Remember
It can be shared with family anywhere, and it will stay for as long as we are in business.
All obituaries since 1992
1938 – 2026
Taught fourth grade at Wheatland for thirty-one years. Visitation Friday, 5 to 7 p.m. Funeral Saturday at 11 a.m., First Methodist.
Read her notice
1951 – 2026
Graveside service Thursday at 2 p.m., Saint Anne Cemetery, with military honors.
Read
1944 – 2026
Memorial service Sunday at 3 p.m. Gifts in her memory to the county library.
ReadAlso in our care
We will write to you once, on the morning we publish a new obituary, with the name and the service times. Nothing else is ever sent to this list, and one click takes you off it.
If a death has just occurred
(555) 000-0000Call at any hour, including nights, weekends and holidays. One of us answers, not a service.
If the death was unexpected and hospice is not involved, call 911 first. If your loved one was under hospice care, call the hospice nurse first, then call us.
Or ask us to telephone you
If you would rather not make the call yourself, leave a number. Somebody is awake.
First
Tell us where your loved one is. We will bring them into our care from a home, hospital or nursing facility, usually within two hours.
Then
No arrangements need to be made tonight and no money changes hands. We will sit down with you the following day, here or at your house.
When you come in
A photo ID and Social Security number, and discharge papers if your loved one served. If you cannot find any of it, come anyway. We will help you track it down.
Our rooms
Two rooms and a garden, all on one floor and all step free. Nobody has to guess how many people will turn up, and nobody has to stand outside if more do than you expected.
Come and see them
Seats 180, and the garden doors open in summer.
For gatherings after the service.
Our people
There are five of us and a dog. Whoever answers at two in the morning is the one who will be standing beside you at the graveside.
Owner · Fifth generation
The fifth Merrick to run this house, which his great great grandfather opened in 1897. He took over in 2008, has never worked anywhere else, and still writes the notice for every family himself rather than handing them a form.
Funeral director · Crematory operator
Owen's sister, and the one licensed to run the crematory here on the grounds rather than an hour away in Mansfield. She will sit down and explain, plainly and without hurrying, what actually happens during a cremation. Families ask. She answers.
Funeral director
Twenty-six years in the trade, fourteen of them here, and not a Merrick, which he says is restful. He takes most of the night removals and he is the one who telephones the county coroner's office when a case is not straightforward.
Office manager · Advance planning
Twenty-nine years at the front desk, which makes her the voice most of Ashland County associates with this house. She orders the certificates, handles the funeral trusts and the Medicaid spend‑down paperwork, and will drive out to your kitchen table.
Comfort dog
A golden retriever, on staff since 2021 and very good at his job. He works the visitations and is particularly useful with children, who often have nobody to talk to and would rather sit on the floor anyway.
Our prices
You should be able to know what something costs without making a phone call you are not ready to make. Roughly one funeral home in five will tell you this before you walk in.
Transfer into our care, cremation, and the return of your loved one in a simple urn. No service.
$1,780
Everything above, with a visitation and a memorial service in our chapel or at your church, and printed folders for those who attend.
$3,420
Preparation, a casket from our selection room, transfer to the cemetery, and a service at the graveside.
$4,340
Preparation, a casket, an evening visitation, a full service in our chapel or at your church, procession, and the committal at the cemetery.
$6,920
You have the right to choose only the goods and services you want. Our itemized General Price List shows every item separately and is available above, at the house, or by telephone. Cemetery charges, certified death certificates, newspaper notices and clergy honoraria are paid to others and billed to you at exactly what they cost us. Prices on this page were last updated in July 2026.
Cremation in Ashland County
$1,780
Direct cremation, complete
Two families in three now choose cremation, and almost all of them still gather. There is a service, there are flowers, and people come back afterward and eat something. The only part that changes is what happens at the end.
We will arrange the timing so the urn can be present at the service if you want that.
See what is includedPlan ahead
Three questions now, and your family will not have to guess later. Nothing here is binding and nothing is paid.
Spending down for Medicaid
More than one family in four who prepay do it for this reason. If a parent is heading toward a nursing home and needs to qualify for Medicaid, funds moved into an irrevocable funeral trust are generally not treated the way a savings account is treated.
The rules are set by the state and they change. We will explain plainly how it works here, what it covers and what it does not. There is no charge for the conversation, and we will tell you honestly if it is not the right move for your family.
Start the conversation
Afterward
The paperwork outlasts the funeral by months. Here is what usually comes next, and where we still help.
Every bank, life insurance company, pension plan, title office and utility that held something in your loved one's name will want a certified copy, and most will not give it back. We order them for you when we file the certificate. Families usually start with six to eight, and we can order more later.
We report the death to Social Security for you as part of our service. That reporting does not apply for survivor benefits. A surviving spouse or child may be eligible for a one-time payment and, in some cases, ongoing monthly benefits, but you have to contact Social Security yourself to claim them. Do it sooner rather than later, since some benefits are not paid retroactively.
Bring the discharge papers (form DD-214) if you can find them, and we will request a copy if you cannot. Eligible veterans may receive a burial flag, a government headstone or marker at no cost, and in some circumstances a burial allowance. Burial in a national or state veterans cemetery is also available to those who qualify. We file this paperwork for every veteran we serve.
A grief support group meets the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the long room. There is no cost, no sign up, and you do not have to have used our funeral home to come. Coffee is on.
Grief support
All of it is free. Grief does not check where the arrangements were made.
Second Tuesday of every month, half past six, in the gathering room off the east entrance. No cost, no sign up, no obligation to say anything at all. Some people come for a year and some come once. Coffee is on from six.
Where to parkA short booklet we wrote ourselves, because the first two months are mostly paperwork and nobody warns you. What arrives in the mail, what has to be answered, and what can safely wait until spring. We will post you a copy or you can read it here.
Read it or have it postedChildren grieve in short bursts and often years later, which frightens parents who expect it to look like their own. What to say, what to avoid, whether to bring a child to a viewing, and the two counsellors in Ashland who specialise in it.
Read the guidanceA current list of grief counsellors, hospice bereavement programmes and faith based groups across Ashland and Richland, including the ones for a lost spouse, a lost child, and for death by suicide or overdose. We keep it current and take no referral fee.
See the listIf you would like it, we will telephone you once at about eleven months, before the first anniversary comes around. Most families say that is the week nobody remembers except them. Tell Deborah at any time and she will put a note in the file, or take you off it.
Families we have served
★★★★★
They answered at four in the morning and Owen was at the house before the sun came up. I will never forget that.Rebecca L., Ashland
★★★★★
We knew what everything cost before we sat down. After what my sister went through elsewhere, that was a relief.Daniel M., Kirtland
★★★★★
They rang me at eleven months, before the first anniversary. Nobody else remembered that week.Anne S., Ashland
Visit
Weekdays 9 to 5, Saturday by appointment, and the telephone answered at all hours.
Get directions
31 Merrick Street
Seats 180
For afterward
Open in daylight
Pay a bill
You can pay by card here at any time, in full or in part. If a life insurance policy has been assigned to us there is nothing for you to pay now and nothing for you to do. Most policies take thirty to ninety days to be released, and we wait, without charging interest.
Pay by cardPayments are handled by our card processor. We never see or store your card number, and a receipt is emailed to you the moment the payment clears.
Our story
The building went up in 1897 as the Ashland County Savings Bank, and the vault door is still in the wall of the long room. Elias Merrick bought it in 1923 when the bank failed, and his family has been here ever since.
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