Our History

In early 1925, James C. Chadwick came to Seminole to work for the Clark-Darland Furniture, Hardware and Undertaking Co. Later, on September 15, 1926, Chadwick and Henry C. Born bought the undertaking part of the company from Clark-Darland and established the Born-Chadwick Funeral Home.

Later Chadwick bought out Born and the name was changed to Chadwick Funeral Home and operated under that name until 1953. The name was then changed to Somerville-Swearingen Funeral Home, after a buy-out agreement between Chadwick, Rex Sommerville and Gene Swearingen.

A competitor, the Gibson Funeral Home, was opened in Seminole in 1937 by C.W. Gibson, Bart Greer and Grant Hitchcock.

It was originally known as the Hitchcock Funeral Home, but in 1940 changed its name to Gibson-Greer Funeral Home. Then in 1946 it became the Gibson Funeral Home.

Mrs. Ora Gibson and Harry R. Arnhart operated that funeral home until 1954.

That year, Sommerville-Swearingen Funeral Home bought out the Gibson Funeral Home. Rex Sommerville, Gene Swearingen and Harry R. Arnhart formed a partnership known as Sommerville-Swearingen-Arnhart Funeral Home.

The firm operated in two locations until 1960, when they sold the old Chadwick Funeral Home property to the Humpty-Dumpty grocery store and moved its complete operations to its present location at Milt Phillips and Strothers Ave.

The current funeral home is located on the old homestead of the late O.D. Strothers, who was one of Seminole's more prominent citizens during the Oil Boom Days.

In 1973, Rex Sommerville retired from active practice and in 1983, Harry R. Arnhart retired from the funeral part of the business.

Gene Swearingen, senior partner of the funeral home, first came to Seminole in 1947 to work for the Gibson Funeral Home. He then later moved to Wewoka to work for the Key Funeral Home and the Stout Sarber Funeral Home.

In 1952, he returned home to Seminole to go to work for the Chadwick Funeral Home in which he purchased half interest two years later.

In 1984, Gene's son, Robert E. "Bob" Swearingen, purchased Harry Arnhart's interest in the company, making Bob the second generation of the Swearingen Funeral Home Tradition.

E.P. "Gene" Swearingen passed away October 19, 1997.