PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Si 
5 yi ^ 
CEnETERY \OTES 
i 
The National Mausoleum Co., of 
Ohio, is being sued for $20,000 dam- 
ages in the U. S. Circuit Court, 
Springfield, 111., by the Decatur, 111., 
Mausoleum Co. The plaintiff charges 
that the Ohio concern, through false 
report in the Decatur papers, caused 
several persons to revoke their con- 
tracts for the erection of the patent 
concrete mausoleums. 
5K * 
The Lamed Cemetery Association, 
Lamed, Kans., is composed entirely 
of ladies, who organized 23 years ago 
and have reclaimed the cemetery from 
a wilderness. The cemetery is sup- 
ported entirely by sales of lots and 
contributions. The seven officers of 
the board serve without remuneration 
and have continued in office, except 
for death in the ranks, for 15 years. 
They are: President, Mrs. Sarah A. 
Bardrick, vice-pres., Mrs. Susan Long ; 
treasurer, Mrs. Abbie Clark; secre- 
tary, Mrs. Helen Wheeler; auditing 
committee, Mesdames Ruth Krieger, 
Margaret Dillon, Etta Winchester. 
The water works consist of windmills 
and pipe distribution, and some $600 
was spent in improvements during 
^1909, including a rabbit-proof fence 
with cement posts, around the 40-acre 
plot. W. P. Evans is the sexton. 
^ * 
The City Council of Waukesha, 
Wis., has ordered the removal of the 
bodies buried in the old “Bidwell” 
cemetery, together with all monu- 
ments and markers, to the Prairie 
Home Cemetery, at the city’s expense. 
The old cemetery has been an eye- 
sore for many years. The cemetery 
is only one acre in extent, and it is 
believed that some 60 bodies will have 
to be removed. 
* 
The Circuit Court at Grafton, V/. 
Va., has recently handed down a de- 
cision, making the injunction perpet- 
ual prohibiting the St. Augustine’s 
Catholic Church of Grafton from es- 
tablishing a cemetery on property re- 
cently purchased for cemetery pur- 
poses in Blueville. The drainage of 
the tract involving public health con- 
siderations practically determined the 
decision. 
* Jk * 
A bill has been introduced into the 
New Jersey legislature under the terms 
of which Paterson corporations own- 
ing burial grounds which have become 
a public nuisance, will have power to 
apply to the finance commission request- 
ing the city "to take over the cemeteries 
for park purposes. In the event of fail- 
ure of corporations to move in the mat- 
ter the Board of Health may declare 
graveyards a nuisance and make appli- 
cation to the Circuit Court for an or- 
der giving the city power to take over 
such grpunds. The act applies princi- 
pally to the Sandy Hill burial grounds, 
which for years have been an eyesore. 
The city must remove all bodies, mark- 
ers, etc., and reinter them. The bill 
gives the court power to appoint three 
commissioners to assess damages. 
* * * 
Laurel Hill Cemetery Association, San 
Francisco, is still actively fighting out 
the constitutionality of the city ordi- 
nance forbidding further burial within 
the corporate limits of the city. This 
ordinance was declared valid by the 
Superior Court of the county and the 
ruling was sustained by the State Su- 
preme Court ; on further appeal to the 
United States Circuit Court. The city 
next took the case to the United States 
Supreme Court, in which it is pending. 
* * * 
The cemeteries also object to the cor- 
poration tax. The Syracuse, N. Y., 
Herald quotes one cemetery official as 
saying : “This cemetery is conducted 
solely for the benefit of the dead. Have 
things come to such a pass that we poor 
farmers must be taxed, dead or alive?” 
* * * 
The old military cemetery on Delori- 
mier Ave., klontreal, Canada, over 
which there has been a fight to prevent 
its sale to the city, and which is owned 
by the Dominion Government, will not 
be sold. The Last Post-Fund officials 
will make further efforts to raise money 
to preserve it. 
* * * 
Cemetery land speculators appear to 
be having a serious time in Queens, N. 
Y. Two years ago a 10 acre plot, par- 
tially surrounded by Union Field Cem- 
etery and with an extensive frontage 
on Cypress Hills road, was purchased 
and the Highland View corporation was 
organized to take possession. Steps 
were taken to start another cemetery, 
but such strong opposition was aroused 
in Evergreen that the promoters held 
their hands until recently, when another 
application to the Board of Aldermen 
was made. It will be again vigorously 
opposed. Several other schemes are 
awaiting the success of the Highland 
Park Co. It is said that burial grounds 
have very seriously depreciated property 
in those sections of Queens, the burden 
of assessments for highway improve- 
ments, etc., being thrown upon the 
other property. Statistics show that 
48,370 interments were made in the sev- 
eral cemeteries located in the Borough 
of Queens, Brooklyn, N, -Y., in the 
year 1909. 
* * * 
Lot owners in Oak Hill and Mount 
Vernon Cemeteries, Atchison, Kas., 
according to the local press, are grow- 
ing restive under the conditions govern- 
ing the above cemeteries, which they 
complain are run under trust methods, 
the dead being exploited for profit, con- 
trary to the laws relating to cemetery 
associations in Kansas. Oak Hill is 
being neglected, while Mount Vernon 
lots are held at exorbitant prices, both 
cemeteries belonging practically to the 
same owners, who, according to the 
complaints, are paying themselves big 
dividends out of receipts that should 
be expended upon maintenance and im- 
provements. 
* * * 
The petition of the Lakewood Cem- 
etery Association of Minneapolis, Minn., 
to condemn land in Saunders Park ad- 
dition to add to the cemetery grounds, 
was granted on January 15th, the de- 
cision holding that cemeteries have the 
right to exercise eminent domain. The 
ruling gives the cemetery the right to 
take 17 lots of the addition. Commis- 
sioners were appointed to appraise the 
property. 
V * * 
FROM CEMETERY REPORTS 
The 78th annual report of the trus- 
tees of the Cemetery of Mount Au- 
burn, Boston, for 1909, shows very 
prosperous conditions. Lot sales 
amounted to $10,744.60; there was 
added to the perpetual care fund $71,- 
044.23, the largest sum ever received 
in a single year, and this fund, 
known as the Repair Fund, now 
totals $1,627,940.36. The permanent 
fund intended to provide for the care 
of the cemetery after the sal6 of lots 
has ceased amounts to $545,590.33, a 
gain of $13,570.55 for the past year. 
The general fund, to meet expenses 
for renewals and improvements, has 
reached $229,084.93. The ravages of 
the brown-tail moth and similar pests 
have been kept well under control 
and proper maintenance has been 
kept up among the receipts which to- 
taled $175,519.33 were $69,052.63 for 
