Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home

08/30/2026

The discovery of long lost cemeteries happens all over the country -even here in Binghamton - where at least one monument was recently unearthed during excavations for the new Roosevelt Elementary School. The school property is known to have been the site of the Bevier family cemetery. It is possible the headstone was simply left behind when the bodies were moved during an earlier construction project.

More to the point of this particular story - it seems the developer was trying to recoup part of his investment - for his needs, making the best out of a complicated situation - apparently with little regard to the respectful treatment of those whose final resting place he was paving over.

You might also recall locally on Route 12A a family cemetery was reduced in elevation from a high embankment to street level during the construction of the Price Chopper. This was done in the name of traffic sight line and safety. (The bodies were disinterred and then reinterred after the removal of the high embankment. It is still a cemetery and the graves retain their original monuments.)

Whoever buys the former burial ground for freed slaves in Queens will face strong restrictions on how they develop the site.

08/29/2026

Legislation to legalize "human composting", (otherwise called Natural Organic Reduction) of human bodies has been passed in a number of states after requests from business operators offering the service.

With issues and concerns associated with the energy consumption and smokestack emissions associated with cremation, this became an easy pass in some state legislatures, despite not considering all the questions and concerns associated with approval of the process - including what do you do with grandma if you convert her body to soil?

Maryland is dealing with this concern right now, as a purveyor of the composting process is trying to find a place to dispose of the 300 pounds of soil generated by each body (clearly they add a lot of organic material in the composting process) they compost.

New York requires the soil to be placed in a cemetery, not in private property and like Maryland, forbids agricultural use of the human compost.

Apparently neighbors of this proposed future forest are not thrilled by the suggested use of the land in Maryland, as now approved by their local legislative body.

Interestingly enough, we recently served a family who had considered this option ( A first for us ), but once they discovered the high cost, the length of time for the process to occur, the challenge in moving 300 pounds of human soil and the limitations of how it can be dispersed, they opted for a simpler and more expedient process.

At present the closest facility to offer this service is in Maryland. Plans are underway for a cemetery in Brooklyn to be offering this service by 2027, which may make the cost lower (lower transportation costs and disposition on the cemetery grounds).

For those wishing to make for a lower eco-footprint with their death we suggest a service we have long provided - green or natural burials - something funeral directors have provided for years, but has been rebranded by emerging businesses sensing a growing market.

Your thoughts? Would you want the composted remains of someone's loved one spread on an adjoining property?

(Aug. 21, 2026) Worcester County has approved a first-of-its-kind human composting project near Snow Hill, but not without some unease from neighbors living alongside the property where the unique soil

08/28/2026

We are honored to have been entrusted with the final care of Clarene Viola Pickard Boyer, 97, of BInghamton.

Celebrate the life of Clarene Pickard Boyer and join others in sharing memories, stories, and condolences.

08/28/2026

We know where we will be tonight ! Endicott's Northside enjoying some Italian food and culture. We hope to see some of you there.

Kurt's grandfather grew up on Endicott's Northside and any visit there is like a visit home ..even though he considers it the Slavic part of town.

GUSTO! Italian Street Festival OFFICIAL MUSIC LINEUP

We are excited to bring a great variety of music to enjoy at GUSTO! on Friday!

Thank you to our music sponsor: Gault Auto Group!

MAIN STAGE ACTS
Tri-Cities Opera 4:30 - 5:00
Allie Torto Music 5:00 - 6:00
Ralph Muro 6:00 - 7:00
Triple Cities Soul Machine 7:00 - 9:00

PERFORMING AT THE Little Italy Endicott HERITAGE CENTER
Christina Docenko 5:00 - 6:00
Joe Joseph Music 6:00 - 9:00

PERFORMING NEAR ANDREW R. MANCINI ASSOCIATES
Friday At Fred's 4:45 - 5:45
Michael Caruso 6:00 - 7:00

08/28/2026

Mitzi paid a visit to the funeral home today - actually she visits everyday, but today we had a camera nearby to take her photo.

I had just brought her inside after showing her the new headstone for her predecessor.

08/28/2026

Today in history - Seventy one years ago -August 28, 1955 - The brutal murder of Emmett Till.

While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black child from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier.

His assailants—the white woman’s husband and her brother—made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.

After seeing the mutilated remains, his mother decided to have an open-casket funeral so that all the world could see what racist murderers had done to her only son. Jet, an African American weekly magazine, published a photo of Emmett’s co**se, and soon the mainstream media picked up on the story.

Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were arrested and charged with causing Till's death. Both were acquitted at a trial (but were clearly guilty).

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI reopened the case in 2004 and again in 2018 to look for living co-conspirators, but no state or federal convictions were ever secured.

Both Bryant and Milam died decades later without facing criminal punishment for the murder.

The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was a catalyst in the nascent black civil rights movement.

08/27/2026

A little addition to our front yard today - the headstone for Heidi arrived and was installed next to Minnie and over Heidi's grave.

So many of our neighbors and clients have commented on Minnie's grave and marker over the years.

It is comforting to know both of our funeral home dogs are remembered by our community.

08/27/2026

Today in history- August 27, 1963 - The death of Dr. W.E.B. Dubois.

A social reformer, activist, professor and author, he was the co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Pan-African Congress, who was a scholar and seeker of racial equality for African-Americans and one of the most significant leaders of his generation.

He, along with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, is considered one of the most influential African-Americans before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.

Born only six years after emancipation, he was active well into his nineties. He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1868, and received his bachelors degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1888, going on to earn a bachelors degree from Harvard University in 1890, his masters in 1891, and in 1896, was the first African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard University.
He used Atlanta University as his base from 1897 to 1910, to oppose Booker T. Washington's educational views, which he felt were too limiting.

In 1905, he helped organize the Niagara movement and in 1909, was co-founder of the NAACP. Between 1910 and 1934, he edited the NAACP's journal "The Crisis" and served as the organization's director of publicity and research.
Social Reformer, Author.

Throughout his life at various times, he was accused of elitism, communism and black separation. In later years, he embraced socialism and in 1961, joined the United States Communist Party. Two years later, he gave up his United States citizenship. Although never convicted of a crime, his passport was confiscated by U.S. government in 1951, for eight years.

He and his wife Shirley moved to Ghana, where they became citizens of that country. He died in Accra, Ghana, at age 95.

08/27/2026

A very real experience shared by all parents who have lost a child.

For those who have lost a child (of any age, or at anytime) share their photo and name here.

08/26/2026

Surprising news from Onondaga County.

A two facility family owned funeral firm suddenly closes without warning.

Apparently the owner has opted to retire - according to the news column.

Always a sad occasion for a community and the families they served for generations.

The funeral home started in 1927.