LIMA — The Hogenkamp family has long been in the funeral home business.
The first Hogenkamp business was opened in 1874 by Bernard J. Hogenkamp in Minster. Hogenkamp had come to the United States from his birthplace of Holland in 1859. Hogenkamp had partnered with Mr. Kohner and later Joseph Knostman on combination funeral home-furniture businesses. Both partners left to focus on furniture while Hogenkamp focused on undertaking, constructing the current funeral home building on Hanover Street in 1903, according to the business website.
Hogenkamp’s son, Nicholas J., finished embalming school at Cincinnati and joined his father in the business in 1910, according to the company’s website. The third generation, Nicholas P., finished school and came into the business with his father and grandfather in 1932. The fourth generation, Nicholas A., came aboard in 1956 and his son, Nicholas C., joined in 1980. Five generations, all told.
Other Hogenkamps were not to be left out.
Robert Leroy Hogenkamp opened a funeral home in 1947 in Lima. Business founder Bernard Hogenkamp was his grandfather; Nicholas J. was his father; Nicholas P. was his brother. Up until that point, all the Hogenkamps had been associated with the Minster business, and Robert L. Hogenkamp opened a Lima location.
Robert L. Hogenkamp had come from Toledo, graduating from Cleveland College of Embalming. He was also associated with James Coyle and Son funeral home, according to a story in The Lima News in 2000. He had been a member of St. Gerard Catholic Church, former president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the National Funeral Directors Association.
In Lima, the funeral home was located on High Street. The funeral home served the Lima community there until it was moved to West Market Street, as reported by The Lima News in 1954. When Robert L. Hogenkamp sold the building to Dr. Harry Warshawsky, protests began to erupt within the community. Warshawsky planned to transform the local funeral home into an office building, and there was a spat about zoning violations.
In 1956, The Lima News reported that even the attorney, Anthony J. Bowers, agreed that it was best to once again relocate the funeral home. In that same year, Hogenkamp Funeral Home moved to West North Street. The property that the funeral home occupied at that time was leased from the Welker family.
Around 1958, the business was moved to Grand Avenue and continued until after Robert L. Hogenkamp’s death in 1988.
The company was expanding elsewhere.
In 1960, the family purchased the Romer funeral home in St. Henry from Stanley Romer on July 11, 1960, according to the business website. Nicholas P. Hogenkamp, the recent new owner of the Romer Funeral Home, brought in a second son, B. Jay Hogenkamp, who partnered with Larry Heitkamp in 1966.
In 1965, the family purchased the G.P. Desch funeral home in Coldwater. This business had operated there since 1900. This location is managed by B. Jay Hogenkamp, and his sons Brian and Scott joined.
In 2009, the family opened another location in Russia, Ohio, directed by Scott Hogenkamp.
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