude Jelley. He moved the business from the original location in 1963 and built the funeral home with a family dwelling above, where he and Georgina raised their six children: Kent (an accountant in Yellowknife, NWT), Garth, David, Dean, Don and Karen (A physiotherapist in Halifax). Over the years, Georgina has always played an important role in the business. Having the funeral home adjoined to the residence allowed her to raise the children and help out with services and office duties. She continues to do book keeping in the office.
The original building served generations of families whose loved ones were honored there. But being on a corner lot left little room for expansion. a number of renovations over the years had added some space, but they needed more. And coming up to the year 2000, said Doug, "the time had come to make a change." Doug bought a two-acre parcel of land on Main Street from a potato farmer and built the accessible and roomy building there. Neighbors include the O'Leary community hospital. The modern, ten-thousand square foot building houses a large visitation room which can be divided into two rooms, arrangement offices, a casket selection room (with room for twenty-eight caskets), a four-car garage and a kitchenette area for smoking and refreshments. The building features a concrete floor with in-floor heating throughout. One of Doug's favorite parts of the building is the red rose granite, propane-fuelled fireplace gracing the foyer. It all adds to the relaxed, family atmosphere of the building and the caring nature of the service providers. The building design was important to Doug. He was focused on building a structure that was accessible to those with wheelchairs. The chapel is capable of holding two hundred and thirty people comfortably and is adorned with a beautiful and non-denominational stained glass window designed by a local artisan. The chapel is wired for audio and recordings are made of each service. Doug says this is not only a wonderful keepsake for families, but can be given to family members unable to attend the service. Eventually, said Doug, they would like to videotape services for the same reasons. Doug took some advise form friend John Earl, of Arbor Memorial Services and Glen Eden Funeral Home, Cemetery and Reception Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, when planning the new funeral home. He borrowed the design of the oak chancel from Glen Eden in the new chapel. He was also advised to expand the women's restroom and add a powder room. Careful attention was taken to make this area welcoming and pleasant, not to mention providing adequate facilities for the number of women who attend the services. The parking lot accommodates ninety cars. Doug admits that even with such a large parking lot, there are occasions when the numbers of guests exceed the number of spots. He recalls the recent death of a school teacher and the eight hundred people who signed the visitation book. Ferguson credits the high attendance numbers to the close-knit nature of the rural community. Services are mostly traditional, with very few requests for cremation (though Ferguson's does display a couple of styles of urns). Prearranging, on the other hand, is popular with Islanders. Doug and Dave have made presentations to a number of groups promoting the benefits of planning ahead and received positive responses. Today, two of Doug and Georgina's sons are continuing a tradition started forty years ago. Son Garth began his funeral service career not in the Maritimes, but on the other side of the country at Schoening's Funeral Service in Kanloops, B.C. He returned home to the island in 1981, attending the New Brunswick Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association school of embalming and completed his apprenticeship in PEI. In 1985 Garth purchased the Parker Hamilton Funeral Home in Montague, PEI and performed extensive renovations, adding a new visitation room and three-car garage. It is now known as Ferguson's Montague Funeral Home. Son David is also a licensed funeral director, working close to Doug as Vice President of Ferguson's O'Leary and their Tyne Valley location. In 1984 , Dave earned a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Prince Edward Island. A career in retail management took David across the Northumberland Strait to Moncton, and Chatham, NB. David returned to PEI in 1985 after the sudden death of his brother Dean. Twenty-year-old Dean had worked with Doug in O'Leary location when he was killed in an automobile accident. Dean's twin brother Don had succumbed to cerebral palsy in 1980. The tragedy and heartache in the Ferguson family is something Doug is philosophic about , saying everyone must suffer such "bumps along the way." "it's hard to learn though," he said. The third licensed funeral director at Ferguson's is Phillip Steel. Steel also had an extensive background in funeral service. In his hometown of Westport, Ontario, Phillips mother managed a small furniture store and funeral home. At age 16, Phillip says he started helping out with funeral services. In 1972 he moved to Ottawa where he worked with the historic funeral firm Hulse, Playfair and McGarry Limited before becoming licensed in 1974. Phillip and his wife Delores, originally of Souris, PEI, and their two sons made the move to O'Leary in 1993 when Phillip joined Ferguson's. It was a red-letter day in the life of the Fergusons when father Douglas and mother Georgina were named O'Leary Citizens of the year during the 1984 Potato Blossom Festival. And, incidentally, Georgina had served as Festival President for three consecutive years. The Fergusons are active members of the associations, both provincially and nationally, and in their community. David is past president of the PEI Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association, and is an elder of the O'Leary United Church. Doug served a term on the Funeral Service Association of Canada's board of directors as the PEI representative, and is currently on the board of directors for the Canadian-Independent Group of Funeral Homes. Doug says they are blessed in O'Leary to have so many volunteers who are so willing to share their time. The dedication service was held on October 2, 1998 and they received visitors for tours on October 3, 1998 as well. The number of visitors to the new funeral home for the official opening is a testament to the solid relationship between the Fergusons and O'Leary - 1,000 people joined them over the two days . Helping Doug, Georgina and Dave with the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Doug's brother Wendell of Moncton, and son Garth of Montague. They also invited clergy members representing six different faiths. Doug passed on his simple, yet thoughtful, philosophy of providing service to his two sons when they began their careers, and shared it with this writer: "When a person does you the honor of walking through your door, you treat that person as you'd like to be treated." That is the moral of the story. |
After serving the West Prince region for the last four
decades, the family has opened the doors of their new facility, Ferguson's
Funeral Home and Chapel in O'Leary. The Brand new building's official
opening was October 2, 1998.
"I started work New Year's Day, 1953," he
recalled. "Hank William died that day."
Doug and Georgina continue to live in their home of 35
years, above the original Ferguson's Funeral Home. These days they rent
space to church groups in need of a meeting place.