The Portland daily press., 1872-09-18

No Mace about our city has been growing so
beautiful and attractive of late as the cemetery
which lies just outside its limits, in the town of
Deering. Especially has this been true the
past season. The warm, moist summer has
preserved its foliage and flowers in unnter-
rupted brightness and fragrance 1t is a favor
lite resort for all, and particularly dear to hun
dreds who have laid beneath its green turf the
dearest friends of life just now the leaves
are beginning to ripen, and ere many days the
trees and shrubs will be in their gorgeous au-
tumnal coloring. Perhaps art has done more
to decorate other similar enclosures, and the
sculptor's handiwork has given them greater
fame; but nature has prepared no more beauti-
full and diversified spot for the deposit of the
sacred ashes of the loved and honored dead.
And cultivated taste and liberal wealth is be-
ing used to combine the grandeur of wood and
hill with the studied elegance of the gardeners
skill
1t is but little more than twenty years
since the work Of preparing tbs ground for its
present use was begun. As long ago as 1850,
the crowded state of our city cemeteries at
tracted attention, and in December of that
year, Mr.. S. B. Beckett, in memorial to the
city council, requested that measures be taken
to secure rural cemetery in a tract Of land
near Westbrook Seminary. The memorial
was favorably received, and after the usual for
NAL preliminaries, fifty acres of the present
grounds were purchased of Oliver Buckley and
William Stevens in December, 1851, for the
sum of $4,000; and the succeeding February
five acres more were purchased for 1915. In
July, 1858, plan of survey by Mr. Charles III.
Howe was adopted and the lots-15 by 20 feet
each-were put into the market the succeeding
fall; the price of which was afterwards fixed at
$40. In the spring of 1854, the committee in
charge reported to the City Government that
five miles of avenues and walks had been grad
ed, at total COST including fence, ETC., of
S1,S7S55. In 1853 an order was passed by the
City Council prohibiting further interments in
the city cemeteries except in family tombs or
lots, and five acres ON the southerly side of
Evergreen Cemetery were set apart as free
burial ground. In 1869 the cemetery was en-
larged by the purchase of land of Charles
Strayton, at cost of $1,000, and later in the
same season sixty-four acres additional were
purchased of ldessrs. Stevens at cost of S175
per acre, and in 1871 further purchase was
made of fifty-five acres of Storer Libby, for
which S13,925 was paid. The present area of
the cemetery, therefore, is about one hundred
and seventy-seven acres, the original cost of
which was about $31 800 Much of the origin
al purchase is yet unimproved; the labor of the
past being expended upon the upland upon the
front and leaving the dense woods of the north.
erly end to be cleared and lotted out in the fu-
ture. The Stevens purchase is receiving atten-
ton now. A very handsome plan has been
made, and under the management of Mr. Ram
sey, the present Superintendent, the surface is
fast taking shape, and some very pretty lots
are already finished. Trees are being planted,
and they are thriving well. From fourteen to
twenty men have been employed the past sea-
son and their efforts have been well directed.
The Libby purchase bids fair to become more
beautiful than any part of the unimproved
tract tbs a narrow strip, beginning near the
declivity towards the ponds and runs south
westerly, dropping down upon an undulating
plain, dotted with groves, and command
ing fine view of the village of Woodford's.
Another entrance to the cemetery is to be made
here, reached by the road which runs parallel
with Pleasant street. near where that turns on
to the Plains.
The city makes yearly an appropriation for
the improvement of the grounds, etc., which
will in time be returned by the sale of lots and
miscellaneous receipts. The receipts last year
were 81, 1922, and the appropriations for the
current year are $50O0 Twenty five per cent.
of the money received for the sale of lots is
transferred to the Fund, which is to be used in
the future in keeping the grounds in good con-
dition. By the payment of $25 to this fund the
owner of any lot can have it kept in good order
forever. In monumental work the cemetery is
becoming, notable. Comparatively little has
been done in elaborate work this season, but
there is scattered through the grounds some
fine specimens of art, worth more than pass
ing notice, which have been praised by strangers
who are familiar with the adornments of the
most noted cemeteries in the country.