History
Houseman Funeral & Cremation Services has been serving Canby, Hendricks, Ivanhoe, and Clear Lake area families for years. We are honored to be a part of the rich history of this community and plan to be a part of it for many years to come.
Houseman Family Funeral Home History
The Houseman Family Funeral Home of Clear Lake and Toronto was originally the Hardy Funeral Home, founded by Forest Hardy in 1959. He served the Clear Lake, Toronto and the surrounding communities until 1973. Jim and Elaine Eng then purchased the funeral homes where they renamed the funeral home to Eng's Funeral Home. The Eng family provided professional and caring service to this area for 23 years. In 1996, William Crawford of Crawford Funeral Chapel in Watertown purchased the funeral home and once again the name changed to Crawford-Eng Funeral Home. After managing the funeral home for the Crawford Funeral Chapel for two years, Darren and Jessica Houseman purchased the Funeral Home in 2004. We are committed to providing this area with the same caring and professional service which has been provided throughout the history of this funeral home.
Birk Funeral Home History
The Canby funeral home has been in the Canby community since the 1920's and changed ownership several times. Richard Birk bought the funeral home in Canby from Victor Voight and Russ Livingston in 1973.
The Ivanhoe funeral home, was built in the early 1900's and was owned by F.I. Gilson and known as the Gilson Funeral Home. Voight-Livingston bought it in 1967 and Richard Birk acquired it along with the Canby location in 1973, changing the name to Birk Funeral Home, Inc. in 1978.
The Hendricks funeral home was the most recent addition to the company. The building was newly built when it was purchased in 1986.
In May 2005, William Crawford and Darren Houseman purchased the funeral homes from the Birk family and in July of 2010 Darren and his wife Jessica became sole owners.