Indiana 
The following abstract of the cemetery 
laws of Indiana, specially prepared for the 
readers of Park and Cemetery, is pre- 
sented to Indiana cemetery men as con- 
taining data worthy of preservation, on ac- 
count of the references made to specific 
statutes and court decisions affecting burial 
grounds in their state. The article may hold 
interest to those not living on Hoosier soil 
as offering a study of legislative measures 
relating to the care of cemeteries. 
The recently adjourned session of the 
Indiana legislature left two new laws on 
the statute books. Acts c. 73, pro- 
vides ‘‘that no board of trustees or other 
governing body or custodian controlling 
any cemetery in this state, shall refuse to 
allow the setting up of markers for the 
graves of deceased soldiers in its grounds : 
Provided, That such markers shall conform 
to the standard markers furnished by the 
United States government for marking the 
graves of deceased soldiers of the United 
States army.'’ Violation of the law is pun- 
ishable by a fine from $5 to $25. 
CEMETERY CARE AND M.^NAGEMENT 
As amended by Acts 1917, c. 122, Acts 
1915, c. 143 adds the following provisions 
. to the Indiana laws ; 
The county commissioners of any county 
are “reciuired and authorized to receive 
from any person or persons a deposit or 
legacy of money to be held in trust in per- 
petuity or for such period as the donor or 
testator shall designate in writing, the in- 
terest of which shall be used for the pur- 
pose of keeping in good condition any 
abandoned cemetery or any public or in- 
corporated cemetery, or any lot or lots, 
monuments, mausoleums, vaults or other 
burial structures in any cemetery of the 
state.” The commissioners must not expend 
more than the interest of such funds. "No 
such trust shall be accepted by the county 
commissioners, the initial amount of which 
shall be less than $100.'’ Provision is made 
for lending of such trust funds by the 
county auditor at the same rate of interest 
and in the same manner that common 
school funds are invested. "The loans shall 
be made in the name of the trust to which 
it belongs ; but the county auditor may 
combine the money belonging to two or 
more trusts in one loan, by taking a sepa- 
rate note for each fund, all secured by one 
mortgage.” 
The county auditor is charged with strict 
responsibility in collecting the principal and 
interest under such investments. The coun- 
ty is also made liable for the “preservation 
of the principal and the payment of the in- 
terest on such fund.” 
The fund may be deposited with the 
commissioners of the county in which the 
cemetery is located or in the county adjoin- 
ing the same and nearest thereto. 
“.The county auditor shall make distribu- 
P ARK AND CEMETERY 
Cemetery 
tion of the interest accrued on any ceme- 
tery fund or funds on the last Monday of 
January of each year and to the following 
person or persons: To the township trus- 
tees of the township in which an aband- 
oned or unincorporated cemetery is located, 
provided that such cemetery be located on 
a county line or on a civil township line, 
then the trustee whose township lies on the 
east or south of such cemetery shall have 
charge of the cemetery and shall receive 
the money from the county auditor having 
the fund or funds in trust: To the treas- 
urer of any board of directors of any in- 
corporated cemetery. The township trus- 
tee and the treasurer of said board of 
directors shaW each take a receipt or 
voucher for any money paid out stating the 
amount paid out, the purpose for which 
expended and the fund from which it 
came.” The receipts and vouchers must be 
filed with the county auditor on or before 
Jan. 1 following, for examination and ap- 
proval of the commissioners. 
All laws inconsistent with the new one 
are repealed, except that "it shall in no 
wise affect a becpiest, legacy or endowment 
now in the hands of the board of directors 
of any incorporated cemetery, or which 
may hereafter come into their hands in 
accordance with the law made and provided 
for such cases.” 
ANNEXING UNINCORPORATED CEMETERIES 
Whenever there is a plotted unincorpo- 
rated cemetery adjoining or contiguous to 
an incorporated cemetery, the former may 
be included within the latter on petition in 
writing signed by a majority of those own- 
ing lots in the unincorporated cemetery, 
the petition being filed with the directors of 
the incorporated cemetery. 
On including the unincorporated ceme- 
tery, the incorporated association may levy 
an assessment against each lot therein to 
provide a fund with which to maintain the 
lots. If such assessment be not paid within 
the time fixed by the association’s by-law, 
“then such incorporated cemetery shall 
have the right to sell any lot or half lot 
which is not occupied by any grave to 
satisfy such unpaid assessments,” after first 
giving thirty days’ notice of intention to 
make such sale. If the lot owner’s address 
be known, the notice must be sent to him 
in writing ; otherwise the notice may be 
given by publication in “some newspaper 
of general circulation printed and published 
in the county where said cemetery is lo- 
cated once each week for a period of two 
weeks, that at the expiration of thirty days 
from the date of the publication of the last 
notice” the sale will be made, unless the 
assessments be paid within the prescribed 
thirty days. 
But an incorporated cemetery which has 
taken over an unincorporated one, as above 
provided, “may, instead of levying the as- 
313 
Laws 
sessment, * * * receive a fixed amount from 
any lot owner * * * in full satisfaction of 
all future assessments against such lot of 
said owner for the upkeep and maintenance 
of the same. Such money so received shall 
be held by said cemetery association as a 
fund for the upkeep and maintenance of 
such lot and shall be invested by said ceme- 
tery association and the income only shall 
be expended in the care of the lots upon 
whose accounts such fixed sum was paid.’’ 
By express provision, it is declared that 
the foregoing mentioned provisions relating 
to the taking over of unincorporated 
grounds by incorporated associations shall 
not apply to burial grounds in which inter- 
ments have been forbidden by city ordi- 
nance or condemned by any local or state 
board of health, 
OFFENSES AGAINST CEMETERIES 
Taking up the codified cemetery statutes 
in the order in which they appear in 
Burns’ Annotated Indiana Statutes, 1914, 
the following mentioned sections refer to 
that compilation : 
Sec. 2309. — One who wilfully, mischiev- 
ously, or maliciously disfigures, defaces or 
removes a tombstone or other structure 
erected to the memory of a deceased per- 
son or event, or who so interferes with any 
fence, railing, structure or other work in or 
around any public or private monument, 
cemetery, or burial place, or any tree, shrub 
or plant therein, is subject to a fine of 
from $5 to $■500, to which may be added im- 
prisonment in the county jail not e.xceeding 
six months. 
INCORPORATION OF .ASSOCIATIONS 
Secs. 4286, 4291. — Any numuer of per- 
sons, not less than three, may associate 
themselves “to purchase and hold suitable 
grounds for the burial of the dead with the 
power of ornamenting and protecting the 
same or to take possession of any property 
dedicated and used for public cemetery pur- 
poses in which no person, firm, association 
or corporation has any equitable interest 
and over which no person, firm, association 
or corporation or public authority has any 
lawful control, to be controlled, regulated 
and managed in such manner as shall be 
set forth in the articles of association,” 
Sections 4286-4.359q, containing provisions 
common to different classes of* voluntary 
associations, should be consulted for de- 
tailed provisions relating to the formation 
and existence of such associations. 
ACQUISITION OF GROUNDS 
Secs. 4341-4344. — Associations formed 
under act of Feb. 12, 1855, are authorized 
to acquire title and hold “any lands which 
for the period of five years prior to applica- 
tion for title shall have been used as a 
public place of burial for deceased persons. 
“The amount of lands that may be so ac- 
quired shall be all that is occupied by 
