Eleventh Annual Report
of the
Board of Commissioners
of
Pine Grove Cemetery

Made to the City Council
March 1, 1964.

Report

Transcribed and submitted
by Shaun Cook

Catalogue of the Proprietors of Lots

A - F

G - M

N - Z

To help transcribe or submit information, please e-mail Shaun Cook.

To the Honorable the Mayor
and the City Council of the City of Lynn:

THE Board of Commissioners for Pine Grove Cemetery, in accordance with rule and custom, beg leave to present their ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT.

We are glad to be still able to announce to your Honors that, at the close of a very busy, and in some respects, very difficult year, the Cemetery is found in a condition of commendable excellence, and its affairs are marked by a very encouraging prosperity. The fact, sufficiently natural and obvious to expectation, is every year becoming more palpable, that our population is rapidly increasing, and the activity of our operations in this institution bears, and always must bear, a direct proportion to this increase. A few years ago, only, we considered fifteen or twenty lots a very fair number for our yearly sales; but in the year past we have had no difficulty in disposing of forty-nine, and some of these of large size. This circumstance may serve as an index to the condition of business in the other branches of our work, as a corresponding activity has been induced in all.

At the opening of the Cemetery in the first instance, the thrifty growth of pine which it bore was found very delightful to the eye; so much so as actually to furnish the favorite name for the place. The cool and breezy shade of these tall evergreens, appeared so much in harmony with the quiet solemnity of a burial ground, that proprietors showed great anxiety, in the preparation of their lots, that every large pine which could be spared within their precincts, should be preserved. But a short experience sufficed to prove that these trees were a most costly decoration, and very unsatisfactory in the end. The constant shade, in all seasons, only served to check the growth of all grass, flowers or shrubbery planted under them; and the resinous leaves, dropping every day in the year, soon buried and smothered the life out of the feeble vegetation that remained.

When the "New Purchase" was entered on, in 1856, these difficulties were well understood; but as the complete removal of the pines from that tract would have rendered it immediately bare and uninviting, we only took away the poor and unsightly wood, leaving a temporary tenancy to the fine young evergreens, that might be cut out as future occasion should require. Since then, however, like a remnant of savage tribes annoying new colonists, the pines have troubled us in far too many ways. Owners in the older parts of the grounds have learned that they must either give up their old, favorite trees, or else all their shrubs and flowers, and every blade of grass on the graves of their friends; and they have very generally chosen the former, setting us the very troublesome task of removing heavy trees and refractory stumps from the midst, often, of costly monuments and fragile memorial structures. Later purchasers were careful to avoid such dangers in season, and so ordered these troublers extirpated in the outset. Had they been all cut down when the land was first occupied, the decayed stumps would have presented less difficulty; but a green and vigorous pine stump is far worse to deal with than the firmest rock of granite.

This evil, however, is growing less. In recent times, the prevalence of fires in the woods has given us much care in summer, lest the invading flame should encroach on our territory. Heretofore we have succeeded in keeping it out; but the excessive drouth of last summer so favored the march of this enemy, that in spite of every effort against it, it overran all the unoccupied land of the Cemetery. The pines and most other trees were destroyed; and though no private or occupied possessions were injured, yet the scorched and blackened growth remained so unsightly as only to be fit for the axe. Nearly all of it has been taken away, and with it we are fortunately rid of most of that trouble in the future, that pine trees have given us in the past. Had they been all cut at first, a fine growth of hardwooded trees would have replaced them spontaneously; but now such trees, always desirable, can only be had by careful planting.

The unexampled drouth of last year, while it shortened the resources of water everywhere, failed not to show us our lack in this direction also. The well at the head of Cedar Avenue proved very reliable; but the chain pump used there gave out from long wearing when most needed, giving such embarrassment to proprietors as we very much regretted. A new and better pump has been provided instead, and we hope for no further difficulty at this point. Still, the large extension of the improved grounds beyond has made it inconvenient to carry water in many cases from this first well. We have, therefore selected spots for two or three additional ones, so distributed as to give an easy supply for horticultural uses in all parts of the grounds. These locations are, we think, successfully made: the wells are not yet, any of them, constructed.

We are informed that your attention has lately been invited, by His Honor the Mayor, to the question of adding more territory to that now occupied by the Cemetery. The importance of the subject we will not dissemble, though the heavy drafts which we know are now borne, both by the public treasury and the popular purse, have stood as reasons with us, to hinder any request for aid for such a purpose. The tract added by the City Government of 1856 proved of excellent character, and public attention being largely drawn to it, it has been taken up with great readiness and rapidity Not more, (and probably less,) than one-half of what was then purchased remains to be used. A few spots are left about the borders of the older ground, and near the highway, which might be used; but they are not very desirable, and liable to, be partly wanted for public uses. How long the remaining land will meet the demands of the market, supposing them to increase as they have latterly, is not easy to say; but certainly only a few years at most. And we cannot suppose that all our people are supplied with burial lots, or are likely to be so in five or ten years more; and the natural inference is, that it would be far from wise to allow the Cemetery to be, at any time, literally driven to the wall in the effort to supply such accommodations. Without presuming to direct your conclusions, then, we will simply say, that the vacant land of the Cemetery threatens soon to be exhausted; and that there is a considerable amount of fair land adjoining which can, probably, be readily purchased, and we need hardly add, at a cost undoubtedly much lower than at any future time.

There is little for us to report in regard to the different Public Grounds. We have not been obliged to layout any further space for this use in the past year, as the large sale of private lots has relieved the pressure very much in this direction. Not only do many purchase who otherwise would bury in the Public Ground, but not a few who have so buried already, having lots of their own, remove thereto, relinquishing the space for the use of others.

The Soldiers' Lot fills very slowly. As remarked in a previous report, most of the defenders of our liberty seem to be provided for in this respect, and only one is now and then brought to his last rest in the green plat here provided. The same indisposition to furnish the particulars of these cases, to which we formerly alluded, continues to appear; and there is little reason to hope that the list of these worthies which we desired, can ever be made very full or extensive.

During the past year, we have spent no little time and care upon the most pressing of all our matters, the new Receiving Tomb. Detailed plans and careful estimates have been procured from competent sources, and the whole question of style, construction and expense as thoroughly considered as possible. The result has been to convince us, that the cost of materials is at present so great as to make it proper to wait a short time, in hope of some more favorable terms becoming possible. If, by a short delay, some hundreds of dollars can be saved to the enterprise, then the old tomb can be used a while without mischief, and the difference to us will be important. On the other hand, however, we do not propose to be thwarted in the design by any question of a small amount of money, or hindered by mere hesitancy when the work should be delayed no longer.

The size of the structure, with the fittings and arrangements of the interior, are all decided on. This has only been done after an extended examination of such buildings in other Cemeteries. In none of these, however, in places within our reach, do we find anything to serve as a model for the work proposed by us. The projected tomb at Mount Auburn is the only one whose plan approaches the necessities of the case; and as the expense of that structure is far beyond our means, we are left to the simple duty of originating what we want, according to our own ideas and convictions. We only hope that when the work shall be done, the public may see cause to concede that Lynn is not dishonored in the style and appointments of the building that her own sons have designed.

The location is not yet fully determined; wherever it may be, it is likely to be accompanied by an amount of surrounding improvement that will add materially to the beauty of the Cemetery. The appropriation so kindly given us by the City Government for this purpose has been kept untouched, as we felt no liberty to apply it to any other use than that for which it was given.

Reference to the financial part of this Report will show that our receipts, outside of city appropriations, have not quite met our expenses, though coming much nearer to it than formerly. We enter on the present year with our funds much easier than a year since; a result no doubt attributable to the large sales of the past season.

The extensive working of the land has, of course, led to considerable increase in the amount of avenues and paths. Several new ones have been opened, and others extended. The whole addition to our ways amounts to some thirty-eight rods. The forty-nine lots sold comprise an area of 19,990 square feet; the forty-four, prepared in the same time, amount to 16,145 square feet. The number of interments within the year is quite large, viz: 215. This is 63 more than in the year before, and 70 more than in 1862. Let us not forget how many of these are laid down as a sacrifice to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to us and our children.

Those who purchase lots in Pine Grove Cemetery do not forget to adorn them aftrrwards, though the wealth of our city is not great, and the uses of that wealth are many. Monumental and other works of this kind have been erected at an aggregate cost of about $7,553.12. The improvement of the place in appearance is, of course, correspondingly great.

It only remains, in conclusion, to reiterate the thought so often expressed - to commend our Cemetery and its interests to the kind care and maintaining love of the city. An integral part of the public concern - a co-ordinate element, inseparable from the body of social affairs - must this ever be and remain. As Life and Death still sit and walk together, so we are free to stand in our place with our fellow-servants, not fearing that we shall be taken for strangers or looked upon as messengers of ill. If ever suspected of too little affinity with the municipal system, our own hearts refuted the aspersion. Beyond doubt we stand as others, serving the public interest, and responsible to the public will. So may it ever be : let the repose of the departed be ever guarded and revered; for while the common morality may be preserved, the treasury of the people watched, the honest poor consoled, and the activity of childhood educated and directed, still all are together tending toward the Grand Exit, and rich and poor shall pass on in one company at last, to give place to another scene in the great march of the generations.

Appended hereto are our Statement of Receipts and Expenditures, (A), our Account with the City Treasurer, (B), and the usual Catalogue of Lots, (C), to which we invite your attention.

By order and on behalf of the Board of Commissioners.

C. F. COFFIN, Chairman.