Plattsville • 519-684-7409 Port Rowan • (519) 586-2901
Our History
Our History
Glendinning Funeral Home
In 1934 Alexander Glendinning of Embro enrolled in the Canadian School of Embalming in Toronto. He received his embalmers license in October 1935 and one year later he received his Funeral Directors License in 1936. After some research Alex felt that a Funeral Home was needed in Plattsville and he and his wife Dorothy moved to 4 Victoria St., Plattsville and opened the Glendinning Funeral Home. Along with the Funeral Home, Alex operated the local Ambulance service until 1967; he was a carpenter and had sold furniture as well to help make a living.
In 1962 the former Public School property became available and was purchased by the Glendinning’s. A fire in 1963 destroyed the Funeral Home at 4 Victoria St. The Old School was renovated with a new Funeral Home, apartments and the family residence at 40 William St., Plattsville in 1964. Alex Glendinning conducted some 800 funerals over 44 years in Plattsville, his first on January 22, 1936 and his last on December 3, 1980. Due to ill health Alex was forced to retire on December 31, 1980 and the Business was closed.
Alexander Thomas Glendinning died on April 5, 1981 at the age of 72 years.
In 1986 Alex’s grandson Jeffrey Glendinning started in the Funeral Service Education Program at Humber College and Graduated June 1988. He received his license July 4, 1988 and on September 13, 1988 re-opened his grandfathers business, the Glendinning Funeral Home. His grandmother was still there to provide valued information on families and the history of the family and the business. This continued until Dorothy Forbes Glendinning died on October 26, 1994.
Their Grandson Jeffrey continues to operate the Glendinning Funeral Home Ltd. at 40 William St., Plattsville with the pride, compassion, caring and understanding that his Grandparents did for so many years.
Jeffrey W. Glendinning Funeral Home
The History of the Jeffrey W. Glendinning Funeral Home
In 1938 C. L. Clark bought the funeral home from funeral director Harry Smart and continued to operate the funeral home in downtown Port Rowan. In 1946 there was a fire in the downtown location. The building was repaired but Mr. Clark started to look for another property in Port Rowan.
In 1964 he purchased the home at 36 Front St., Port Rowan. After some renovations he also built a 180 seat chapel onto the building in 1965. This was very rare in the funeral industry at the time and Mr. Clark could see the need for a large area for families to use at the funeral home.
Unfortunately in 1966 C. Leslie Clark died at the age of 55 years.
His wife Olive continued to operate the funeral home until 1968 when she sold the business to Wm. Hammond. Mr. Hammond operated the business until 1978 when the Ostrander Funeral Home of Tillsonburg purchased the business. Again a fire in 1979 destroyed the old part of the funeral home but the chapel was spared from the flames. The building was redesigned and rebuilt to fill the needs of the changing community.
Ostrander’s continued to operate the business until January 2002 when Jeffrey W. Glendinning purchased the business.
Since January 2002 the Jeffrey W. Glendinning Funeral Home has continued to serve the community with personal service and has updated and completely redecorated the funeral home. We strive to provide the highest level of care and compassion to each and every family we have the honour on serving.