The Washington bee., 1889-01-26
SHAKING UP THE DEAD.
GRAVE YARD MEETING.

There was a large meeting Of
the lot owners of the Harmony
Cemetery held on last Monday
night in the 18th street Presbyte-
rian Church to consider the report
of the committee that was appoint.
ed Sept. 10, 'S6, to compel the So
ciety to account for certain funds
claimed to have been misappro-
priated by that society. The chair
man of the committee Mr.. Syphax,
prefaced the reading OF the report
that no vindictive feeling prompt
ed the action Of the committee,
but simply a desire to know the
exact status OF the lot owners. Mr..
Syphax said "our claim was that
the managers, after paying them
selves all that they had spent on
the property, should expend the
revenues of the cemetery in the i'm
provement of the ground. The
managers claimed the cemetery
was private institution. In this
case we have no protection. The
managers are under no obligation
to us; they merely allow US to
place our dead there. All the prom
ises they made us was verbal, and
the court there was nothing to bind
the society,"" The following was
then read by the secretary:
Your committee, appointed at q
meeting held at Plymouth Congre.
gational Church Sept. 10, 1886,
beg leave to submit the following
Your committee claimed that the
cemetery is a public one, having
been dedicated to the public by re-
ligeous services and being exempt
from taxation, that the revenue
from the sale of lots, vaultage and
grave digging, after the managers
reimburse themselves for any mo-
ney expended, with interest should
be devoted to improving the ceme-
terry, and that the ground should
not be used for speculative pur-
pose.
The defendant, Mr.. John F.
Cook, the only surviving member
of the society, held:
First. That the cemetery is a
private institution belonging to
the members of the society and
their heirs, and he (Mr. Cook de-
MES the right of the lot owners to
inquire into its managements i;
holding that the society is in no
way responsible to them.
Second. That the ground has not
been dedicated as a cemetery for
the public.
Third. That no promise has been
made to erect chapel in the ceme-
terry, although a plot of ground
has been reserved tor that purpose
which he refuses to sell.
Fourth. That no promise has
been made to the lot owners that
the ground was to be improved.
In the defendants answer to our
bill, he uses this language under
oath:
The said cemetery has always
been a place held sacred by this
defendant. All his dead are buried
there--his grandparents, his faith.
er, his mother, his child, two bro
theirs, a sister, a brother OF his
wife, and blood relations of two or
three generations. He does not
desire the cemetery to be treated
as mere Golgotha, where each
lot is to be made charnel pit
tor the reception of corpse, pro.
vided profit and gain inure there
form to the representatives of the
Columbian Harmony Society. He
is thonghly in unison with any lot
owner who contends that the funds
which shall arise from the sale of
lots in the cemetery ought to be
applied to the maintenance of the
cemetery and to it's Improvement
and ornamentation. This defend
ants whole conduct, converse.
tion and action. prior to the in
stitution of this suit and since. ne
gative any purpose or intention to
have, or to try to have, any 9th.
er destination for any funds
which shall arise from the sale of
lots. He never liked the features
of gain or profit"
We, the lot owners, simply want
the defendant to keep to his decla-
ration.
In Mr.. Cooks answer to our bill
he reports that he received $s,3O4,
67 from the executors Of the estate
OF the late Mr.. Benjamin Mccoy,
which money being the revenue
from the ground, we claim should
be spent In improving the same.
In distributing this money, Mr..
Cook appropriates to himself $loo.
90, as one of the heirs of John 4.
Cook, sr., and for his own member
ship. 81, ,I97. So.
Mr.. jerome A. johnson. a wit
nnoS far NJ,