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The Burnett Family of Undertakers

At 26 years of age in 1865, Red Hook native and “cabinet maker” Stephen Burnett (1829–1911) and his young family were recorded in the New York State census in Red Hook. Ten years later he was labeled a “furniture dealer,” and in the 1880 Federal census as an “undertaker,” showing us the progression this profession took, not only for Burnett, but for many men who adapted to changing times.

Before the funeral became an industry, a furniture maker was just the man who crafted coffins. As the culture shifted following the Civil War and preserving the body of the deceased became popular, families looked to the furniture maker to undertake arrangements for the funeral and burial. This is how cabinet maker Stephen R. Burnett became undertaker Stephen R. Burnett.

Stephen operated the firm Near & Burnett with George Near until 1869 when he went independent and incorporated his sons in the business. In 1886 when he retired and passed the company on to his sons, Frank and William, they renamed it Burnett Brothers. Frank bought William out in 1922 and added his great-nephew Lloyd H. Rockefeller in 1933 forming Burnett & Rockefeller. Today, the business is owned by the Troy family under the name Burnett & White.

Frank (1885-1934) and William (1860-1952) were Stephen’s only children with his wife Sarah E. Eighmy (1833-1921), daughter of Rhinebeck native George D. Eighmy. William married Ella Hermance and they had one child, a son Eddie who died in infancy. Frank married Estella Lasher, a daughter of Jacob Lasher and Catherine Sipperly. Though they did not have children of their own, they adopted Bertha M. Donnelly, the daughter of a family friend, Armenia Ham Donnelly McCoy, who they cared for until she was married. Frank’s Lasher in-laws share the monument with the Burnetts; their family names are on the eastern side.

All three Burnett men were prominent in the Odd Fellows fraternal order, the sons following their father’s lead, holding high office in the Rhinebeck Lodge, Christian Lodge No. 379, and Shiloh Encampment No. 68 (a higher branch open to Third Degree members). In addition to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Frank was a charter member and the first master of Red Hook’s Hendrick Hudson Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He was involved with the incorporation of Red Hook as a village and in setting up its first public water works, and served as village clerk. Frank was also a member and trustee of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

William lived to age 92 and was the first chief of the G.W. Wilbur Hose Company (which became Red Hook Fire Company), president of School District No. 4’s Board of Education, and was a member of the Red Hook Businessmen’s Association, the Grange, and the Red Hook Society for the Apprehension and Detention of Horse Thieves. When he died, three distinct services were held at his funeral home: an Odd Fellows service at 7:45, Rebekah services at 8:00, and Fire Company services at 8:15.

All three Burnett men, their wives, and little Eddy Burnett are buried together in the cemetery where they helped lay hundreds of their neighbors to rest.

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