142 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
The leaven is surely working. A lot holder of Crompton, 
R. 1 ., applied to the town council of Warwick to be allowed to 
deposit a sum of money for the perpetual care and maintenance 
of his family lot. 
* -!t •» 
In response to the oft expressed wish of the late rector of 
Christ church, Richmond, Va., the ladies of the church pro. 
pose to erect in the churchyard a fountain to be known as 
the Sutro Memorial Fountain. 
* * 
On a tombstone in Landaff Center, N. H., is the following; 
“Widow Susanna Brownson was born August 31, 1699, and died 
June 12, 1802, aged 103 years.” The interesting feature of this 
record is that Mrs. Brownson lived in the seventeenth, eight- 
eenth and nineteenth centuries. 
* * * 
The cemetery association of Buckhorn Corners, Farming- 
ton, Mich., must go to law to recover a deed to its burial place. 
The association has owned the cemetery for 60 years, but the 
deed was lost without being put on record. The plat is on a 
farm belonging to three heirs, of which two are willing to give a 
new deed, the other one objects, hence the suit. 
» * * 
The city government of Chicopee, Mass., has accepted the 
gift of a Memorial Gateway for Pairview cemetery, to cost $3000, 
given by the late George M. Stearns. Mrs. Stearns has offered 
to pay additional expenses if plans she has had prepared are ac- 
cepted. The increasing number of memorials of this class is 
gratifying, and shows in great measure that it is only necessary 
to educate the lot owners in current progressive ideas in order to 
meet with a ready response. 
* » * 
The Committee on Gardens of the Massachusetts Horticult- 
ural Society recently visited Forest Hills cemetery, Boston, and 
were evidently much interested in their visit. It is the intention 
of the officials of this cemetery, v/hile managing the property on 
the lawn or modern plan, to make it also a garden cemetery, to 
which end great care is taken in the cultivation of flowers and 
their arraugement and display in bedding and borders. The 
combination involves both wisdom and taste. 
* * * 
A report recently made to the New England Cremation so- 
ciety records that seventeen crematories have been established 
in this country during the past ten years. The number of bodies 
cremated in each of the ten years is as follows; In 1885, 36; in 
1886, 1 19; in 1887, 125; in 1888, 199; in 1889, 262; in 1890, 362; 
■in 1891, 464; in 1892, 576; in 1893, 677; in 1894, 876. The above 
shows a steady increase in cremation, and that this method of 
of disposing of our dead is gaining ground year by year in an 
increasing ratio. 
* » * 
A strange custom prevails among a certain tribe in the 
Caucasus. Europe, says Current Literature . When a single 
young man dies, some one who has carried to the grave a 
marriageable daughter in the course of a year calls upon the 
bereaved parents and says; “Your son is sure to want a wife. 
I’ll give you my daughter, and you shall deliver to me the 
marriage portion in return.” A friendly offer of this descrip- 
tion is never rejected, and the two parties soon come to terms 
as to the amount of the dowry, which varies according to the 
advantages possessed by the girl in her lifetime. Cases have 
.been known where the young man’s father has given as much 
as thirty cows to secure a dead wife for his dead son. 
« * » 
The new memorial gates of Oak Hill cemetery, Newbury- 
port. Mass., the gift of Mr. John T. Brown, have been accepted 
by the trustees. Mr. Brown also completed some improvements 
in connection with the gates to make the gift unicpie. It con- 
sists of two central and two side posts of Rockpi.rt granite, the 
central ones being three feet square and eleven feet high, sur- 
mounted by urns. These posts have panels suitably inscribed. 
The gates, three in number, are of bronze, and the whole gate- 
way is 26 feet wide. 
One of the large cemeteries of London, England, employs a 
censor of tombstones, etc All plans and designs for monuments 
and tombstones pass through his hands, besides the epitaphs and 
inscriptions proposed to be cut thereon. If remonstrance fails 
to change an intention objectionable to this officer, he exercises 
the power vested in him. It has been found from experience, 
that a great deal of unsuitable and objectionable material and 
matter have been kept out of the cemetery, although many ef- 
forts have been made, such as filled letters, etc., to frustrate the 
decisions of the cemetery officer, 
* 4f. * 
There is no place in the limits of Buffalo where one can see 
so many beautiful birds as can be seen at Forest Lawn cemetery, 
says an exchange from that city. The delicate little creatures 
are in many cases so tame, too, that they will permit the stranger 
to come very close to them. They seem to know that as far 
as they are concerned the hallowed ground is a safe retreat . 
No dogs are allowed there and no cruel boys can molest them or 
interfere with their nests. There is something most pathetic in 
their apparent appreciation of the sacred nature of the cemetery. 
* * » 
A suit has been commenced in New York to solve a knotty 
point in the disposition of cemetery property belonging to a de- 
ceased owner. The late Noyes S. Palmer, some time before his 
death came into possession of one hundred and fifty lots in Cy- 
press Hills cemetery, Brooklyn, covering over four acres of 
ground, and valued at $75,000. Before he disposed of this prop- 
erty he died and it is contended that cemetery lots, when the 
owner dies, are inalienable and the law is appealed to to settle 
the question whether these lots can be sold. The decision in 
this suit will be awaited with much impatience. 
* jfc * 
As a means of adding to the beauty and interest of St. Mary’s 
cemetery. Rev. Patrick Cuddihy of Milford, Mass., at his own 
expense, constructed an Irish round tower, the fac-simile of the 
famous round tower of Glen da- Lough, Ireland. It is sixteen 
feet in diameter, with a height of seventy-five feet, and is built 
of pink granite, upon a huge granite boulder in the cemetery. 
It tapers gradually to within 16 feet of the top, where it finishes 
in a conical cap. It will last for ages, and is said to be the first 
of its kind in this country. Within its shadow is a lake, an acre 
in extent, and the whole forms a picturesque and attiactive spot. 
* * * 
The widening of Elm street, Lynn, Mass., necessitates 
taking in some of the Western cemetery and removing the 
remains. This cemetery is the oldest in the city, and the 
tombstones therein contain many quaint and interesting in- 
scriptions, many of which time has nearly effaced. The first 
recorded interment was that of John Bancroft, the 
eminent historian, in 1637, of whom George Bancroft, the later 
historian, is a lineal descendant. John Newhall, the first white 
person born in Lynn, was also buried there. This cemetery 
was also the resting place of the famous “Moll” Pitcher, who 
died April 19, 1813. 
