When the brothers succeeded their uncle Joe Laufersweiler to become fifth-generation owners of Laufersweiler Funeral Home, he “very much instilled a history of the business and how it was to be continued,” Luke said. “Which was to take care of every detail the families ask for and to do your best no matter what, to treat each family like they were our family.

“Very few people get to be there for somebody during something as sacred as losing a loved one and provide comfort through the entire process. It’s very rewarding.”

Added his older brother Mark: “Helping families get through a difficult time in their life brings us joy and fulfillment. The thank yous and hugs at the end of service make each day better knowing we have made things a little easier for each family.”

At the time Conrad Laufersweiler opened his funeral home business in 1856, the United States was 80 years old, the State of Iowa was 10 and Fort Dodge was just 6. Today, Laufersweiler Funeral Home is the oldest family business in Fort Dodge and one of the oldest in Iowa.

Its founder was born in Doerrebach, Prussia, near the Rhine River, and immigrated to the United States as a young man, living in Ohio for a short time before making his way west to Des Moines, where he spent two years. In 1856 he traveled to Fort Dodge on the Charles Rogers, the Des Moines River steamboat that plied between Keokuk and Fort Dodge in those early years. For a time, he lived in one of the original fort buildings in Fort Dodge.

Laufersweiler was an experienced cabinet maker who made most of his furniture by hand. A year after opening the funeral home, he opened the first furniture store in Fort Dodge, making furniture out of black walnut trees that are still found in abundance in the area.

The two businesses were located in the same buildings, but it was one of Laufersweiler’s principles in business to keep them separated, according to family lore, because he wanted to “keep from the public anything that might resurrect unpleasant memories.” He was later joined by three sons — William J., John and Charles. The furniture business was located on the south side of Central Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets and operated until 1929, the start of the Great Depression, when it closed.

Conrad Laufersweiler and his wife were the parents of 10 children — five sons, William J., John, Charles, Albert and Frank; and five daughters, Mary, Bertha, Kitty and twins Edith and Elsie.

Mary would become the mother of one of the most famous hotel magnates in the world — Conrad Hilton, who carried the first name of his grandfather. She was the only of the daughters who married, and was wedded to Augustus H. Hilton in Webster, Iowa, in 1885. Their son Conrad Nicholson Hilton, born on Christmas Day 1887, would become the developer and owner of the Hilton Hotel chain. He visited Fort Dodge and was the speaker at the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce’s 50th Anniversary Banquet on Dec. 4, 1952, at the Hotel Warden.

Conrad Laufersweiler died on April 22, 1903, and was buried in Corpus Christi Cemetery. His son Charles Laufersweiler became the second-generation owner of the funeral home, followed by Charles’ son Welch Laufersweiler as the third-generation owner. Welch sold the funeral home to his son Joe Laufersweiler in 1979, six years before Welch’s death.

Joe Laufersweiler attended Sacred Heart School and graduated from St. Edmond High School in 1970. He first attended Iowa Central Community College and later received his degree in mortuary science from the University of Minnesota. In 1991, he and his wife Carol had a daughter, Sarah — “She was Joe’s pride and joy,” according to his obituary. “Joe never forgot a name. Every hand he shook or hug he gave was genuine. He was a pillar in his industry and a pillar in the Fort Dodge community.”

The fifth generation of ownership moved to Mark and Luke Laufersweiler, sons of Joe’s brother Tom, “when Uncle Joe found that his daughter Sarah didn’t want to get into the business at the time there was opportunity for a fifth generation,” Luke said. “He could have sold to a chain or another funeral home, but decided he wanted to keep it in the family.”

Tom Laufersweiler had decided that the funeral home business “was not his cup of tea,” Luke said of his father. Tom now farms near Otho with his son Tommy, a U.S. Navy veteran. The three brothers have another brother, Konrad Laufersweiler, and his wife Taylor, who live in Des Moines, and a sister, Teddie Laufersweiler, who lives in Phoenix.

Neither Mark nor Luke initially had any intention of going into the family business. But “little steps fell into place,” Mark said.

The first was when the two brothers, both St. Edmond graduates, moved into apartments above the funeral home while attending Iowa Central. They paid their rent by doing odd jobs such as washing cars and mowing the lawn and helping with funerals for their uncle and his business partner, Harlow Sievers.

Sievers “showed us the route we would need to take” to get more involved in the business, Mark said.

Mark enrolled in the Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling, Illinois, and returned to the business after graduating in 1996. A year later, Luke attended Kansas City, Kansas, Mortuary School and joined the company in 1998 after graduation. They worked together with their uncle and Sievers until Joe Laufersweiler died in January 2018 and Sievers in 2020.

Laufersweiler Funeral Home is one of three funeral homes in Fort Dodge, all with long histories. Historic Bruce Funeral Home was founded by Byron Wilder in 1938, taking its name when Mack Bruce took over Wilder’s interest and ran it from 1945 to 1972. It is co-owned by Jamie Johnson and Jayme Lentz. Gunderson Funeral Home was started in 1966 by Bob Gunderson after he worked seven years for Laufersweiler Funeral Home. He died in 1989 and today, it is co-owned by his son, Phil Gunderson, and Phil’s son, Rob.

Luke Laufersweiler describes the relationship of the three funeral homes as “very cordial. The first person to come to our funeral home when Uncle Joe died was Phil Gunderson. I am friends with Rob, his son.”

Laufersweiler has branches in Gowrie — Laufersweiler-Palmer and Sons, and in Rockwell City — Laufersweiler-Palmer and Swank. Combined, the three average a total of about 250 funeral services per year, about 175 of them in Fort Dodge, Mark said.

Luke said it was important to note that “without the help of Ned Palmer, Dave Swank, Shawn Portz, Susan McDonald, Emily Johnson, Brie Moore, Becky Antrim and all the part-timers, the level of service we provide would not be what it is. They make it possible and they allow Mark and I to also almost never miss our kids’ sports and events. We are very grateful for them and all their hard work.”

It’s way too early to know if Laufersweiler Funeral Home will move to a sixth generation of ownership, as its present owners hope may happen one day.

“It’d be awesome … it’d be great,” Mark said. “That’s a next step away — we’re trying to do one year at a time.”

Mark is 51 and Luke is 50. Mark and his wife Susan, director of development at St. Edmond Catholic School, have three children — JT, 19; Griffin, 16; and Josie, 12. Luke and his wife Abbie, who manages Hair Receiver Salon, also have three children — Maxx, 15; Ezra, 13; and Kash, 10.

“There is a special feeling to five generations,” Luke said. “And the odds of that are in the millions. There’s also a feeling of pressure. We’re honored to be the fifth generation in our family to run this business, There aren’t many family businesses in the world that have five generations. We certainly want to continue it and not be the ones where it ends. We also want it to be available for maybe our kids to be the sixth generation.

“You either need a calling to it or a draw to it. For me, the biggest draw was making people feel better at the worst possible time in their lives. I loved being able to do that, from the very first funeral I handled. None is the same, no family is the same. This job makes a person grateful for life. After we handle one of our friends’ funerals, we hug our family a bit longer.”

Mark said: “It’s an honor to be a part of this business that has served so many people for so long. We are just happy to have a business that has been around for so long and that we have a great team to keep it going for years to come.”