200 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
| CEMETERY NOTES. J 
+ . 4 * 
■T-HF W+FdHH’FF'F'F'F’FF FFHH-FFF+FFFFF+^H^F^+FF'FFF' 
The women interested in the Oak Hill cemetery of Nunda, 
N. Y., have formed a society for the purpose of securing funds 
to be applied in renovating and beautifying the cemetery. Mrs. 
Grace Dresher is secretary of the association. 
* * * 
The Council Committee on cemeteries of Richmond, Va., 
at a recent session considered the plans for extended improve- 
ments in Oakwood cemetery. Among improvements to be made 
will be the construction of an artificial lake and the equipment 
of a water system. 
* * * 
A suit has been commenced in the Court of Common Pleas, 
by a Mrs. Maria Morlock of Washington township, Ohio, 
against the Bishop of Cleveland, St. Wendelin’s Catholic church 
of Fostoria, O., and its cemetery trustees, to restrain the defen- 
dants from establishing a cemetery adjoining her premises on the 
north ridge road, in said township. 
* * * 
The Sheboygan, Wis., cemetery commissioners have been 
seriously wrought up by the unseemly conduct of the curious at 
recent prominent burials. To avert such scenes and destruction 
in the future, they have provided portable posts and chains to se- 
cure a forty feet enclosure, within which none but interested rela- 
tions and friends will be admitted during interments. 
* * *• 
A New York syndicate has purchased a tract of about 100 
acres of land in Bucks county, Pa., just across the Philadelphia 
county line from Somerton. A cemetery will be established at 
this place and arrangements made to run funeral trains each day. 
Woking cemetery, England, and others in the same country are 
conducted on this system. The one to be established in Bucks 
county will be the only one of the kind in the United States. 
* * * 
Hollywood cemetery, Atlanta, Ga. , has been sold by the re 
ceiver on the order of the Court. The cemetery is located on 
the Chattahoochee car line, having been located there about fif- 
teen years ago. The property consists of 80 acres of land and the 
grounds have been improved and divided into lots, and it is esti- 
mated that about 1900 lots have been sold. There have been 
500 interments. The lots which have been purchased by indivi- 
duals for burial purposes will not be affected by the sale. 
* * * 
A minister once asked a sexton why he bestowed more pains 
on the smaller graves than the larger ones, and the old man’s re- 
ply was: “Sir, you know that it is said of children. ‘Of such is 
the kingdom of heaven,’ and I think that the Savior is pleased 
when he sees so much white clover growing around these little 
graves.” But when the minister pressed the sexton fora more 
explicit answer he said: “Sir, about these larger graves I don’t 
know who are the Lord’s saints and who are not; but you know, 
sir, it is different with the bairns. They are all his.” 
* * * 
The work of transforming the old St. John’s burying ground 
New York City, into a park is in progress. More thrn 900 an 
cient tombstones were buried, on many of which were cut names 
that were once well known in New York. Five thousand bodies 
were buried in the cemetery. The Trinity corporation fought 
hard for the old burying ground, but was finally defeated and 
obliged to accept $520,000 for the land. A number of the bodies 
were disinterred and removed, but the others remain undisturbed. 
It is said that one New Yorker whose kindred’s graves were to be 
covered by a walk, obtained a modification of the plans, by 
which a flower bed will be above the bodies. The old cemetery 
is now but a history. 
* * * 
The Bellefontaine Cemetery Association of St. Louis, Mo. 
was incorporated in 1849, and embraced by its first purchase 138 
acres. Additions have been made from time to time until the 
present area comprises 332 acres. It is not a stock company and 
the proceeds of sales are devoted to maintaining the grounds 
in order and any surplus is invested as a permanent fund for the 
maintenance of the cemetery after the lot sales cease. The 
Board of Trustees serve without compensation and the associa- 
tion is non-dividend paying. An original owner cannot sell his 
lot if there are any interments on it and no deed from him for 
such a lot is valid. The beauty of the grounds has been im- 
mensely improved recently by the removal of between one and 
two hundred of the old-time iron fences and a number of the 
stone copings, and it is hoped to continue this work and create 
of Bellefontaine an ideal modern cemetery. 
* * * 
Speaking of crematories the New York Tribune says; It is 
noteworthy that though in each of the American crematories 
more men than women have been cremated the movement 
abroad was practically begun by women, Lady Dilke of England 
and a German woman having been cremated at Dresden. When 
efforts were made in the years 1873 -4 on the continent of Europe, 
in England and in the United States in favor of the cremation of 
the dead, Lady Rose Mary Crawshay was one of its prominent 
advocates. A number of well-known women in this country 
have expressed themselves decidedly in favor of cremation. 
Among them are Olive Thorne Miller, Mrs. Lippincott, Mrs. 
J. C. Croly, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, M’S. Alice D. LePlon- 
geon, the late Kate Field, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland and Edith 
Thomas. At a public meetihg Mrs Ballington Booth referred to 
the time when her body should be carried to the crematory. 
The total number of cremations in the United States from 1876, 
when the first crematory was established, to the close of 1895, 
was reported to be 4,647. The number of men cremated in New 
York is more than double the number of women. 
* * * 
If ever there was a cemetery unfortunately situated, it is 
that of Oakwood, at Berlin, Wis., if the Journal of that place 
in a string of terse paragraphs correctly describes the situation . 
The old cemetery was started many years ago by an association 
for that purpose, which seems to have soon died out and left its 
care to individual lot owners. Later more room was required 
and an addition was platted by an individual, and later still in a 
similar way another piece was added. “Practically there has 
never been, for the past forty years at all events, any organized 
head to the Berlin cemetery. There has been no one to make 
any public improvements. For several years the city has taken 
charge of the place and has done more, or less, according to the 
ideas of the committee!; that have been appointed. This year 
the committee has done a good deal” and is blamed therefore. 
In other years all that has been done has been to allow some one 
to cut the grass for the hay . A certain class declare that the 
city deriving no benefit from it should not appropriate funds for 
its care, but the clamor of those owning lots have led the coun- 
cil to spend more or less every year. The Journal claims that 
if the community demands that the city should continue its care, 
it should be done regularly and in a business like way, but advo- 
cates and urges the formation of an association to conduct the 
cemetery affairs properly and remove it from the uncertain and 
devious ways of individualism. The Journal is right and the con- 
dition of Oakwood cemetery, Berlin, Wis., reflects in no uncer- 
tain way on the citizens of that town if the facts are as stated. 
