History of the Funeral Home

A Young Man's Dream

In 1916 Homer D. Timson had a dream of some day owning his own funeral business. A native of Caledonia and while still in High School the sixteen year old was encouraged by the local funeral director and physician to attend embalming school and become a funeral director.

That summer he enrolled in a six week course at the Columbus School for embalmers and graduated, but could not take the State Board examination until he was 21.

When the United States entered World War I Homer joined the army and served in France as an ambulance driver. After his discharge he returned to Columbus and reviewed for his examination and was granted his embalmer's license. In the years that followed he served his apprenticeship under M. H. Gunder of Marion, founder of the Gunder Hall & Foulk Funeral Directors.

In 1924 Homer and his new wife Opal moved to Caledonia where they opened a store front operation on the village square called the Homer D. Timson Undertaking and Furniture Company.
In 1926 the Timsons purchased a new Chevrolet Ambulance that would be the first of many that the funeral home would own over the next 50 years as they continued to provide this necessity for the community.

In 1927 the funeral business was moved to a newly remodeled home on South Main Street where the business is still located today. This was the second "funeral home" established in Marion County. In February of 1936 Homer Timson died of septicemia contracted while embalming leaving his wife and two children to carry on. Mrs. Timson was determined to continue the dream. On April 6, 1936 Robert H. Allen came to Caledonia to become the funeral director and embalmer for the Timson Funeral Home. In 1939 Mrs. Timson and Mr. Allen were married and continued to operate the Timson Allen Funeral home until their deaths in April and September of 1980 respectively.

In March of 1981 Mark and Diana Melroy came to Caledonia to pursue the day to day operations of the funeral home. The Melroys are natives of the Tiffin area and moved to Caledonia upon Marks graduation from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science. Since that time they have continued the challenges of operating a small town business by offering a dignified service that continues the practices of Homer & Opal Timson and Robert Allen.