PARK AND CEMETERY. 
109 
At the present time we have a body in 
our receiving vault which I have refused 
to bury on a lot purchased on the credit 
plan because of arrears in payments. It is 
understood the undertaker is responsible 
for the receiving vault charges. 
I am convinced that the selling of ceme- 
tery lots on the credit plan is correct, pro- 
viding the initial payment is one-half or 
at least one third of the purchase price of 
lot. F. S HEARD, 
Supt., Riverside Cemetery. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
* * * 
When lot holders discontinue payment, 
we send them a notice reading as follows : 
NOTICE 
Fitchburg, Mass 1902. 
The time limit of the contract between the 
Cemetery Department and yourself in the sale of Lot 
No has expired and you are request- 
ed to make immediate payment. 
Should I not hear from you within thirty days 
it will be deemed sufficient evidence that you wish 
to surrender all claim to said Lot. 
Per Order of Cemetery Trustees. 
Supt. 
We have had very good success with 
this method. We have removed bodies 
from partially paid-for lots and believe the 
state law allows this under a signed con- 
tract. Our contract of sale reads as fol- 
lows : 
CITY OF FITCHBURG 
CEMETERY DEPARTMENT 
AGREEMENT. 
This Agreement to convey in Forest Hill Ceme- 
tery Lot No. 9999 made this twentieth day of No- 
vember, 1914. by and between the Trustees of Public 
Burial Grounds of the City of Fitchburg, Mass., and 
John Doe. 
Witnesseth: That said Trustees, in consideration 
of the sum of one-half of price of lot witli the price 
of burial to be paid upon the delivery of this agree- 
ment, and the further sum of one-fourth of balance 
to be paid within one year from the date, in quar- 
terly payments, agree with the said John Doe, his 
heirs and assigns, that they will, as soon as full 
payment is made, cause a deed of said lot to be 
executed in the form used by the City of Fitchburg 
in the conveyance of burial lots, and deliver to said 
John Doe. his heirs and assigns. 
It is agreed by and between the parties of this 
contract, that upon the payment of the first sum 
mentioned, the said John Doe shall be permitted to 
use. occupy and improve said lot, but a failure to 
make full payment within the time above agreed 
upon, shall of itself work a forefeiture of every 
right of said John Doe, his heirs and assigns, in 
and to said lot, and shall empower the said Trus- 
tees to enter upon said lot and remove therefrom 
any body or bodies therein buried, the same to be 
rebnried at some suitable place, the expense of 
which shall be taken from any sum that may have 
been paid by virtue of this agreement, and the 
balance, if any remain, shall be refunded. 
It is also agreed that this lot shall not be sold 
for speculative purposes or transferred without con- 
sent of the Trustees. 
In Witness Whereof, we have hereunto set our 
bands and seal, this 
•day of 19 
For Trustees. 
W. A. Lowe, 
Supt., Forest Hill Cemetery. 
Fitchburg, Mass. 
• • • 
Our cemetery is a city cemetery, con- 
trolled by the City of Manchester, under 
a Board of Trustees, elected by the city 
government. Our lots are sold at so much 
per square foot, including endowment. We 
have a form, or rather certificate, which 
the purchaser signs at the time of pur- 
chase. This reads as follows : 
PINE GROVE CEMETERY. 
Manchester, N. II 191... 
In consideration of Dollars, 
the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, per- 
mission is granted to 
to bury one body on lot numbered as 
shown upon the plan, situated upon 
This amount, so paid, will be allowed by the 
Treasurer, upon the surrender of this receipt, toward 
the payment for said lot, upon the delivery of a 
deed. The body buried under this permit is subject 
to removal for noncompliance with the following 
agreement: 
For the Treasurer of Committee on Cemeteries. 
Read Restrictions before making improvements on 
lot. 
I, the above-named 
in consideration of this permission, hereby agree 
to take a deed of the lot above specified within 
three months from this date, and pay for the same 
in full at the rate of cents per square 
foot, with interest at G per cent from date; and, 
failing in this, any bodies buried upon the lot may 
be removed to the public burying grounds, and the 
lot conveyed to other parties and no claim shall be 
made for the refunding of any portion of the money 
which I have paid. 
The amount paid down is optional with 
the purchaser, hut nothing less than $10 is 
accepted. You will see by the blank that 
the first payment allows one burial to be 
made before the deed is taken. Failing to 
take a deed within three months from the 
date of purchase, the body can be removed 
to the public burying ground. Of course, 
there is a question whether or not this 
would hold in the courts, but since we 
have no trouble in enforcing this rule we 
see no reason to worry. 
We have had lot purchasers who failed 
to continue payments and forfeited their 
lot, but in the twenty-two years I have 
been connected with Pine Grove Cemetery 
there has been one case where we have 
had to remove the body to the public 
ground. Should a purchaser be unable to 
continue payments, we have been able to 
make some arrangement with him where- 
by he can surrender the lot and take a 
single grave. We find this answers very 
nicely. Of course, we sometimes have to 
get after delinquents, but, as I have said 
before, we have very little trouble after 
notifying them. J. H. Erskine, 
Supt., Pine Grove Cemetery. 
Manchester, N. H. 
* * * 
We have had lot holders discontinue 
payments before lot was fully paid for, 
and endeavor to collect by continual dun- 
ning, both by mail and personally. The re- 
sult was varied, but generally successful, 
except in rare cases. We have had to re- 
move a body from a partially paid for lot. 
As to the law on this point, we are not 
prepared to give a definite answer. We 
have adopted this course in a few isolated 
cases in which we have been unable to ac- 
complish any result whatever by ordinary 
letters, personal application, or after usual- 
ly several final notices that this action was 
to be taken. In each instance also the ac- 
counts were of a number of years stand- 
ing; in a majority of the cases all trace 
of the original purchaser or of the parties 
interested was lost. 
Our. contracts with lot owmers are cov- 
ered by the clauses in the regular contract 
or agreement of sale used by us, which 
reads as follows : 
An Agreement made this a a y 
0( 190. . 
between the Cedar Lawn Cemetery Company, of the 
first part, and of 
the second part. 
M itnesseth, that the said party of the first part 
agrees to sell unto the said party of the second 
P art Lot No 
in Section No so designated on 
the map of the said Cemetery, in the possession of 
the party of the first part, for the sum of 
Dollars, and the said party of the 
second part agrees to buy said lot, and pay to the 
said party of the first part therefor the sum of 
Dollars, in man- 
ner following, viz.: Dollars, 
on the execution of these presents 
with interest. And the said party of the first part 
agrees upon receiving the said sum of 
Dollars, at the time and in 
the manner above mentioned,, to execute and deliver 
to the said party of the second part, a Deed for the 
conveying of the said party of the second part, 
the said lot, subject to the conditions and limita- 
tions, and with the privileges therein to be speci- 
fied, and that said party of the second part may 
have the immediate possession of the said lot, sub- 
ject to the conditions, limitations, rules and regula- 
tions of the said Company. And the said party of 
the second part further agrees that in case the said 
payments or any of them should remain unpaid for 
the space of thirty days next after the same shall 
have become due and payable, that the said party 
of the first part may repossess said lot, and remove 
all bodies that may have been interred therein to 
any lot in said Cemetery that may be appropriated 
to that purpose: and that all payments which shall 
have been made on account of said lot shall be 
forfeited. 
In Witness Whereof, the said Cedar Lawn Cem- 
etery Company have caused this agreement to be 
signed by their Treasurer, and their Seal affixed, 
and said party of the second part has hereto set his 
hand and seal, the day and year first above written. 
Signed, Sealed and Delivered in presence of 
Treasure:'. 
It is our custom to require the payment 
of one-third of the purchase price before 
an interment is allowed. 
Cedar Lawn Cemetery. 
M. L. McLeod, Sec. 
Paterson, N. J. 
% * % 
Our formal contract reads as follows ; 
LAKE VIEW CEMETERY ASSOCIATION 
No 
•T 
This Agreement, made this 
day of 191... 
between the Lake View Cemetery Association, parly 
of the first part, and 
party of the second part, 
Witnesseth, That said Association doth hereby sell 
to said) party of the second part, 
Lot No in Section No 
in the Cemetery Grounds of said’ Association, Cuya- 
hoga County, Ohio, at and for the price of 
Dollars. 
payable ns follows: 
with interest, at the rate of six per cent per an- 
num, payable annually; when' so paid said Associa- 
