Everything has a start and for the funeral directing family of Sweeny's it began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when native son Jacob Sweeny, born at Carleton, October 5, 1838, son of James Sweeny, of that Yarmouth County centre. He came to Yarmouth as a young boy, and strange as it may sound in this age, was only ten years old, when he went to work in a brig on a voyage to Ireland. It was said to be a terribly rough crossing, both ways, and the youthful Sweeny promptly decided that life on the open sea was not for him; so he learned the carpentry of cabinet-making trade. The ornate finish in the cabins on many fine Yarmouth ships was his skilled handiwork. For a time he managed the Rialto and wood working mills at Milton, later joining James G. Allen of Milton, a furniture dealer and undertaker, a well established firm which had been in business since 1840. When the Western Counties Railway was built, its line ran precisely through the Allen store. So in 1860 Jacob bought the business and buildings, and moved them to a site just north of where the Rogers Furniture firm is now located. He died January 24, 1924, survived by four sons and one daughter. One of his sons, Charles started a funeral business in Lunenburg, while another son, Vernon remained in Yarmouth.

Charles Sweeny left Lunenburg in 1917 for Bridgewater, called the "Main street of the South Shore". It suffered a disastrous fire in January 1899 and, one month later, the community came together as an incorporated town.