USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 78
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- reported fully on the merits and demerits of the several tracts offered, and concluded by recommending the pur- chase of the grounds offered for sale by the executors of Daniel Bigham, deceased, supposed to contain twenty-four acres, at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. The subject was fully considered by the stockholders present, who voted by a large majority for its purchase. William Bebb, John M. Millikin, and L. D. Campbell were appointed a committee to conelude a contract with the executors for its purchase.
On the sixteenth day of March following Governor William Bebb presented to the meeting then held & cer- tified copy of the act passed upon the subject of organ- izing cemetery associations, and the following resolutions were adopted:
" Resolved, That we accept the act passed February 24, 1848, entitled, 'Au Aet Making Provisions for the Incorporation of Cemetery Associations,' and hereby or- ganize ourselves into a cemetery association.
" Resolved, That we will meet on the fifteenth day of April next, at two o'clock P. M., at the court-house in Hamilton, for the purpose of electing seven trustees and one clerk for the association."
In obedience to the second resolution, due notice of an election was given. The result was the choice of the following persons as trustees: William Hunter, Heury S. Earhart, William Wilson, William Bebb, Lewis D. Campbell, John W. Erwin, and John M. Millikin. At
the same time John H. Shuey was elected clerk. The committee appointed for that purpose reported that they had concluded a contract with the executors of David Bigham for the purchase of the tract of land offered, which was found to contain 212% acres. At a meeting held by the stock-holders on the 18th ef May, for the pur- pose of choosing a name, several were suggested. Twenty- four votes were cast for the adoption of "Greenwood" as the name of the cemetery association, aud seventeen votes for " Hamilton." The result was the choice of the former name. On the 20th of May, 1848, the trustees held their first meeting, John H. Shuey, the elected clerk, being present. John M. Millikin was chosen president, and William Wilson, treasurer. Upon due consideration it was speedily determined that the pur- ehase heretofore made of 2170% aeres was altogether in- sufficient, and an additional strip of ground adjoining the former purchase, containing 5106 acres, was pur- chased. This strip of ground, lying on the east, was very desirable,-indeed, it was deemed indispensable, and the board of trustees did not hesitate in making the purchase from Mr. James Bigham, at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. The addition enlarged the cemetery to 2676% acres.
The trustees found that they had onerous duties to perform, which demanded immediate attention. The purchased grounds had to be paid for; prompt collection of stock subscribed was required; the grounds were to be cleaned up, laid out in walks, avenues, drives, and subdivided into lots, and then properly inclosed. The trustees, in their early work, were without experience or information in the performance ef their duties. There were no landscape engineers or gardeners to employ or consult; and no cemeteries in South-western Ohio that had been laid out and improved in accordance with enl- tivated taste and artistic skill. The magic hand. guided by the experience and intuitive good taste of Mr. Strauch, the superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, had not then metamorphosed that unsurpassed rural cemetery.
Notwithstanding the difficulties in their way the trustees did not hesitate. They proceeded to clear off the grounds by the removal of such timber as was deemed unsuited to the place, and to cause the ground to be inclosed. Preliminary to the subdivision of the ground into lots, was the duty of locating and marking out the drives and avenues. How many should be made and where located, were the perplexing questions. As the services of experienced, competent men, familiar with such work, could not be obtained, Henry S. Er- hart and John M. Millikin determined to see what prog- ress they could make in such an undertaking. They fixed upon the present entrance gate as the commencing point of the main avenue. That point being determined upon, they indicated by throwing aside the leaves the center of the several drives and avenues, and Mr. Ear-
Wevern Eimal Fub. Co.
7. L. Morey
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HAMILTON.
hart carefully measured and staked off the several drives apl avenues, and also procceded to subdivide the grounds into lots eighteen by thirty-six feet. There were many fractional lots, and some fractions which were included in adjoining lots. These drives and avenues as thus laid out were approved by the board, and have remained without any material modification to the present day. The survey having been completed, the stockholders inct in the cemetery on the 19th of March, 1849, for the purpose of selecting their lots. The names of stock- holders were placed in a box, and were drawn out by tellers, and each stockholder selected his lot in the order the names were drawn. This mode of seleetion gave entire satisfaction to all interested.
The citizens of Hamilton and vicinity soon began to take an unusually lively interest in the cemetery. Those who had not favored the enterprise soon became satisfied that it deserved their support and approval. The success of the undertaking and the interest manifested by the publie will be seen in the following statement: Between March, 1849, and January 1, 1851, there had been sold two hundred and fifty lots, for the sum of $6,068.86. During the same time one hundred and eighteen original interments had been made, and the remains of one hun- dred and ninety-nine persons had been removed from other places of sepulture. Thoroughly assured of the complete success of the undertaking, and of the neces- sity of enlarging the cemetery grounds, the board of ยท trustees, on the 24th of March, 1856, purchased of Will- iam Beckett sixteen acres of ground adjoining, on the east side of the cemetery, for the sum of three thousand dollars. This purchase was not only very important but opportune. It was important, because the more desirable locations in the original laid-out grounds would in a few decades be taken up. The purchase was opportune, be- cause other parties would soon have purchased the tract for like sepulture purposes, and the Hamilton Cemetery board would have been prevented from extending their possessions. This samle sixteen acres of ground had pre- viously been proffered to the eity of Hamilton as a donation for a pol lie park, by the Hon. John Woods. The offer was coupled with a requirement that the eity should appropriate annually a small sum of money for its improvement. Fortunately for the Cemetery Association, the exceedingly liberal offer of Mr. Woods was rejected.
This sixteen acres of ground made a most desirable ad- dition to the cemetery, and enabled the board of trustees To secure another piece of ground adjoining on the east. This last purchase was made, not in view of the present wants of the association, but because of what the board anticipated would be the requirements of the city and Highborhood in generations to come. Therefore, on the. il of April, 1872, the board of trustees contracted with William H. H. Campbell to pay him 89,100 for 227A Sons of land. This last purchase of land makes a total of 65,34 deres of good ground now belonging to Green-
wood Association, for which the association has paid, exclusive of interest, the gross sum of $15,443.75. The cemetery association now owns a body of ground in every way well suited for cemetery purposes, amply sufficient for the wants of Hamilton and vicinity for the next century, possibly for two centuries.
The association has been managed with singular sue- cess. Vigilant care and strict economy in the transac- tions of its business have been rigidly observed. There has been no peeulations, no embezzlements, no defalca- tions. Every dollar received for lots sold, for interment fees and for property sold, has been faithfully accounted for. The association has commeneed the foundation of a sinking fund, to which annual sums will be added. The objeet of the board is to secure a permanent fund, amply sufficient to meet the wants of the association in the re- mote future. The number of lots sold up to the 1st of January, 1882, were 1,013; number of lot holders, or grantecs to the 1st of January, 1882, were 1,318.
The number of interments from the organization of the cemetery to the 1st of January, 1882, is as follows: Original interments, 5,028; removals from other burial grounds, 1,039; total, 6,059.
The officers of the association for 1882 are as follows: President-John M. Millikin. Trustees-John M. Mil- likin. C. Falconer, James Giffen, Isaac Robertson, John W. Erwin, Joseph Curtis, James E. Campbell. Trow- urer -- Joseph Curtis. Clerk-N. G. Curtis. Superin- tendent-A. J. Goshorn.
HENRY L. MOREY.
Henry Lee Morcy, representative in Congress from this distriet, was born in Milford Township, in this county, on the 8th of April, 18441. He is the son of William and Derexa Morey, neither of whom are bor. living. The ancestors of Willian Morey came to Amer- iea, from England, in the early part of the seventeenth century, and are supposed to have settled in the colony of Massachusetts. From thence, in time, their descen- dants scattered to various parts of the country, the branch to which William Morey traces bis origin set- tling in Connecticut. His grandfather served in the Rev- olutionary War as a commissioned officer. After the close of that struggle, and when the lands of Western New York were offered for sale, he removed to that State and settled in Steuben County.
His father, William Morey, in turn, emigrated in 1814 to the new State of Ohio, bringing with him his young family, among them William, a lad of thirteen, and loeating in the Seven-Mile Valley, near the site of the present village of Collinsville, where he died on the 16th of August, 1815, in the forty-secoad year of his age, leaving Anda Morey, his widow, and seven children, four sons and three daughters. He was buried in the old cemetery near that town, but sixty-two years afterward his remains were removed by his grandchildren to Green
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