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While working in a broom factory planing mill in New London in June, 1869, Levi Peacock Rich (1848-1915) lost his left arm in a painful accident that changed the course of his future life. Shortly after the accident, his father, Thomas H. Rich (ca1819-1873), decided to rent out his farm near New London and move to Kokomo so his son would get the advantage of an advanced education, having readily seen that a man with but a single arm could not successfully make his way though the world of physical labor.
Levi attended Earlham College for one year, and then returned to Kokomo in 1872, purchasing his father’s broom shop. Despite his disability, he became an expert broom-maker. In 1873 Levi married Josephine S. Heston, with whom he had three children. He was elected as County Recorder, serving from 1878-1883, and worked in real estate and insurance until 1893, when he entered the furniture business and also opened his undertaking establishment, after purchasing the stock belonging to the M.C. Kitchen estate in Kokomo. In 1906 he changed location, moving from 24 South Main St. to a large multi-story brick building on the southwest corner of the public square. 
Levi’s son, Kenneth Heston Rich (1883-1932), graduated from Kokomo High School in 1900 and took training in what he elected to be his life’s work, undertaking, joining his father and R. William Dimmitt, at the age of 19. He married Grace Morgan on October 11, 1907, and a year later took control of his father’s furniture business, which was discontinued in 1909. He came into complete ownership of the undertaking business upon his father’s death on May 24, 1915.
Kenneth H. Rich was a very popular man, active in many church and civic organizations, who also loved books and traveling. He built a new funeral home building at the northwest corner of Mulberry and Washington Streets (the present location of the ‘old’ Rescue Mission). A second floor with an elevator was added to carry the caskets up to the showrooms on the second floor. An article in the Kokomo Dispatch of September 21, 1924, called the new building - one of the most beautiful appointed funeral homes in the State. 
Kenneth died prematurely on April 8, 1932, a few days before his 49th birthday, from complications of a sinus infection. His only son, Robert Heston Rich (1909-1975), had worked around the funeral home since he was a boy, driving cars and doing odd jobs. At the time of his father’s death he had completed one year at Indiana University, and had to make a quick decision concerning the rest of his life. He decided to go into the family business, graduated from the Indiana College of Embalming, and took over running the funeral home. In 1933 he married Winemia Brown. Like his father, he was a very tall, very kind man, looking out for his patrons with a compassion and consideration that was much needed in that field. But his heart was not really in being an undertaker. He loved music, and played the bass saxophone in every band and orchestra he could. When his mother, Grace M. Rich, passed away in 1954, he and his wife gave their children, Kenneth H. and Phyllis, the option of carrying on the family business. When they turned down the offer, Robert and his wife decided to sell the business and move to St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Kokomo institution ceased to exist. The building was sold to the CIO Union, who shortly after sold it to the Kokomo Rescue Mission. The records of Rich Funeral Home are now in the possession of the Stout Funeral Home in Russiaville, Indiana. The present index was made from photocopies of those records.
| Burial Dates |
Record Numbers |
| June 1893 - Dec. 1900 |
1 - 482 |
| 1901 - 1905 |
483 - 885 |
| 1906 - 1910 |
886 -- 1553 |
| 1911 - 1915 |
1554 -- 2209 |
| 1916 - 1920 |
2210 - 3245 |
| 1921 - 1925 |
3246 - 4468 |
| 1926 - 1930 |
4469 - 5249 |
| 1931 - 1935 |
5250 - 5913 |
| 1936 - 1940 |
5914 -- 6397 |
| 1941 - 1945 |
6398 -- 6814 |
| 1946 - 1950 |
6815 -- 7202 |
| 1951 - Oct. 1956 |
7203 - 7439 |
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