Owosso's casket works reached 150 a day

Owosso’s casket story began with ordinary woodwork. Woodard’s company history says Lyman Woodard bought a planing mill in 1866-67. He and his brothers made furniture, window sashes, blinds, doors, and simple pine caskets. They formed the separate Owosso Casket Company in 1882 and built a factory a few years later. That factory burned in 1888, then was rebuilt.

The production number needs its own date. Woodard’s current timeline says the factory made 150 caskets a day during the 1918-19 flu pandemic. The Owosso Historical Commission also gives the 150-per-day figure, but its page says “around 1913” while linking the surge to the flu epidemic. The clearer company timeline is why this page uses 1918-19.

Then there is the ranking. A City of Owosso historic-district study says the Owosso Casket Company was the world’s largest casket maker throughout the 1920s. That is a useful city finding, but the reviewed sources do not point to an independent worldwide factory census. The honest wording is that the city identifies it that way, not that Michigan Porch has certified a world record.

The Historical Commission says the furniture and casket businesses stopped production and sold their assets between 1938 and 1942. The Woodard name carried on through metal outdoor furniture. For a public look at the older story, the Woodard Paymaster Building in Curwood Castle Park now displays parts of Owosso’s manufacturing past. Call ahead because access is offered on a limited or group-tour basis.