A brief history of Lauer Funeral Home
 (this page is an ongoing project -- more soon!!)

In March of 1901, Philip J. Lauer, 21 years of age, completed embalming school in Kansas City, MO and returned to Seneca, Kansas, to start his own business. He began his combination livery and undertaking services with four black horses, a horse drawn hearse, and a store front on Seneca's Main Street. There were other undertakers in Seneca, but Phil was a friendly, likeable man and succeeded in the business. He and his wife, the former Anna Wempe, had seven children.

Their son, Cyril, helped his Dad and became interested in the undertaking business. He graduated from Williams Institute of Embalming in Kansas City, MO, and at the same time was employed by a funeral home in Kansas City. In 1929 Cyril returned to Seneca where he was married to the former Geneva Severin, who became a licensed funeral director active in the business. They rented the C.C.K. Scoville mansion at 212 South 4th Street and established one of the first funeral homes as such in rural northeast Kansas. Previously, the deceased were prepared in their own homes to lie in state there until the funeral and burial, but gradually families began to use the facilities at Lauer Funeral Home. In 1930, Cyril started an ambulance service, using a 1929 Nash combination hearse-ambulance that he bought in Lima, Ohio.  Phil Lauer died in January 1933.

Cyril and Geneva had four children; Jeanann, David, Donald, and James. After serving in the US Air Force for four years, with a 15-month tour of duty in Seoul during the Korean War, David Lauer started college in the fall of 1955 in Kansas City, MO, and also was employed by Mellody-McGilley-Eylar Funeral Home. In the fall of 1956, he transferred to the Mortuary Science Program at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN.  While attending school, he was employed by Welander-Quist Funeral Home on Dupont Ave in Minneapolis where he worked for ten years. In 1962 David married Sally Pape in Minneapolis. They moved to Seneca in 1966 with their two sons Christopher and Michael. Cyril and Geneva wanted to sell the funeral home because of their health problems. David and Sally, a registered public health nurse who became a funeral director, purchased the funeral home. Cyril died October 13, 1967 and Geneva on March 27, 1977.

In the summer of 1972 David contacted Wolfgang Dorschlag, a funeral home architect in Columbus, Ohio, about building an addition onto the house to operate more efficiently as a funeral home. "Wolf" came up with a creative design continuing the Victorian style, which was completed in May of 1973. The addition consists of two levels. On the lower level is a preparation room, an arrangement office, a rest room, and one of the largest display rooms of any small funeral home in the area. On the main level is a spacious chapel seating 180 people, a family room for up to 28 people, a large reception area, a flower room, and two additional rest rooms.

The funeral home is furnished with antiques purchased throughout the years. Some of the rooms in the original building are still used as lying-in-state rooms. The addition made it possible to better serve the families, and allow more living space for the David Lauer family now consisting of four children. In January of 1973 the ambulance service was gladly turned over to the City of Seneca.

David Lauer is involved in the pre-arranging of funerals and also has a successful monument business. Amateur radio has been a special interest of his over the years stemming from radio experience in the Air Force. The 60 foot radio tower with an array of antennas doesn't exactly fit with the architecture of a Victorian home, but the antennas and the height helped to make radio contacts with "hams" in many parts of the world. David enjoyed running amateur radio phone patches, particularly for the South Pole in Antarctica.

The year 2001 marked the 100th year anniversary of three generations of Lauers owning and operating the Lauer Funeral Home. Currently, 2003 is the 102nd year of operation under family ownership.