The Rodney Chapel

 Funeral service in its earliest form came to Rodney in 1882. The building housing the current “Rodney Chapel” was originally constructed in 1887. Surviving a major village fire in the same year, it served as home to a general store, a hardware store and a Cockshutt tractor dealership before reopening as a funeral “parlour” in 1930. Over the next 75 years it has seen three owners. 

  Rodney native Dougald N. Walker set the professional tone for the business by attending the Canadian School of Embalming graduating in 1914. He operated the business until 1950 when he sold to new graduate Emerson M. Padfield of Mount Forest. Emerson also established and operated a licenced ambulance service which was later taken over by his son, Bob who operated it until his untimely death in 2002. Aldborough native James M. (Jim)  Price  purchased the funeral business in 1986.