O ur funeral home was started by Clinton H. Caturia in 1942.  He had moved to the Hastings area in the 1930's and gone to work as a mortician for a local funeral home.  In 1942 he left to start his own funeral home and along with a partner Hugo Gahnz, opened a funeral home and furniture store.

Later on the partners amicably went their own ways. The Gahnz family went solely into the furniture business, and Clinton Caturia and his wife Frances started their own funeral home and furniture store business. They ran those businesses until the death of Frances Caturia in 1969.  Clinton and Frances' two sons James and Robert then took over daily operations of the business. James ran primarily the furniture store and Robert the funeral home.

Robert operated the funeral business until selling it in 1997 to long time employee Steven Smidt.  Steve started work for Robert in 1981.  Robert continued to work with Steve until 2004 when he retired to a part time schedule which he continues today.  Steve and Kim Smidt are the current owners of Caturia-Smidt Funeral Home.

Steve Smidt was born and raised in Britt, Iowa.  From an early age, he had an interest in the funeral profession.  His grandfather worked in the local funeral home in Iowa and Steve would go along and help with small jobs there like mowing lawn and washing cars.  Steve attended the University of Minnesota School of Mortuary Science, graduating in 1980.  He moved to Hastings in 1981 to work for Caturia Funeral Home.  Steve worked for Bob Caturia until 1997 when he purchased the funeral home.  He continues to operate the business today with the same goals of providing the highest quality funeral service which meets the needs of the families in the Hastings area and beyond.