Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home

08/11/2025

Another kind review left by one of our client families we recently served.

While we think that in general what we do is just what is expected of us, we appreciate these kind remarks affirming we are doing the right thing for the families we serve.

"I would like to thank Kurt for all he has done for me with the passing of my mom. He was sympathetic, patient, kind while still showing true professionalism.
He gave excellent advice when explaining to him what her requests were. He went out of his way to make sure everything was what I had requested. Thank you for all that you have done for me. I greatly appreciate you."

Cris Hawkins

Doug & Cris Hawkins
August 10, 2025

08/11/2025

We are honored to be entrusted with the final care of Harry Swan, 48, of Castle Creek who died tragically at his home Thursday.



Due the sudden and tragic nature of Harry's death, his family is unprepared to cover all the funeral expenses. A gift from anyone will help. All donations will be securely handled by the funeral home and used only for the services costs. A record of all donors will be forwarded to the family. Please use the portal to make your donation.

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08/11/2025

We wish to thank our friends at Riverhurst Cemetery in Endwell for assisting with the burial services of a disabled veteran who died recently and was destitute of funds.

The veteran served two enlistments in the United States Army: 1984-87 and 1989-90, including active duty in Iraq during the first Gulf War and was service disabled.

While the Veterans Administration provides a free grave in a national cemetery, the surviving family wished for something closer to home and Riverhurst accommodated their needs.

Riverhurst Cemetery donated a grave in the veteran's section and waived the fee for opening the grave and the installation of a veterans grave marker.

This is the second time this year that Riverhurst has come forward to aid in providing a fitting tribute for a veteran served by the Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home.

Thank you Riverhurst - Lisa and staff - for helping honor our veterans.

08/10/2025

A touching story from NPR on how forensic experts are still working successfully to identify the remains of 9-11 victims.

As a funeral director, our owner Kurt Eschbach, served several families who lost loved ones during the attack on the Trade Center.

Not a one full body was discovered intact - often just small pieces - a hand, a finger, a pectoral muscle, a bone was identified and returned to the families for burial.

Sometimes months and years after additional parts were identified and returned for burial with the other parts.

It was a trying time for us as funeral directors and for the families we were called upon to serve.

This work is sacred to those who lost a loved one - and we give our approbation.

Using advanced DNA-analysis techniques researchers in New York City identified three more victims of the 9/11 terror attacks that occurred nearly 24 years ago.

08/09/2025

A fascinating cemetery located in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh.

The cemetery contains the graves of over 500 members of the Harmony (or Harmonist) Society (also known as Rappites - for their founder) a German religious sect that dissolved (largely due to celibacy) in 1905.

The cemetery is bordered by a distinctive stone wall with a unique revolving door, made of stone, built by local Mennonites. All the graves are unmarked.

Read on for this most interesting story.

I’m a bit of a road trip fanatic, and when I have a reason to travel out of town, even if it’s within my region of western Pennsylvania, I’m always

08/08/2025

We are honored to have been entrusted with the final care of Richard W. Clogston, Sr., age 64 of Owego, NY

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08/08/2025

Today in history - August 8, 1944 - During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure are executed by the United States for spying. Two other saboteurs who disclosed the plot to the FBI and aided U.S. authorities in their manhunt for their collaborators were imprisoned.

In 1942, under N**i leader Adolf Hitler’s orders, the defense branch of the German Military Intelligence Corps initiated a program to infiltrate the United States and destroy industrial plants, bridges, railroads, waterworks, and Jewish-owned department stores. The N**is hoped that sabotage teams would be able to slip into America at the rate of one or two every six weeks. The first two teams, made up of eight Germans who had all lived in the United States before the war, departed the German submarine base at Lorient, France, in late May.

Just before midnight on June 12, in a heavy fog, a German submarine reached the American coast off Amagansett, Long Island, and deployed a team who rowed ashore in an inflatable boat. Just as the Germans finished burying their explosives in the sand, John C. Cullen, a young U.S. Coast Guardsman, came upon them during his regular patrol of the beach. The leader of the team, George Dasch, bribed the suspicious Cullen, and he accepted the money, promising to keep quiet. However, as soon as he passed safely back into the fog, he sprinted the two miles back to the Coast Guard station and informed his superiors of his discovery. After retrieving the German supplies from the beach, the Coast Guard called the FBI, which launched a massive manhunt for the saboteurs, who had fled to New York City.

Although unaware that the FBI was looking for them, Dasch and another saboteur, Ernest Burger, decided to turn themselves in and betray their colleagues, perhaps because they feared capture was inevitable after the botched landing. On July 15, Dasch called the FBI in New York, but they failed to take his claims seriously, so he decided to travel to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. On July 18, the same day that a second four-man team successfully landed at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Dasch turned himself in. He agreed to help the FBI capture the rest of the saboteurs.

Burger and the rest of the Long Island team were picked up by July 22, and by July 27 the whole of the Florida team was arrested. To preserve wartime secrecy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a special military tribunal consisting of seven generals to try the saboteurs. At the end of July, Dasch was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Burger was sentenced to hard labor for life, and the other six Germans were sentenced to die. The six condemned saboteurs were executed by electric chair in Washington, D.C., on August 8. In 1944.

The six bodies were buried in a potter's field in the Blue Plains neighborhood in the Anacostia area of Washington.

In 1948, Dasch and Burger were freed by order of President Harry S. Truman, and they both returned to Germany.

08/07/2025

Today is "Purple Heart Day" - honoring the establishment of the Military badge - The Purple Heart by General George Washington - August 7, 1782 during the American Revolution.

The award known as the Purple Heart has a history that reaches back to the waning days of the American Revolution. The Continental Congress had forbidden General George Washington from granting commissions and promotions in rank to recognize merit. Yet Washington wanted to honor merit, particularly among the enlisted soldiers. On August 7, 1782, his general orders established the Badge of Military Merit.

Washington stated that the award was to be a permanent one, but once the Revolution ended, the Badge of Military Merit was all but forgotten until the 20th century.

General John J."Blackjack" Pershing suggested a need for an award for merit in 1918, but it was not until 1932 that the modern Purple Heart was created in recognition of Washington's ideals and for the bicentennial of his birth. General Order #3 announced the establishment of the award.

On May 28, 1932, 136 World War I veterans were conferred their Purple Hearts at Temple Hill, in New Windsor, NY. Temple Hill was the site of the New Windsor Cantonment, which was the final encampment of the Continental Army in the winter of 1782-1783. Today, the National Purple Heart continues the tradition begun on these grounds in 1932, of honoring those who have been awarded the Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart has undergone many changes with respect to the criteria for being awarded. At first, the Purple Heart was exclusively awarded to Army and Army Air Corps personnel and could not be awarded posthumously to the next of kin. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order allowing the Navy to award the Purple Heart to Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guard personnel. Also in that year, the Purple Heart was made available for posthumous awarding to any member of the Armed Forces killed on or after December 6, 1941.

Originally the Purple Heart was awarded for merit. Being wounded was considered to be one type of merit. With the creation of the Legion of Merit in 1942, the award of the Purple Heart for merit became unnecessary and was therefore discontinued.
Currently, the Purple Heart, per regulation is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917 has been wounded, killed, or has died after being wounded by enemy action.

Many of us have family or friends who are/were recipients of this award.
Please share the name or photo of your purple hea

08/06/2025

August 6, 1890 - Today in History: The First Ex*****on by Electric Chair

The electric chair was invented by Dr. Alfred Southwick, a dentist from Buffalo, New York, who believed it would be a more humane method of ex*****on compared to hanging.

William Kemmler, convicted of murdering his common-law wife Matilda “Tillie” Ziegler with a hatchet, was executed using this new method at Auburn Prison in New York.

On the morning of August 6, 1890, Kemmler was strapped into the wooden chair, and electrodes were attached to his body. At 6:38 AM, 1,000 volts of electricity surged through his body for 17 seconds. Initially, witnesses thought Kemmler had died, but he began to show signs of life. A second jolt of 2,000 volts was then administered, which lasted about two minutes and resulted in his death.

Kemmler was buried in the prison cemetery.

An interesting side note - The use of electricity for ex*****on was actually part of a competition between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to try to prove the safety or danger (depending which side you were viewing) of direct current verses alternating current. Edison utilized direct current in his business and Westinghouse alternating current. Edison successfully fought for the use of AC to "prove" it more dangerous than direct. Ultimately Edison lost the battle and alternating current won out for popular consumer use and for ex*****ons too.

*****on

08/06/2025

On August 6, 1945, in an effort to bring war in the Pacific Theater to an end, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The explosion destroyed 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people

Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, ushering in a new era of reconstruction, peace and amity between our two countries.

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08/05/2025

We are honored to be entrusted with the final care of Lillian Doolittle, of Johnson City.

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