Given Names: William Hoy Surname: FOGLESONG Nickname: Will
Gender: Male
Birth:28 August 18824230 -- West Columbia, Mason County, West Virginia, USA Death:11 May 1962 (Age 79) -- Mason Clinic, Mason, Mason County, West Virginia, USA
Publication: Collection of miscellaneous information, including DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) papers.
Note: Will Foglesong became a licensed mortician in 1902. He was honored by the West Virginia Funeral Directors Association in 1955 for having served over 50 years as a licensed funeral director.
Publication: Point Pleasant, Mason Co., West Virginia Citation Details: 4 January 1905
Note: Advertisement
TIPPETT & FOGLESONG, The New Firm at Hartfort, W.Va., IS NOW FULLY EQUIPPED AND DOING BUSINESS Mr. W. H. Foglesong, a Mason county gentleman and from an old and respected Mason county family, is in charge. He is a graduate of the best Embalmers College in the world, has passed successfully, the examination of both the Ohio and West Virginia State Board of Embalmers, and is a Licensed Embalmer in Ohio and West Virginia.
We have a nice hearse, a full and complete stock of caskets and funeral furnishings, and you will always find our prices the lowest, terms reasonable and attention the best. WE HAVE NO OLD STOCK EVERYTHING NEW AND THE LATEST DESIGNS
We make no charge for hearse, where caskets are bought from us. The best carriages furnished upon application. No charge for embalming, and no charge for distance to the country. We are ready to serve you and treat everybody alike and right. We are West Virginia people, our money is invested in Mason county, we pay our taxes in Mason county, and respectfully ask for your patronage; we can, and will sell you as cheap as anyone.
Mr. J. B. Tippett, of Point Pleasant, is the principal of this firm, and you know from long experience, and his success in this branch of business, that he will see that the Hartford firm is a success and kept up to the highest standard. Both long distance and local phones, calls answered day or night; our place of business never closed. Respectfully, TIPPETT & FOGLESONG, Hartford, W.Va.
Note: William H. Foglesong and Martha K.Ruttencutter were married by Wm. H. Gilmore, a pastor in the West Va. Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Mason,WV. Will was 26, and Katie was 22 years old.
Note: By 1920 the Foglesongs, Will, 37, and Katie, 33, had three children: Evelyn nine, Donald five and Samuel three. Living with them were William E. Ruttencutter, 61, Will's father-in-law; Martha Foglesong 68, Will's mother; and Mabel Foglesong 21, Will's sister. His aunt, Elizabeth Richard, 73 was also with them. It was a full house!
By 1930 Will, 47, and Katharine, 44, owned their own home worth $8,000. Will's occupation was "funeral director in undertaking establishment". At home were their three children, Evelyn 19, a stenographer at a manufacturing plant; Donald 15; and Samuel 13.
William H. Foglesong, of Mason who has been a life long resident of Mason County and Director of the Fogleson Funeral Home at Mason, for 60 years, died Friday afternoon at the Mason Clinic where he had been a patient for the past three months. Mr. Fogleson had been in failing health for several years. He was a member of the Mason Methodist Church.
He was born on August 28, 1882 in Mason County, the son of the late Samuel and Martha Stewart Foglesong.
Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Katharine Foglesong, Mason; one daughter, Mrs. W.R. Proffitt, Mason; two sons, Donald Foglesong, Mason, and Samuel J. Foglesong, Mullens, W.Va.; one sister, Mrs. Cameron Casto, Warren, Ohio; one brother, Lon Foglesong, Barnesville, O. Also surviving are ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the Mason Methodist Church with the Reverend Richard Wright officiating. The body will lie in state from 1:00 until 2:00 in the church.
Friends may call at the Foglesong funeral home at anytime today. Burial will be in the Suncrest memorial park cemetery.
Historical Notes
Note: Funeral Home
The Foglesong Funeral Home, a fourteen-room, three-floor brick home on Second and Pomeroy Streets, Mason, was built by John Young about 1873 and purchased by W.H. Foglesong about 1918. Will Foglesong lived in Mason all of his life, and was director of the Foglesong Funeral Home for sixty years. Will Foglesong became a licensed mortician in 1902.
When his father retired in 1948, W. Donald Foglesong assumed the management of the Funeral Home until 1974 when Ray Tucker, a long-time employee, became owner and manager.
Note: After providing an ambulance trip for someone, Will Foglesong sent them a bill. The people replied by saying that they would give him some potatoes because they didn't have any money. The potatoes were loaded into the Foglesong vehicle. Before they left, Will asked the people, "And where are your potatoes?" "That's all we have."
Note: I worked with Dad since I was 14 years old. I even got out of school to help with funerals. One time we went out in the middle of the night to a house in the country where the father had died. At that time embalming could be done at home or at the funeral home. The people there were arguing. One son said to take the deceased to the funeral home, and the other said "Don't move him."
We put the father on the stretcher and started towards the door when a son came after us, saying "Now, Mr. Foglesong, where are you going to embalm my father?" Dad at that point felt a gun pressed against his back, so he replied, "Anywhere you like. Let's leave him here."
Name Note
Note: In German the name means birdsong, and it is spelled Vogelsang.