Sue Sitter/PCT Dale and Marilyn Niewoehner pose in the family consultation room of Niewoehner Funeral Home. A full tour will be available to the public at the funeral home’s open house, slated for Feb. 19 from 2-5 p.m.

In the 50 years since Dale Niewoehner transformed a vacant creamery building into a welcoming space for area families grieving the loss of a loved one, he’s seen many changes.

Soon after receiving his funeral director’s license Feb. 19, 1972, Niewoehner opened Niewoehner Funeral Home.

“The philosophy for services and how end of life ceremonies are thought of by everybody, and in recent times now, the attendance of funeral services have changed,” Niewoehner said of the things he’s notice most in the community. “With changes in philosophy, I think of how people think when the end of life comes for their family member. It used to be that everything would be stopped and we would take care of this matter. But now, the thinking has changed with some people. Especially with cremation coming in, people will say, ‘We’ll take care of the immediate needs, then we’ll come and see you in the next week or two. When we come back from our cruise, we’ll stop in and see what we want to do.’ Or, ‘We’ll have something this summer.’ That’s how the thinking has changed.”

“And the manner of dress has changed,” Niewoehner added. “It used to be that people had a suit on. But that’s changed drastically.”

Niewoehner might notice changes more than an average person because of his interest in local history.

“This building was built in the early 1900s as a livery, feed and sale barn,” Niewoehner said, paging through a collection of old business records. “Then, in the 1910s, there was farm machinery sold out of the building. Then, in the 1930s, it became a creamery and meat locker plant.”

Niewoehner said the building was purchased by Fairmount Foods of Minnesota and managed by two people. One, Tony Jaeger, purchased the business. An adjacent building once housed a soda fountain and ice cream shop. Niewoehner uses the building for meetings, its walls decorated with memorabilia that includes a photo of himself with President Joe Biden.

“As a side light, back in the alley in 1963 was the murder of (Rugby Police Officer) Frank Peterson,” Niewoehner said of a tragic story from Rugby’s past. “It was maybe 20 feet from the Merchants Bank drive-up. That’s where officer Peterson was murdered.”

“People turn to me for a lot of history, just for the community and for genealogy type of work. I have information about all the people I’ve served but I also have access to other information. It’s been a joy for me to solve mysteries for many people who’ve been looking for lost ancestors who lived here a long time ago,” Niewoehner said.

Niewoehner said when the COVID-19 pandemic came to the area in 2020, he turned to a journal of early funeral records he had “that told the story of the influenza pandemic in 1917, ’18 and ’19.”

Serving his community

Niewoehner added he had helped two families solve mysteries relating to long-lost relatives buried in the area. One came to Niewoehner’s attention during his term as mayor of Rugby. Niewoehner said he took a call from a man in New York looking for information on an immigrant from Norway who was buried “somewhere in Rugby.” Niewoehner and staffers happened to have discovered 200 death certificates that hadn’t been filed with the health department in a vault at that time.

“This man we were looking for just happened to be in that group,” Niewoehner recalled. “Miraculously, we found where he was buried within two to three hours of when this person called because of this death certificate because we knew sort of where he was,” he said. “He died of (tuberculosis) I think when he got here. I think he died in 1910 or ’11.

“Then, a short time later, that man’s grandson came from Norway to visit the grave and he poured water on his grandfather’s grave from the town in Norway where he was from,” Niewoehner added. “But no family member had stood at that grave until that time, as far as I know. He’d been dead for nearly 100 years.”

Niewoehner said he also helped a family learn about siblings separated from one another after piecing clues together from a little-known woman’s grave in the Tunbridge Cemetery. The investigation took five years and revealed the story of a man given up for adoption in Pierce County after his mother died in childbirth in the early 1900s. The man learned of his sisters, who had returned to Norway with their father.

Help with family histories is one of many ways Niewoehner has served his community. He was involved in local government as mayor from 2002-2010. Before that, Niewoehner had served on the city council since 1986. Niewoehner often speaks enthusiastically about the Rugby Jaycees, a club he joined when he arrived in Rugby in 1972 before he said he “aged out.” Niewoehner has been an active member of the Rugby Lions for years. He’s a familiar face at the Lions’ Music in the Park events during the summer.

“I would say that being in this kind of business and in city government, I tried to do what would be the best for the people I was serving in both segments of service. In this business, you do what the family wants. In public service, you do what’s best for the majority, but you listen to everybody. Then, you weigh the benefit (of their position),” Niewoehner said.

“Everybody’s a human being. They need to be listened to and then that decision needs to be weighed. But, the last line of the Jaycees Creed is, ‘Service to humanity is the best work of life.’ And that creed was said at every Jaycee meeting,” Niewoehner said. “I attended a funeral of a very good friend of mine who used to be in Rugby. He was the state president and national vice president of the Jaycees and at the end of his funeral, there were a lot of old Jaycees there and we recited the Jaycee Creed. I was proud to bring him up from Bismarck to bury him in St. John, where he was originally from.”

“I try and personalize things to their liking and do the things that they want, not necessarily what everybody else wants, but what they want to do,” Niewoehner said.

Niewoehner and his wife, Marilyn, have organized funerals both plain and fancy. One of their most noteworthy funerals involved a procession with a horse-drawn hearse for Olaf “Ole” Solberg, known as “The Last of the Cowboys” in 1999. Solberg was inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Niewoehners saved news clippings of Solberg’s funeral.

“We had the funeral at the Leeds Church, then we drove to the family ranch and put the (coffin) in the wagon and went to St. Petri Church in York,” Niewoehner said, pointing to a photo. “There I am, driving the hearse.”

Open house

The story of Solberg’s funeral and other mementos will be available for the public to see at Niewoehner Funeral Home’s open house, set for Feb. 19 from 2-5 p.m.

“He’s going to give tours of the entire place,” Marilyn Niewoehner said of her husband.

The tour includes a visit to the Niewoehner chapel, with walls displaying banners from Rugby’s Bethany Lutheran Church.

The tour also includes the home’s casket room, offices and numerous displays. One features mementos from Niewoehner’s days at Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago, Ill. Among the items is a cast of a funeral mask of Abraham Lincoln, a gift from the family of Niewoehner’s former instructor. Niewoehner said the cast suffered some damage in shipping.

“Abe lost most of his nose,” Niewoehner said, smiling.

The open house will feature hors d’ oeuvres and a drawing for a pastel floral painting by Marilyn Niewoehner, who has won awards for her work at art shows in North Dakota and other western states.

Niewoehner said he was grateful to be among local businesses that have served the public for decades.

“I’m the only owner of the business in the same business for 50 years. And I don’t think anybody else can say that. The closest would be Merchants Bank, and they’re in a different building,” Niewoehner said.

“I want to especially thank the people I’ve been honored to serve. I’ve served young and old from stillborn to over 100 years old and everything in between. I’ve served families who’ve had a tragedy, and those who’ve had a blessing (because their loved one has finally ended a long period of suffering). And that means a great deal to me, that I can serve these people with honor and dignity and do what they want me to do,” Niewoehner added.