Wachholz Family Funeral Homes

Kratz-Smedema Funeral Home in Fox Lake, WI offers a range of funeral services including memorials, personalization, aftercare, pre-planning, and cremation options. Serving the community of Cambria and beyond, Kratz-Smedema Funeral Home provides compassionate and professional support during difficult times. Generated from their website's infomation

The Wachholz family name has over 100 years of tradition in the funeral business. It was in the late 1800 s that Rudolph Wachholz started the funeral business in Westfield. Rudolph graduated from the Johnson School of Embalming in Milwaukee in 1915. At that time, a license was not required to be an undertaker. He later operated a funeral home and furniture store in Neshkoro. In 1922, Rudolph purchased the furniture and funeral business of A.A. Shorty Sommerfeldt in Princeton. It was not unusual, at that time, for a funeral home and furniture store to be at the same location. Rudolph s son Herbert G. Wachholz joined his father when he graduated from the Goodman Mortuary School in Milwaukee in 1927. At that time, Herbert was the youngest licensed embalmer in the state of Wisconsin. A need grew for a larger facility at the Princeton location. In November of 1940, they had a formal grand opening for the new Wachholz and Son Funeral Home in Princeton on Harvard Street. This is the current location of the funeral home. Herbert Wachholz had his two sons join in the family business. Herbert Wachholz Jr. graduated from the Wisconsin Institute of Mortuary Science in 1951 and Warren Wachholz graduated in 1958. The Princeton funeral home name changed from Wachholz and Son to Wachholz and Sons Funeral Home. They kept the furniture store, located at 523 West Water St, until 1999, when it was sold to Mimi s Restaurant. Warren s son Todd Wachholz joined the Princeton funeral home, graduating from Milwaukee Area Technical College in 1984. In 1992 the funeral home was remodeled to a modern facility. We continue to serve your family with respect and dignity. Let us be a source of strength in your time of need.

We offer pre-planning and funeral services, cremation, monuments, headstones, family vaults, memorial jewelry and more.