Our business had humble beginnings, founded circa 1901 as Hofler’s Coffin House by Lycurgus Hofler on a lot behind his home on High Street in Gatesville, NC. Mr. Hofler was a well known lay preacher in area Baptist churches, served as the Gates County Register of Deeds, the Superintendent of the Gates County Schools, and a term in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
In 1914 Mr. Hofler sold the business to James P. Blanchard, a peanut buyer and fertilizer dealer, who moved the business a little further up High Street and operated it until 1924 when failing health led him to sell to Paul L. Hofler and William J. Rountree. Mr. Paul Hofler had worked in banking and also had served as the Register of Deeds. Mr. Rountree was the “Undertaker” for the Hobbsville community, served as the Gates County Sheriff and like Mr. Lycurgus Hofler, also served in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Together they moved the business to Main Street, where it remains today, and operated it as Rountree and Hofler Funeral Home for many years. Upon Mr. Rountree’s death in 1949, his son, J. Lester Rountree assumed ownership of his father’s part of the business. He and Mr. Hofler continued service together until 1963 when Mr. Hofler died suddenly on the morning of December 31st.
Lester Rountree, with assistance from his son, L. Frank Rountree and other family members operated the funeral home until 1967 when they sold it to the Twiford family of Elizabeth City, the area’s largest funeral provider. The Twifords continued the business until June 1987 when we bought the Gatesville operation from their chain of funeral homes.
Since our purchase of the business, we have completely remodeled the existing facility and added over 3000 square feet to both the funeral home and the living quarters on the second and third floors. The original part of the structure dates to 1880 and careful attention has been given to the additions so that the Victorian theme remains in all parts of the home.
In November 2000, we opened a second location at 735 Virginia Road just outside of Historic Edenton to better serve the people of neighboring Chowan County. A modern and convenient building of 7500 square feet, it offers three large parlors that together open to a 12 foot wide central hall affording ample space for visitations. As you will see when you browse through the pictures of our homes’ interiors, we offer traditional, full-size, casket selection areas instead of catalogs, small models, or computer monitors. We just feel that families are better served when they see their actual selections.
In September 2006, The Cremation Center was built adjacent to our Edenton funeral home. This is the area’s only facility fully dedicated to the needs of cremation. Complete with its own selection area of cremation caskets, urns, urn vaults, cremation jewelry, and columbarium style monuments we are pleased to offer “on-site” cremation when many funeral homes simply contract that service out to a third party provider.
In April 2010 we opened our third location at 1125 Harvey Point Road in Hertford. Partnered with David Van Essendelft, it is built on the same floor plan but of smaller scale as our Edenton facility, and is both spacious and convenient to the families of Perquimans and Pasquotank counties.
Yes, humble beginnings, and yet today we are humbled still by your call to service. Thank you for visiting our site and please feel free to contact us for any additional information you may need.
Paul and Karen Miller