D avid R. James Sr.
1888-1974

David R. and his wife Goldie (Bissett) James started something in 1904 which would turn out to be a family legacy, passing from father to son and from father to son. At the age of 16 he knew he could do more for people as a funeral director than a coal miner. From that point he then dedicated his life to caring for others at their worst time. David graduated from the Pittsburgh School of Anatomy on Jan. 31, 1907. He then became a licensed funeral director and embalmer in the state of Pennsylvania and Ohio in 1910. The first James Funeral Home was started in Farrell, PA., and for a short time in Youngstown, OH. That branches existence was only for a short time do to a fire in the stable where the horse drawn hearse was kept. For a few years from 1914 to 1921 he would help Mr. Everett with his funeral home (The Everett Funeral Home) in Newton Falls. In 1922 David sold his funeral home in Farrell, PA and bought the Everett Funeral Home in Newton Falls, Ohio from the aging Mr. Everett and it became the James Funeral Home. For the next 15 years Dave and Goldie worked very hard serving there families and adding another branch of the James Funeral Home in Warren, OH on North Park Ave. That branch lasted about 10 years but the work load on Dave and Goldie proved to be to much with the added weight of the great depression. The James Funeral Home on north park ave. was closed and Dave and Goldie focused there attention to the funeral home in Newton Falls. Dave was also a very successful farmer. He developed a very profitable farm in Newton Township on East River Rd. raising horses, beef cattle, pigs, and capons along with apples and peaches. He built a home there for his wife Goldie and she called it her Little Mount Vernon as it resembled George Washington's Home Mount Vernon in D.C. The old farm house on East river rd. is still there in Newton Township today, but the James family no longer own it .