Uniform

Undertaker services in the 1800s were not like today. Funerals, wakes, and visitations were generally held in the home. Caskets were homemade or purchased from furniture dealers. An undertaker would help the family by undertaking the details that needed handling after the death of loved ones. The natural one for the role was the furniture dealer, who carried and sold caskets.

One early undertaker in Lowell was Wallace William Langs, who was referred to as W. W. Langs. He was born in 1851 and had been named after his father. Tragically, his father died in 1864 of pneumonia at Andersonville Prison. He served in New York’s Company K of the First Regiment of Dragoons. He had been captured at the battle of Manassas, Virginia, on October 26, 1863.

By 1870, W.W. Langs’ mother Mary had moved to Lowell to be closer to family. Her husband’s sister, Mary Jane, had married John Kopf of Lowell. To support herself and her children, Langs’ mother operated a boarding house. In her household she had her two children, Wallace (W.W.) and Alonzo along with three boarders. She taught her children by example to be a survivor and to work hard.

Langs married Alice Beach and they had no children. She worked as a dressmaker and other times as an in-home nurse.

In 1879 Langs went into business with Goodrich Kopf, after working as a clerk for 13 years with his uncle, John Kopf. Kopf & Lang’s Furniture store was located on the Main Street bridge, one door west of McCarty’s grocery. In July of 1881 H.H. Shepard bought Kopf’s interest. The new name appropriately, was now Shepard and Langs. In 1881 W. W. Langs was referred to in the Grand Rapids Press as ‘a leading Lowell undertaker’.

Langs was a member of the Michigan Undertakers Association. In 1881 he attended the second annual convention in Grand Rapids. The newspaper humorously titled their group “The End Men.” The purpose was to instruct and to help each other improve. The members read essays and listened to addresses and speeches. They changed their name to the Funeral Directors’ Association of Michigan. All agreed to style themselves as funeral directors on their signs, letters and bill heads, etc. The MFDA is the state’s oldest professional organization for funeral professions. The association provides member advocacy, continuing education, and consumer resources.

In January of 1883 the partnership of Shepard and Langs dissolved. Langs advertised that he could be found at the old stand with a complete line of undertaker’s goods.

It was written that Langs worked in the field of undertaking for 16 years. Things were changing fast in the funeral director world. Embalming had been in use since the civil war, but became common in the area in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. While he may not have continued as an undertaker or funeral director, he stayed connected to the furniture business as in the 1900 census he is listed as a furniture maker.

The life of W. W. Langs was one of hard work and accomplishment. He was singled out for a biographical sketch in Chapman’s 1881 History of Kent County. He was called a ‘self-made man’ who obtained a good business education obtained wholly by his own efforts. He was a furniture and funeral director who gave back to his craft and career for the benefit of those who would come after him.

Images:

Mary Jane Langs Kopf, Aunt of W.W. Langs.
​
Langs Family Reunion.