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Ocean Grove Memorial Home
118 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, New Jersey 07756

Thomas J. Saragusa, Manager
N. J. License No. 4036

VOICE 732-775-0434 - - OGMHognj@aol.com

HISTORY

The Ocean Grove Memorial Home was founded in 1956 by the late William P. Walton, Jr, then the owner of the Farry Memorial Home, a funeral home in Asbury Park. At the time he bought and converted the building at 118 Main Avenue, there was no funeral home in Ocean Grove and, of course, the streets were closed on Sundays.

Part of the agreement with the Camp Meeting Association that allowed the establishment of a funeral home in Ocean Grove, was that there would be no driving on the streets on Sunday (except to remove the body of a decedent from a residence or nursing facility...if a death occurred at a location outside Ocean Grove, on a Sunday, the decedent's body could not be brought into Ocean Grove).

The Ocean Grove Memorial Home was originally operated as a branch, a "storefront," if you will. No caskets were stored in the building, no embalming was done in the building and all funeral arrangements were initiated and completed at the "main office" in Asbury Park. Clients were always offered the opportunity to be "called for" to make service arrangement and select funeral merchandise at the Asbury Park location.

After the funeral arrangements were made and the casket selected, the decedent's body was placed in the chosen casket and transported by hearse to Ocean Grove, driven into the new garage and thence unloaded unseen into the funeral home. A very proper operation for Ocean Grove at the time.

The funeral home opened for business in February and local residents were invited to visit the new establishment at it's first (and only) open house. Lady visitors were given leather covered metal pillboxes.

Will Walton, Sr., formerly a fruit and produce purveyer from Mercerville and his wife, Mildred, resided on the second floor and acted as caretaker and assistant. At the time, long time Farry Memorial Home employee, Ed Woodfield, was the only other employee of the funeral home.

A few years after Mrs. Walton, Sr. died in 1963, Will Sr. moved into the funeral home in Asbury Park with Bill and Mil Walton, Jr. and Don Newman came to work for the funeral home. He and his wife, Joyce and their son, Mark moved into the funeral home. Soon younger son, Rob was born.

The other licensed funeral director then working for the two location funeral home was Bob Nicholson of Eatontown. The two funeral homes operated that way until 1966 when Bill Walton, III was licensed and started work.

In 1970, Bill, Jr. had a slight stroke and at his wife's insistance, they (and Will, Sr.) moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont where they owned property to oversee the building of their retirement home. Bill, III and his wife, Heather (Ferguson) then assumed the management of the funeral homes.

Will Walton, Sr. died in 1971 and Bill, Jr. died in 1979 after having a more serious stroke. Several years later, his wife, Mildred (Jr.) moved back to the shore area. She died in 1989.

In the early 1990s, Asbury Park had deterioriated and the main operating office was moved from Asbury Park to Ocean Grove which entailed major renovations so that caskets and other funeral merchandise could be displayed for sale.

The Newmans, their boys now grown and on their own, purchased a bungalow in Ocean Grove and moved from the funeral home apartment. Bill's son-in-law, Buck, an accomplished carpenter, electrician and plumber took on the task of the renovations and did a wonderful job.

Bob Nicholson retired in the mid 1990s as did Don Newman, a few years later. Tom Saragusa joined the staff in 1996. In early 1997, a fire destroyed the Farry Memorial Home in Asbury Park leaving the Ocean Grove Memorial Home as the only operating location.

Bill Walton, III and his wife, Heather sold their interests in the FMH, Inc. and OGMH to Tom Saragusa in May of 2005 and although they still live several months in the local area, they spend the majority of their time in northern Maine. Bill continues to own this website (leasing it to the OGMH) and is in business producing websites for other funeral homes, computer databases and various funeral home and non-funeral home related forms.

After a fire gutted the former Farry Memorial Home, in Asbury Park, all records were moved to our Ocean Grove location and the business was operated under both names until the Farry name was "unregistered" with the N. J. Board of Mortuary Science in late 2003. All Farry records are still available at the Ocean Grove Memorial Home.

The Farry Memorial Home was started in 1908 at a location near the site of the current Asbury Park Fire Department. Later it was moved to a location on Main Street, just south of Third Avenue. A few years later it was moved by it's founder and owner, Fred E. Farry to it's long time location at 403 Third Avenue.

After Fred Farry died in 1933, his widow, Sarah, operated the funeral home with a long line of licensed managers including her son-in-law, the late Henry Dangler who, after leaving her employ, opened his own funeral home in Belmar.

In 1948, after returning from service in the Pacific and in Japan with the U. S. Navy and Marine Corp., Bill Walton, Jr. purchased the funeral home from Mrs. Farry and after she built a bungalow next to the funeral home, he moved into the funeral home building with his wife, Mildred Elizabeth Stothart and their only son, Bill, III...and the rest is history.

Formally, the Farry Memorial Home ceased to exist as a registered funeral home on December 31, 2003. All former records of the Farry Memorial Home are in the possession of the Ocean Grove Memorial Home.

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