McFarlands tell PCHA about funeral home’s 100 years in Polk
Published 9:05 am Thursday, June 30, 2011
The McFarland Funeral Home celebrates 100 years of service to the community this year. Darlene McFarland and Keen McFarland presented a program to the Polk County Historical Association on June 7 reviewing the funeral home’s history. Darlene McFarland talked about the embalming table, called the “cooling board,” which was the table bodies were once placed on for the embalming procedure. The board was taken to people’s homes where the bodies were embalmed. McFarland’s placed blocks of ice underneath the table to keep the body cool and a net over the table to keep insects off the bodies. Holes were drilled in the board. The table will be temporarily displayed at the Polk County Museum located in Columbus. (photo by Leah Justice)