Is the Elgin Casket Company of Elgin Illinois still in business?

Answer 1

No,

the company, which existed under the name "Elgin Metal Casket Company" since 1939 and manufactured up to 70.000 metal caskets a year, - including the caskets of two American presidents - closed down in the 1980s.

The roots of the company can be traced back to the Elgin Silver Plate Company, a casket hardware producer which was founded in Elgin, IL around the year 1892. Its products were so convincing in quality and price that the factory size had to be double in 1899 already; soon the production line was expanded to zinc casket liners. In 1926, Elgin Silver Plate Company was acquired by the Western Casket Hardware Company (founded in 1903) . Around 1928, the company's production line was expanded to metal caskets, which more and more became the main product of the firm. For that reason, the company's name was changed to Elgin Metal Casket Company. After the Second World War, Elgin concentrated on manufacturing metal casket shells which it distributed through a jobber organization known as Elgin Associates; these jobbers completed the casket shells with handles and / or interiors.

As mentioned, Elgin provided the caskets for two American presidents. Already in 1933, Elgin caskets were regarded as being of such a high quality that an Elgin casket was chosen for the funeral of President Coolidge. He was buried in a polished solid bronze Elgin casket. The round corner design had separately hinged caps and was equipped inside with a hermetically sealing full length oval plate glass lid. In 1963, Elgin provided the casket in which President Kennedy was taken from Dallas to Washington, DC: his Elgin "Handley" model was a double lid sealer casket (without inner glass lid) weighing more than 300 lbs empty. The exterior had a "Britannia" (that is: partially brushed) finish with a transparent amber (reddish) tint. The interior consisted of an adjustable inner mattress and a white velvet and satin lining. The casket certainly would have been used for Kennedy's burial, had it not been damaged during the loading / unloading process by the Secret Service people who tore off the ornamental attachments of the swing bar handles. For that reason, the Elgin casket was replaced with a new casket (a Marsellus solid mahogany model). The original Elgin casket eventually was dumped in the Atlantic Ocean in 1966 by the Air Force in order to prevent it from becoming an object of morbid curiosity.

The successor to the "Handley" model is still in production. A few years after President Kennedy's death, the Elgin Company changed the flaring round corner design of the original "Handley" somewhat by giving it a more pronounced urn shape. After the Elgin company had been bought by the renown mattress producer Simmons in 1968, the "Handley" was replaced by the "Winchester" model, which differed from its predecessor mainly by some embossed ornaments. The casket is still manufactured nowadays by VerPlank Enterprises of Tennessee and can be seen in the Online Catalog of that Company. Other original Elgin designs have survived the end of the company as well, for example the thermo-deposited "Citadel" which is manufactured currently by the York-Matthew company under the designation "Marquis". Elgin was a very innovative company which came up with several patents.

Since 1974 it possessed a registered trade mark and pictured logo featuring a helmet as part of a knight's armor.

One really wonders why such a big company with renown quality products hasn't survived. The downfall of the company probably began when it was acquired by companies not related to the funeral industry (mattress producer Simmons in 1968 and oil giant Gulf & Western in 1974). The loss of its experienced team of some 200 craftsmen caused by the move of the complete manufacturing plant from Elgin, IL. to Indiana in 1982, seems to have been the final blow for the famous casket manufacturer, which should not be mixed up with the modern "Star of Texas Casket Company", a manufacturer of fine hardwood caskets and wooden urns located in Elgin, Texas.