The decades-old ledger Frank Griffin keeps in his office at Dent's Undertaking Establishment represents many things.

On a basic level, the book's yellowed pages are a straightforward accounting of who the firm buried and how much was charged - $12 for a casket, $4 for the service and $4 for the grave, according to one notation from 1916.

The ledger also is a historical artifact, one of many that can be found inside the century-old funeral home at 930 D'Antignac St.

For a black-owned company built upon the repeat business of generations of Augusta families, however, the ledger mostly represents Dent's future: The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those listed in the book are tomorrow's customers.

"What's kept us going all these years is our clients, our loyal clients," said Mr. Griffin, Dent's funeral director. "If you don't give good service, they're not coming back."

Dent's didn't become an icon in Augusta's black community overnight. The company is at least 100 years, old based on historical records and newspaper archives, though its third-generation family owners say the company's roots go as deep as 1888.

Dent's owners reaffirmed that date two weeks ago by having a "118th anniversary" celebration at Beulah Grove Baptist Church, which was emceed by the Rev. Bobby Hankerson.

"They have been a great comfort to the city of Augusta and to the families and souls they have consoled for years," the former Augusta commissioner and pastor of Hammond Grove Baptist Church said during the event that drew nearly 100 friends, family members and community leaders.

"We pray this establishment will grow even stronger in the 21st century," said the Rev. C. Dwayne Roberts, of Elim Baptist Church.

Dent's has changed with the times, but it still celebrates its turn-of-the-century heritage by displaying historic paintings and portraits in the funeral home building, which falls inside the boundaries of the Laney-Walker North Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Furniture owned by the firm's founders, John and Julia Dent, is still in use, though a conference room is located where horses were once stabled. One of the horse-drawn hearses used during the company's early days is on display at the Augusta Museum of History.

Dent's, the only funeral home in the area that still uses "undertaking" in its business name, also was the launching pad for nearly all of the city's other black-owned mortuaries, including Williams Funeral Home, People's Funeral Home and W.H. Mays Mortuary.

Dent's wasn't the first black-owned mortuary - that is believed to be F.M. Dugas & Son - but it has been the most influential and most consistent.

"You can't take anything away from what they've done," said Augusta historian and author Joseph M. Lee III, who is researching the company as part of an upcoming book. "What they have done is amazing."

Though dates and other specifics in the Dent family history vary depending on the source, the basic story of Dent's Undertaking is as follows:

The firm was founded by John H. Dent Jr., a Richmond County farm boy who studied embalming under W. Edward Platt at Platt's Funeral Home, the white-owned mortuary founded in the 1830s.

"There were no black embalming schools," said Thomasina Ketch, Mr. Dent's granddaughter. "When he came off the farm, he went to Mr. Platt and Mr. Platt took him in."

Mr. Dent and his wife, Julia, ran the fledgling funeral business from a location near Ninth and Barnes streets before moving to 930 D'Antignac St.

Mr. Dent died at the home in 1911.

"One of Augusta's worthiest young colored businessmen died in this city yesterday morning early at his home on D'Antignac street," a story in the Dec. 1, 1911, issue of The Augusta Chronicle said. "Young Dent was in the undertaking business, and was forging rapidly ahead in his chosen field."

Mrs. Dent continued running the business, remarrying twice before her death in 1945.

"The unique thing about the Dent firm is that is was built up to its present high standard by a colored woman," according to a story in the April 30, 1922, edition of The Augusta Chronicle. "(After Mr. Dent's death) Madam Julia Dent Brown took hold of things and made a great success of the business."

Ms. Ketch said she knew her grandmother better than her mother, Lucile Dent Ketch, who died in 1936. She was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Dent. Ms. Ketch said her mother died from pneumonia, possibly caught while she rode on the carriage during a funeral procession.

Ms. Ketch recalled her grandmother as a kind woman who would buy baked goods for people in the neighborhood on Saturdays.

"She was pretty, and she was pretty inside," she said.

The transition from the first- to second-generation management occurred when the reins were handed to Ms. Ketch's father, Thomas H. Ketch Sr., shortly after Mrs. Dent's death.

It was during this time that Dent's Undertaking arranged funerals for many of Augusta's most prominent black leaders, including the civil rights pioneers and brothers Benjamin Linton "B.L." Dent and Richard Algernon "R.L." Dent.

Mr. Ketch, a community leader and political activist, led the company until his death in 1985. When Ms. Ketch and sister Juliette Burton took over management of the family business shortly thereafter, it marked the first time the business returned to female management since the early days of Mrs. Dent.

Today, women are much more involved in the undertaking business, which is a good thing, said Mr. Griffin, who has worked for Dent's since 1973.

"There's just a personal touch that a woman can give that a man can't," he said.

The company appears to be headed back into all-male management as Ms. Ketch's son, G.B. Hannan, a lieutenant and investigator for the Richmond County fire department, is prepped to take the business into the fourth generation.

"When his time comes, he will move right in," Ms. Ketch said. "That's how it happened with us. It's expected."

Reach Damon Cline at (706) 823-3486 or damon.cline@augustachronicle.com.