8 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE BIRMINGHAM, MICH., WOMEN’S CEMETERY 
ASSOCIATION AND ITS WORK. 
The improvements effected in our large ceme- 
teries during the past few years in harmony with 
the higher ideals encouraged and foscered by adepts 
in landscape work and far seeing cemetery officials, 
set the pace for general improvement in all ceme- 
teries of sufficient magnitude to include available in- 
come and organized methods of conducting busi- 
ness. And it is quite certain that this improvement 
must continue, for the contrast between the new 
and the old is so much in favor of the former, that 
no sensible community having knowledge of it could 
be expected to tolerate the latter a year longer than 
is necessary. 
But between the private graveyard on the farm, 
up through the little plot of the country hamlet or 
village, or the larger burial ground of the small 
town, to the modern city cemetery, there has been 
a large field to cover and with many variable con- 
ditions to meet. The methods which prevailed in 
these smaller places were such as looked little farther 
than present accommodation for inevitable events, 
and hence failed to take into account the ultimate 
requirements of the burying ground in its relation 
to the community. There were no means of im- 
pressing the peculiar appropriateness of beautifying 
the graveyard upon those in authority over such 
matters, and to individual effort and taste was left 
the work of making or marring the small burial 
plot. And this generally led to utter neglect, a 
condition still prevailing in most cases over our land. 
But the facilities for travel, the widespread de- 
sire for knowledge, the growing influence of a higher 
national life, which is the distinguishing feature of 
the past decade or two, has been finding expression 
VIEW IN CEMETERY AT BIRMINGHAM, MICH. 
in increased activity towards the improvement of 
external surroundings in our country and village 
life, and the unkempt, disorderly cemetery, so long 
crying for improvement, has been receiving more o^ 
that attention which it always undoubtedly deserved, 
and which the best interests of the community de- 
manded as a record of their status. 
In some instances the problems connected with 
their improvement and care have been solved by con- 
certed action on business principles on the part of 
the authorities interested. In a few others Improve- 
ment Societies have taken the cemetery in hand 
and are working to its betterment. In a case we are 
about to describe a body of women a few years ago 
banded together in a cemetery association, indepen- 
dent of other affiliations, and for the sole purpose of 
redeeming the old cemetery and adding to its area. 
And this is in the pretty village of Birmingham, 
Michigan, a place of about 1000 inhabitants, eigh- 
teen miles north of Detroit. Mrs. M. Baldwin of 
the Birmingham Cemetery Association gives us the 
following information: 
“Seeing the need of some organized work for 
the care of the cemetery the women of the village 
incorporated a society for that purpose. Our mem- 
bers were few, and the outlook poor. The most 
we hoped to do was to have the grass mown once a 
year, or at most to keep a man there one day in the 
week. These are some of the things we have done: 
We have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs, 
taken down the board fence in front, lowered the 
posts, and planted at each one ivy or wild clematis, 
so that they are entirely covered; from post to 
post we carried a chain. We have put up a wind-mill 
that raises water from a creek near by and distri- 
butes it all through the grounds in iron pipes, and 
established nurseries in which we raise our own 
trees. We have bought four acres for an addition 
and have ploted it on the lawn plan; we have placed 
numbered marble corner posts at 
the corners of each lot, in all the 
new part, and have adopted the 
modern rules in regard to head- 
stones, enclosures, etc., which 
we enforce. 
“We now keep a man on the 
grounds all the time during the 
summer season, and often more 
than one. It is as far as I know 
the only cemetery in the state 
outside our cities where the land- 
scape gardening plan is adopted 
and its rules followed. 
“The association is incorpo- 
rated under the laws of the state, 
which enables it to hold property. 
Each lot owner is expected to contribute one dollar 
per year towards expenses, but in cases where no 
one is left to care for lots in which have been bur- 
