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The J. Paul Bateman Co. followed Meteor's successful formula by
direct-marketing inexpensive funeral vehicles in 1916. Most customer's chose the standard Studebaker chassis which
could be had for as little as $1,650 complete. More affluent directors ordered their Bateman bodies mounted on
higher-priced chassis which included Buick, Cadillac, Cole, Crow, and Reo. For about $800 Bateman offered quite on
number of eight-pillar body styles; some with large exterior windows, others with elaborately carved external wooden
panels. First seen in a few 1916 models, by 1917 Bateman included the now-popular verticle oval window on all of
their carved-panel funeral coaches.
North Carolina Undertaker Louis F. Zeigler was a great admirer of the Studebaker Company c.1852. In 1917 Zeigler
contracted for a Studebaker 1/2 ton chassis and a J. Paul Bateman hearse body from local car dealer J. H. Mc Mullen,
Jr., for the sum of $1,895. Pictured here, alongside his brand new Studebaker Hearse, was his son Haywood Sawyer
Ziegler (1896-1969), who at age 21 was working for his father. Zeigler's wife Fannie Keeter Ziegler (1900-1980) is
believed to have been the first North Carolina woman to obtain a funeral director's license. In later years a
grandson, Haywood Sawyer Ziegler, Jr. (1923-1975), ran the business until it closed in the 1970's. (1918 postcard
courtesy Evelyn Powell)
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