Is
the Name of the New Organization to Have Charge of Our "City of the
Dead" -- Now Assured.
After nine years of vain attempts to
establish a cemetery for this city, several of our leading citizens
have succeeded in getting together and forming an association to
establish a cemetery. The land is located on the Farris place
1/4 mile from town on a beautiful west hill slope, just far enough
from town for a walk on a Sunday afternoon. It has been
surveyed and the plat is being made. The Kelso road which had
three off-sets to the site of the cemetery has been widened and
straightened, and otherwise improved so as to make a more favorable
front entrance. The timber is being felled and the ground
cleared.
The directors will be in a position
to sell lots by the 1st or 15th of April. It has been very
hard to establish a cemetery here, everybody has said we need a
cemetery but no one has been willing to finance one. Now that
these citizens have given their money and their time to develop the
project, let all us help them by buying lots and enabling them the
clear the ground and fence it, and otherwise improve it.
In order to show the nature of the
organization, we print the articles of agreement entered into by the
citizens who have formed the association.
Articles of Agreement Entered
into Under the Provision of Art. X, Chap. 33 R. S. 1909.
Desiring to form a cemetery
association and establish a public cemetery for the benefit of
the citizens of Chaffee, County of Scott, State of Missouri, and
desiring to incorporate said association so as to be able to
acquire land and legally sell the same, the share holders have
entered into the following agreement:
Sec. No. 1. The name of
the association shall be "Chaffee Union Park Cemetery
Association".
Sec. No. 2. Its location
shall be in Kelso Township, Scott County, State of Missouri.
Sec. No. 3. Its duration
shall be 99 years.
Sec. No. 4. The
corporation shall have as its object the establishing and
maintaining of a public non-sectarian cemetery or place of
burial. It is expressly understood that all religious
denominations, all fraternal societies and other similar bodies
shall be permitted to conduct their respective burial ceremonies
in this cemetery and afterwards erect their respective emblems
on their lots. This corporation shall purchase real
estate, lay out lots, driveways and pathways on same, and shall
sell lots and give legal title for the same, and make other
investments as may properly come within the scope of a cemetery
association. They shall be empowered to make provisions
for the perpetual care of the said cemetery and to contract
necessary debits to improve the site for cemetery. The
cemetery shall be conducted for the convenience of the citizens
of the community.
IN WITNESS THEREOF, we have
hereunto set our hands,
H.F. STUBBS, L.L. COLLIER, JOHN
KAY, ESSNER BROS., A.H. SLAGLE & CO., DR. W.O. FINNEY
It will be noticed that this is a
public, union, perpetual care, cemetery. This means that it
will be open to all. All the churches, lodges and religious
and civic bodies will co-operate to help make things go. The
men whose names are signed to the above articles are the directors
of the association and if they ask you to buy a lot, please remember
how badly we need a cemetery. The association now has $150 for
improvements, and needs $600 more, that is why you may be asked to
buy a lot so soon. Provisions will be made for a Potters'
Field, about 500 single graves being provided for that purpose.
NOTE: In reading the
newspaper articles) for this history, we note that the property
purchased in 1915 for the cemetery was called the "Farris Place" and it
was "1/4 mile from town" (To the citizens of Chaffee,
perhaps the cemetery was considered out of town).
The road from Chaffee towards the
cemetery was called "the Kelso Road", and we were located in "Kelso
Township".
In a review of the
"Chaffee Signals" we have been unable to find a reference to a first
burial at this cemetery, but "burial at Union Park Cemetery" was stated
on several of the death notices published beginning in 1915.
FYI: About the
Chaffee Signal in March 1915:
CHAFFEE SIGNAL
C.E Mattocks, Editor
& Owner
Published every
Friday morning
200 N. Main Street
Chaffee, Scott
County, Missouri
TO ALL UNION MEN -
The editor of the Signal is a member of the International
typographical Union, Register number 2232, issued July 27th, 1915
Cemetery & Obituary Records
