About Us

Our 182 Year History

Over 182 Years of Service

Our roots go back to 1841, when Charles Bishop Knox came to Rock Island from Massachusetts. He was a cabinet maker by trade and people soon began calling on him to make coffins. He thus became the first “undertaker” in Rock Island County. C. B. conducted his first burial in 1852, and purchased his first hearse in 1855 for $500.

In 1874, C. B. Knox opened Moline Coffins Rooms on Main Street (now River Drive) at about 18^th Street near the current site of the old post office building. He put the location in charge of his son, Edwin B. Knox, who soon took over the Moline business and operated as "E. B. Knox, Picture Framing and Undertaking."

E. B., an early mayor of Moline, soon moved across the railroad tracks into a new building located on the site of the parking lot on the west side of 15th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. He was reported to be the first businessman to move away from the "downtown business center" which was then located on Main Street.
 
Edwin’s son, Luther, joined his father in business in 1892. They closed the picture framing and art supply portion of their business in 1908, relocated to a new building they built on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street across from today's Daily Dispatch building, and renamed the business E. B. Knox and Son. A final move to the funeral home's long-time location on Sixth Avenue and 21st Street occurred in 1923, with the purchase of the former Barber residence and its conversion into a funeral home, which they renamed Knox Funeral Home. That building was one of the earliest examples of the then-new 'funeral home' concept in the Midwest -- a dedicated home for funerals, rather than a store-front building.
 
E. B. Knox died in 1926, and Luther continued to operate the funeral home until selling to Dorothy and Riley Trimble on July 1, 1945. The firm operated as Knox-Trimble Funeral Home until 1960, when it was renamed Trimble Funeral Home. Eric Trimble joined his parents in business in 1969, and became president of the firm upon his father's death in 1983. The firm has continued to expand, with the construction of the Coal Valley funeral home in 1977, and the acquisition of the Aledo funeral home in 1981. The Aledo funeral home was sold to long-time manager Annette Speer in 2003.
 
For the first time since 1908, the firm diversified into retail in 1985 when it acquired Julius Staack and Sons Florist, Moline's oldest floral shop, founded in 1877. In 1990, the shop, now Staack Florist and Event Planners, relocated to a new building near the Moline funeral home. The flower shop was sold to long-time manager Louise Lorimer in 2010.
 
In 1995, the family started Wilson House Stationers in Moline's oldest house. The Trimble Family completed restoration of three 1870's buildings in the Historic Block on John Deere Commons in the Fall of 1999, and opened WaterMark Corners, a diversified retail store offering gifts, jewelry, antiques, children's books and toys, gourmet foods, bath products, and much more. Wilson House Stationers was relocated to WaterMark Corners in 2004, and is now known as WaterMark Stationers.  In 2021, The Corner Bar at WaterMark was opened in the middle of the store so customers can enjoy wine, beer, or a favorite cocktail while they shop.

Trimble Pointe