Taken from a 1901 Supplement to The (Illiopolis) State Center Record
E. M. WURL Contracting Builder and Undertaker
(From 1956 Centennial History. Click here for larger photo)
The expertness acquired in the several pursuits so successfully followed gives both prominence and popularity to E. M. Wurl, contracting carpenter and undertaker. Mr. Wurl was born in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1866. Being deprived at four years of age of the care and guidance of his father, who was drowned in the Erie canal. The changed conditions prompted his mother's moving to Altamont Ill. Here he attended the public schools and received a god education. When eighteen years of age he secured work at farming pursuits in Logan County, remaining there for several years, when he returned, to Altamont and turned his attention to the carpenter’s trade, and in time acquired expertness. In 1888 he moved to Springfield and a few months later settled permanently in Illiopolis, where he has since been engaged in the building lines. Mr. Wurl has erected many of the pretty homes to be seen In Illiopolis, not a few of which are in design and finish, architectural gems. This last spring Mr. Wurl embarked in the business of undertaking and embalming. He carries a select stock of coffins, caskets and fine funeral furnishings and possesses the ability to conduct a funeral after the most approved forms. Mr. Wurl executes all manner of furniture repair work at reasonable prices. He can be found one block north of the lumber yard and will respond at any hour of the day or night to all demands for his services.
