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About Us

Our History

Gasch's Funeral Home was founded by Ernst Franz Bernhard (Francis) Gasch. Francis was born in Doebeln, Saxony, Germany, on November 26, 1830. His father was a school teacher, fluent in several languages. Francis studied under him until he was fourteen years old. Francis then moved to Frankenburg where he served for three years as an apprentice to a cabinetmaker.


Francis yearned for more. And in July of 1850, he left Germany and came to the U.S. When he arrived in Baltimore, Maryland he had no knowledge of the English language and only had 50 cents in his pocket. He immediately left for Washington, D.C., where he was able to find a position as a cabinetmaker. He worked for a gentleman named Mr. Charles Krumer, for the wage of $3.00 a month.


On April 17, 1854, Francis married Katherine Sophia Schron. On October 1, 1855, they moved to a house on Baltimore Avenue in Bladensburg, Maryland. A year later they purchased a home next to the George Washington House, later renamed The Indian Queen Tavern. The funeral home business began in 1858. Traditionally cabinetmakers constructed coffins when necessary. Francis had done this for many years for the people in the Bladensburg and Hyattsville areas. Soon people were asking him to tend to all of the funeral details. Francis began his business as "Francis Gasch - Undertaker." This business would eventually become "Gasch's Funeral Home, P.A."


While Francis was building his business, he was also building his family. Francis and Sophia had three sons, Edward, Ernest and Frank, and a daughter, Amelia. Edward and Ernest followed in their father's footsteps and became Morticians, attending mortuary school in Massachusetts.


Around 1895 Francis and Sophia moved their family and the business a short distance diagonally across the street. They lived in this home for the remainder of their lives. Sophia died on May 9, 1910, and Francis died on May 7, 1914.

In 1902, the funeral home opened its current location which was then also Ernest's home, with one viewing room. Ernest died in 1938, and his brother Edward and Ernest's son, William F. "Bill" and his wife, Ruth, took over the primary operation of the funeral home. In 1954, two years before Edward's death, he retired and sold his share of the funeral home to Bill. Ruth and Bill's only child, William Ernest, became a partner in 1962 and worked along with his wife, Constance.

In 1979 William F. retired and left William E and Constance to run the funeral home. William E. retired in 1984. William F. "Bill" Gasch died on November 3, 1999 at the age of 96. William E. Gasch died September 23, 2007 at the age of 73.


Today, Constance Gasch and the fifth generation of Gasch's - Claudette Gasch Lanning, operate the funeral home.


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