The Pape Funeral Home of today is the result of more than 131 years of service to the funeral industry. The earliest funeral director in the family was actually Conrad Heppe, born on May 24, 1837 in Hessen Germany, Civil War veteran, baker, saloon operator, farmer who married Catherine Ringer in 1875 in Chatsworth, IL. They were the first in the family to open a funeral home and also operate a livery service, dry goods and boarding house until the early 1900’s in Chatsworth. This marriage was blessed with two sons and eight daughters including Edith Cora Heppe who married E. R. Pape Sr. on April 14, 1904.

E. R. Pape Sr., with his parents Herman Leopold (Mary Schwer) Pape of Crescent City, IL, started the first Pape Funeral Home and a furniture business in Milford, IL in 1900. E. R. Pape Sr. was the first in the family to attend and graduate from the newly opened Worsham Mortuary College in 1903. In 1909?, E. R. Pape Sr. sold the business in Milford and opened a funeral home in Pontiac, IL. He also operated a horse drawn ambulance service for St. James Hospital of Pontiac. While in Pontiac, E. R. and Edith Cora gave birth to three daughters and a son: E. Robert Pape Jr.

In 1916 E. R. Sr. and E. Cora moved to Danville. They rented the C. E. Blythe Funeral Home at 304 N. Vermilion which had been the office for Dr. Herbert E. Morehouse who died in December 19, 1912. They purchased the first motorized hearse and ambulance in 1920. In 1927 after a fire at the Vermilion Street property, E. R. Pape Sr. purchased the Col. John Calhoun home at 452 N. Hazel to become the new home for the family funeral business. E. R. Sr. and E. Cora had three daughters and a son, E. Robert Pape Jr. who married Helen Lange on June 28, 1939 in Lafayette, IN.

E. Robert Jr. attended Purdue and graduated from Worsham College in 1941. He married Helen Lange on June 28, 1939 in Lafayette and they assumed leadership of the business, following the death of his father, E. R. Pape Sr. on July 18, 1940. They have a daughter, Patricia Ann and a son E. R. Pape III who attended Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois before graduating from the Indiana College of Mortuary Science. E. R. III began working in the funeral home in 1957. They tore down the old building in 1967 and built the first facility in Danville designed to be a funeral home. They operated a county wide ambulance service until 1972. In 1977, E. R. III purchased the Berhalter Funeral Home at 215 W. North in Danville and managed the home until 1995 when he donated the building to the Christian Home for Youth and later transferred ownership to the Illiana Genealogy Society. In 1984, E. R. III purchased the Pape Funeral Home from his father and continues to manage the facility with family that hold Illinois, Indiana and Florida Funeral Directors Licenses. In 1985, the family added a cremation cemetery, and in 1995, a crematory to the business.

E.R. “Bob” III married Mitzi Ann Williamson on July 17, 1981. He has four children; two daughters: Adrienne Suzanne an anesthetist in Champaign, and Alexandra Helena, an interior designer in Chicago, and two sons: Ervin “Roby” IV a student at Chicago University and David Allen, an attorney in Chicago.