About Us

The caring and experienced professionals at Leitner Funeral Home 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 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 web site so you can learn more from the privacy of your own home.

Leitner Funeral Home opened their doors on June 11, 2019, to provide caring and meaningful services to our community.  Founded by Mr. Joe Williams, Sr. who had a dream and desire to help others, has chosen a caring family of staff to assist him in this dream. His great-great grandfather, Scipio Williams was a coffin and casket maker in the Latta area after the War Between the States and until his death in the early 1900's.  

The funeral home is located on the old Dew Plantation.  The land was deeded in April 16, 1773, to Edward Owens followed by four other owners before the Dew family (order is not determined in the deed of 1826): Stephen Berry (brother-in-law to Absalom Dew), William Legette, William Covington, and William Momas.  The property was sold to Absalom Dew who deeded it to his son, William Dew in 1826 (Deed Book L-258).  Mr. William Dew constructed a house soon after and the oldest known structure on the property today, The Quarters.  The Quarters would house three known slaves that was recorded in the 1850 U.S. Slave Schedule. The ages were a lady in her thirties and two young children. During the history of the property a sugar cane press, hitching post, pack house, horse stalls, greenhouse, and outhouse was added and are still evident today.

Mr. Dew deeded a piece of land next to the farm to his daughter, Martha Dew Atkinson soon after her marriage to William Tally Atkinson in 1861 (Deed Book Z-339).  She only had one child, William Benjamin Atkinson who was born on March 24, 1861.  Her husband died during the War Between the States in Charleston, SC and she never remarried (CSA. Service Record).  Mrs. Atkinson moved in with her father in 1879 after an agreement that she would take care of him for the remainder of his days (Deed Book  HH-679).  In return to her nursing her father she would be left with his property.  He would pass away in the 1880's.

William Benjamin Atkinson married Lucy Henrietta Gaddy (daughter of Samuel T. and Catherine Floyd Gaddy) on December 22, 1880 and resided with his mother on the farm.  In 1900 there were two servants listed on the US Census on the property, F.L. Blackard (a tobacco expert) and Lucy Mciver (a cook).  Following William's death in 1907 and Martha's death in 1908 the land was settled in the new county of Dillon (Judgement Roll #1303).  A new house was built in 1910 using lumber that was believed to have come out of the old house.  It was passed down through the family that the old house burned down around 1910.  By 1910 most of the farm was sold to help create the young railroad town of Latta. 

Around the 1930's the oil company was located next to the old house with the Co-Founder and later Sole-Owner being Lucy's son, Robert Earle Atkinson.  Around 1930, Lucy's daughter, Lois A. Bass and her family took care of Lucy and all of them was in the same household for the census that year.  After Lucy's death in 1943, her two daughters, Martie A. Medlin and Ella Mae Atkinson would reside here until their deaths.  The house was sold out of the family after the death of Ella in 1972.      

In 1976, Henry Liston and Emma Lee Lane Nolan purchased the house from the Atkinson Family. Joe Williams purchased the Nolan House and the property for the use of a funeral home, and we have over three and a half acres of land that is full of history with plans to restore all the buildings in the future. 

History of the Funeral Home and Property compiled by Dr. Christopher H. Daniels (November 2019). 

We have preserved the memory and the history of the Nolan and Atkinson Home.  The house consist of the Nolan Foyer, Williams Conference Room, Daniels Room (Office), Celeste Williams Memorial Chapel, and Scipio Williams Display Room (Scipio and his wife, Laura Crawford Williams are pictured below).

Feel free to scroll through the photos of our facility below or give us a call for a tour.