Innovative Immigrants Created Funeral Empire
Submitted by:	N.O.V.A. April 2005
Source:  	Times Picayune 10-10-1991

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Jacob Schoen arrived in New Orleans in 1859. He
was a very ambitious 16-year-old immigrant from
Rommersheim, Germany.

Also emigrating from Germany that year was Henry
Frantz, a wheelwright and blacksmith.

Young Schoen began his career as a carriage
driver for Frantz. Schoen was also a skilled
woodworker and cabinetmaker.

During the early 1870s New Orleans was beset by a
terrible yellow fever epidemic that quickly
killed hundreds of citizens at an alarming rate.
In those days livery stables were busy renting
carriages for funerals.

Frantz's Livery was very busy and Schoen was busy
using his cabinetmaking skill to make coffins. A
logical step for these two men was to begin a
funeral business. Schoen and Frantz proved a
lucrative partnership.

On March 4, 1874, the two men opened a funeral
home at 155 N. Peters St. in New Orleans with the
motto "The highest standards of funeral service
to all regardless of financial circumstances."
This was the beginning of the Jacob Schoen & Son
Funeral Homes that have served the families of
Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. Tammany
parishes for 5 generations.

Later Schoen's son Philip J. Schoen and his, wife
Mary Elizabeth Sporl, carried on the business
with their children: Philip Jr., Cyprian Joseph,
Edward, Gerard, Mildred, Edith (later Mrs. E.J.
Fielding Sr.), Meda (later Mrs. Edward L.
Brennan) and Hilda (later Mrs. Roy L. Brooks).

On June 11, 1915, the Schoen and Molloy Funeral
Home was chartered in Covington with Philip J.
Schoen as president, Walter Deniger Molloy as
vice president and general manager and Gilbert P.
Molloy as secretary-treasurer.

Also in 1915, Philip Schoen leased the old Badon
Livery Stable and Undertaking establishment at
the corner of Gibson and Columbia streets, where
the old Commercial Hotel was and where Maison Nez
Liquor Store is now.

On Oct. 20, 1921, the Schoens purchased lots one
and two of square 22, division of St. John - the
corner of Lockwood and Columbia Street - and
built the "new" funeral home there in 1922. The
building is known today as Roberts' Beauty
School.

The Schoen and Molloy home was run by Mrs.
Mildred Schoen Molloy. Her husband Walter died on
Oct. 22, 1918, during the great flu epidemic. She
was left with three small daughters: Mary
Elisabeth (later Mrs. Clay Prieto), Mildred
(later Mrs. Giles P. Pennington) and Audrey Emily
(later Mrs. Lindsay Wallace Reed). In the same
year the funeral home was opened, Mrs. Molloy
married George "Pete" Koepp. They also had three
daughters: Meda, Lurline (later Mrs. G.C.
Alexius) and George Helen (later Mrs. Philip F.
Burns).

Also involved with the Covington funeral home was
Cyprian Joseph Schoen, younger brother of
Mildred. He moved to Covington after a stint in
the military service to help his widowed sister
with the business. On June 20, 1923, Cyp, as he
was called, married Gladys "Lady" Burns, daughter
of Mamie and the late Preston Burns. The Burnses
lived directly across Columbia St. from Mildred
and Cyp.

Lady and Cyp had two sons - Cyprian Jr. and Gary
Thomas. Cyp Sr. continued to share the business
with Mildred until his untimely death on Feb. 13,
1942.

On June 10, 1957, Jacob Schoen and Son Inc.
purchased from the Covington St. Tammany Land and
Improvement Co. all of Square 710 on Tyler Street
in "New" Covington and built the funeral home we
know today.

Although several years ago the Schoen family sold
their interest in the corporation, members of the
fourth and fifth generations descended from Jacob
Schoen and directly descended from Edith Schoen
Fielding and Mildred Schoen Molloy Koepp continue
to manage the businesses and maintain the rigid
standards that Jacob Schoen and Henry Frantz
began more than 117 years ago.

Todd Valois is a resident of Covington and the
archivist for the St. Tammany Parish clerk of
court. Any comments, ideas or questions on parish
history are welcome. Please send them to him at
P.O. Box 2552, Covington, La. 70434.