Claude lelley with hearse. Blacksmith and Claude lelley standing in front of his carriage shops in background. funeral home.

embalming was done in the homes. In the same year Claude pur- chased a fine new motor hearse - the first west of Summerside. There was no ambulance service in this area before 1940. Patients had to be transported to hospitals, usually in Summerside, Charlottetown, or Halifax, by train or by privately owned cars. Claude was the first to use his car, and sometimes his hearse, to provide much needed ambulance service. He had the front seat taken out and a bucket seat installed for the driver. A stretcher could then be placed lengthwise ; for the patient.

In 1939 Claude replaced the original buildings (carriage shop, blacksmith shop, and hearse building) with a new and larger funeral home on the same site. The extra space provided room for a casket display and for artificial flower arrangements - both innovations in the expanding business.

Always dressed in the traditional fashion of black swallow-tail coat and beaver hat, Claude performed his duties with dignity and respect. After serving as funeral director for thirty years, he sold the funeral home and the business to Douglas Ferguson. In 1971, Douglas sold the building to Jean Stetson after completing a larger and more modern funeral home on the corner of the Barclay Road and Beechwood Avenue.

DOUGLAS V. FERGUSON

Every business needs a promoter - one who contributes to its progress, development, or growth, one who fights for changes he knows are good and can convince people to depart from traditional ideas and plunge into the future. Douglas Ferguson is one of these

vital individuals. ‘ Douglas was born in Tryon, P.E.I., and grew up on his father's

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