The caring and experienced professionals at Clark-Kirkland-Barr Funeral Home, Inc. are here to support you through this difficult time. We offer a range of personalized services to suit your family’s wishes and requirements. You can count on us to help you plan a personal, lasting tribute to your loved one. And we’ll carefully guide you through the many decisions that must be made during this challenging time.

You are welcome to call us at 1-740-942-2650 at any time of the day, any day of the week, for immediate assistance. Or, visit our funeral home in person at your convenience. We also provide a wealth of information here on our website so you can learn more from the privacy of your own home.

Our History

Clark-Kirkland-Barr Funeral Home, Inc. has been serving Cadiz area families for years. We are honored to be a part of the rich history of this community and plan to be a part of it for many years to come.

What is now Clark-Kirkland-Barr Funeral Home, Inc., was founded by J. Lyle Clark in Deersville, Ohio in 1886. It is one of the oldest funeral homes, indeed, one of the oldest continually operating businesses in Ohio today. In 1896, Mr. Clark moved the business to Cadiz. The funeral home office was first located a block south of the current funeral home on South Main Street. He eventually acquired the McFadden Building on the corner of South Main and East Warren Streets. At that time, visitations occurred at home and funeral services were held in church, so the funeral business was comprised of an office and an embalming room. A large commercial room contained a furniture store. 

In the early 1930s, Clark's son, J. William Clark and his wife, Esther Long Clark, took over the business. They expanded it to include a funeral "home", where visitations and funerals could occur, and filled the vacant lot with over seventy dump truck loads of dirt to make the current drive. The furniture store was maintained as well. They eventually employed Richard Kirkland of Cleveland, formerly of Freeport, Ohio in the 1940s and their son, J. Richard Clark in the 1950s. Each had graduated from the Cleveland School of Embalming. 

Upon Bill and Esther Clark's retirement in 1962, Dick Clark and Dick Kirkland purchased the business and ran it as a partnership. In the late 1960s, they closed the furniture store and expanded the funeral home into that area, moving the office to the front of the building, where it remains today. 

In 1978, Jonathan Kirkland was employed as a funeral director and embalmer by the partnership. He had graduated from Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science two years prior and had interned and was an employee of a large funeral home in the Cleveland area. Upon incorporation in 1985, Jon purchased an interest in the business. After Dick Kirkland retired in 1992 and Dick Clark retired in 1995, Jon Kirkland became the sole owner of Clark-Kirkland-Barr Funeral Home, Inc. until his retirement on July 1, 2020. 

 Clint Barr began working in the funeral home in 1987. He, too, graduated from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science and returned to Cadiz in 1993, first as an intern, and has continued to this day as a licensed funeral director and embalmer. Clint, along with his wife Alice, purchased the funeral home from Jon upon his retirement. Alice has completed her apprenticeship and become a licensed Funeral Director as of March 20, 2024. The future is bright with their daughter, Joyce Barr graduating from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science in the fall of 2023 where she received the Champion Award for Mortuary Excellence voted on by the faculty. As of October 16. 2024, Joyce is also a licensed funeral director and embalmer.  The Barr family wants to continue the funeral home as a family owned and operated business. 

 The firm employs others as well, who assist with callers at visitations and funerals.