The Hayward Funeral Home’s history begins on January 13, 1937, when Lester and Helen Anderson purchased a residence on Dakota Avenue near West’s Dairy and founded Anderson Funeral Home. In 1939, the Anderson’s purchased the Carl and Augusta Trettin residence at the corners of Wisconsin and Third Street and moved the funeral home to that location. The original structure was built in 1890 by Louis Hanson of Hayward. Over the years, the Andersons made several additions to the original structure. In 1952 the chapel area was added, a casket selection room was added in 1955, and a reception room, office, entry, and garages were added in 1963. In 1963, Lester and Helen’s son, Robert, joined the funeral home after graduating and becoming licensed as a Funeral Director. On February 3, 1968, Lester died and the funeral home would continue to be operated by Helen and Robert.

 On June 1, 1980, the funeral home was purchased by Gary and Shari Nathan of Fargo, ND. In 1982 the Nathans conducted extensive remodeling throughout and in 1985 added an onsite crematory. The name was changed from Anderson Funeral Home to Anderson-Nathan Funeral Home to reflect the ownership change. During the 1990s, the Nathans acquired an interest in the Koerpel Funeral Home in Hayward and took over the day-to-day operations as George Koerpel moved into retirement. The Nathans continued to own the funeral home until November of 1997, when they sold it, along with the Dahl Funeral Home in Spooner which they had acquired in 1989, to the Keystone Group. After the sale of the funeral home and the death of George Koerpel, the Koerpel Funeral Home was closed and merged with the Anderson-Nathan Funeral Home, renamed Anderson-Nathan-Koerpel Funeral Home.

In 2010 the funeral home was purchased by SCI Corporation. In 2012, the funeral home was moved to its current location on County Highway B after extensive remodeling and additions were made to the original Kingdom Hall and later original Grace Lutheran Church building.

In 2014 SCI sold the funeral home to Michael Bratley and Marcus Nelson, who have worked at the funeral home since 1997 and 1998 respectively. At that time the name was changed to Hayward Funeral Home, operating as part of the Bratley-Nelson Funeral Homes and Crematory family of funeral homes, with other locations in Spooner and Solon Springs. In 2017, a new crematory was purchased and installed, replacing the original crematory that had served the area communities since 1985.