Page 5 - Ruland Funeral Home

Charlie Morrison, had fallen from the rigging where the men had taken shelter from the freezing water. Other rescue attempts were unsuccessful. Lifesavers waited until morning when they found only two of the four remaining men on board were still alive. By midnight of the second day they were able to launch a rescue boat and retrieve the two men, 40 hours after the boat first became stranded.
Six crew members perished during the rescue efforts, two were rescued, only one survived. Eight plots were placed in the Lakeview Cemetery in Patchogue for the lost sailors, but only four are buried there, Gustave Jaiby, Charles Allen, August Olson and Fritz Oscar Ward.
(Source: https://www.nps.gov/fiis/learn/ historyculture/wreck-of-the-louis-v-place.htm)
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s reporter stated that it was estimated that over a thousand people journeyed on the ice across the Great South Bay from Bellport to Bay Shore to view the two wrecks. “The bodies presented a horrible sight and scores of people, to satisfy their morbid curiosity, went to Ruland’s undertaking rooms to see them.”
(SOURCE: Patchogue Advance, Feb. 15, 1895)
Following this tragedy, C. W. Ruland saw the importance of establishing a state-of- the-art facility for his family’s endeavors and, in 1906, began construction on a building specifically designed and dedicated to providing funeral services. Up until this time, funeral parlors on Long Island were merely converted Victorian homes.
In 1908, C.W. Ruland and his sons, Clarence W. and John R. Ruland, opened their new funeral home at the corner of Lake Street and North Ocean Avenue (which is now the home of Reese’s 1900 pub).
To quote The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Mr. Ruland can well be called a pioneer in his profession on Long Island by reason of his leadership in modernism..... Every modern device known to the profession is found at Ruland’s, and efficiency, combined with prompt, courteous, honest service, has been met with a large and merited patronage.”
In 1909, John R.
Ruland graduated
from the famous
Renouard School
of Embalming and
gradually took over
the daily operations of
the funeral home from his eventually John’s own sons, Wallace and George Ruland, would join the firm as well.
For the next 50 years, the Ruland family continued to serve the residents of Patchogue and the surrounding communities in their funeral parlor at the corner of North Ocean Avenue and Lake Street. In the 1940’s and 50’s, funerals became more elaborate and many families expressed a desire for larger rooms and greater parking facilities. In response, the Ruland family broke ground on a new and expanded facility located on a tract of farmland a mile from their original funeral home. In 1958, this new facility was completed and continues to serve as our current home.
In the late 1960’s, Mr.
Vincent Romeo began
employment at what
was now called
The Ruland Funeral
Home. Eventually,
Mr. Romeo purchased
the firm from the Ruland
family in the early 1970’s. In 1978, Vincent Romeo added to the existing Funeral Home with a formal portico for arriving families and expanded the building to include two additional
father -
RULAND FUNERAL HOME - Page 5