Wappner Funeral Directors

Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory is dedicated to helping celebrate your life or the life of a loved one with tailored services that truly reflect the person being honored. When the time comes to plan a funeral or cremation and choose a final resting place, you want to work with people you can trust.

The team at Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory offers knowledge and compassion you can count on. Our experienced and caring staff blends traditional values with contemporary products and services to memorialize every life with attention to detail.

Personalized funerals and cremation memorials

At Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory, we appreciate our area’s rich cultural heritage, and our professional associates are experienced in meeting the needs and wishes of families from all walks of life and a variety of faiths and cultures. With patience and care, we listen to what is important to you.

Every life is unique and every person deserves a special service. Whether traditional funeral or cremation memorial, large gathering or intimate service, there are choices that reflect your personal preferences, family traditions and cultural values.

Read about planning a celebration of life.

Unparalleled benefits

Our locations are convenient for families in Ashland, Mansfield and Ontario, but if you move, your prearranged plans move with you. We are a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers, which gives you a range of benefits no other network can offer. Among them is national transferability.

If you have a plan with a Dignity Memorial provider and move more than 75 miles away, your prepaid cremation or funeral services will be honored by any of the more than 1,900 Dignity Memorial providers throughout North America.

Bereavement assistance is another important benefit to the families we serve. Recognizing that individual family members can continue to struggle with a loss, through a third-party provider, we offer complimentary grief counseling by phone for 13 months after services and access to an extensive grief library for as long as you or your loved ones need it.

Read about the dignity difference.

Planning experts

Losing someone you love can be very painful. Planning your funeral or cremation in advance makes it easier on your family. In fact, one of the greatest gifts you can give your loved ones is planning and funding final arrangements ahead of time. When you plan ahead, you get to carefully consider your options and make choices that ensure your life is remembered and celebrated the way you want—but you also lock in today’s prices and protect your family from worrying about money.

We are experts in pre-planning and offer in-person and virtual consultations. We'll take the time to get to know you and carefully explain what's available, including paying in installments.

Here when you need us

If you would like to talk about pre-planning a funeral or cremation or have an immediate need, contact us and we'll be in touch right away. We're honored that you're considering Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory for end-of-life services, and we're here with compassionate, professional care day and night.

History

Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory has provided funeral and cremation services to Ohioans for generations.

In 1872, Peter J. Faust and Philip Wappner Sr. formed a partnership in the furniture and undertaking business in Mansfield. Wappner then became one of the charter members of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association in 1879, relocating to South Park Street in 1883.

In 1890, Henry Wappner joined Philip in the business, which then became known as Wappner Brothers.

Philip’s son, Charles, took over Wappner Brothers in 1919, moving the location to the southeast corner of 2nd and Diamond streets. Charles’ wife, Irilla, continued the business after he died in 1925, becoming the first female funeral director in the county.

Wappner Brothers then moved to 98 South Diamond St., land that was once owned by John Chapman, better known as American pioneer Johnny Appleseed. Our Mansfield funeral home stands in this same location to this day.

Over the years, Wappner Funeral Directors & Crematory expanded to include locations in Ashland and Ontario. In 2021, we became part of the Dignity Memorial family.

Many people ask about the large grandfather clocks found in each of our three locations. Back in the day, when Wappner was a furniture store, the family rented out hospital beds. Some beds were traded for grandfather clocks. The clocks are now a Wappner tradition.