AN ACT
To incorporate the Chippeway Cemetery Association, of Lafayette township, Medina county, and the Port Washington Cemetery Association, in Salem township, Tuscarawas county.
Sec. 1. – Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That Roswell Williams, Horace R. Holt, Nicholas Spitzer, William D. Prouty, Garrett Spitzer, Albro Foster, Paul King, Matthew Leffingwell, Azariah D. Foster, Robert English and Charles Childs, and their associates and successors, be and they are hereby constituted a body corporate, under the name of the Chippeway Cemetery Association of Lafayette township, Medina County; by which name they will have power to contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, have and use a corporate seal, make and alter bylaws, and do all other acts and things necessary and proper for effecting the object of their incorporation, which is to provide a place of repose for the dead.
Sec. 2 – Any person may become a member of this corporation by paying fifty cents into the treasury of said association, and becoming the owner of one or more cemetery lots, as the same shall be laid off by the board of directors; and the paying of said fifty cents, and the ownership of a lot, shall entitle the owner or owners thereof to one vote at all meetings, but no member shall have more than one vote.
Sec. 3 – The affairs of this corporation shall be managed by a board of directors, consisting of five members of the corporation, to be elected by ballot by the corporators, and to receive a majority of the votes. The first election shall be held at a time and place to be designated by the persons above specifically named as corporators, who shall be commissioners for organizing the corporation, of which election the same notice shall be given as herein provided for other elections; and the directors shall hold their office for the term of one year, and until their successors are elected and qualified; and all vacancies, previously existing, shall be supplied by the board of directors; and a quorum of the board, for all purposes, shall be at least three persons.
Sec. 4 – The annual meeting for the election of directors shall be held on the first Monday of April in each year; but special meetings may be called by the president, at the request (in writing) of two or more members, of which, as well as of the annual meeting, three days’ notice shall be given.
Sec. 5 – The board of directors shall, at their first meeting after each annual election, elect, by ballot, a president, from their own body, and two persons, from the members of the corporation, to act as secretary and treasurer; these officers shall hold their offices for one year, and until their successors shall be appointed and qualified; and the treasurer shall give bond, with surety, to be approved by the board, in such sum as the board of directors shall deem sufficient, for the faithful performance of his duties.
Sec. 6 – The corporation is authorized to purchase, or take by gift or devise, and hold land, exempt for execution and taxation, and from any appropriation to public purposes, for the sole purpose of a cemetery, not exceeding ten acres. After paying for such land, all future receipts, whether from the sale of lots, from donations or otherwise, shall be applied exclusively, under the direction of the board, to laying out, preserving, protecting and embellishing the cemetery, and the avenues leading thereto, and to paying the necessary expenses of the corporation. No debt shall be contracted in anticipation of future receipts, except for originally laying out, enclosing and embellishing the grounds and avenues, for which debts may be contracted, not exceeding five hundred dollars in the whole, to be paid out of the future receipts; and the board of directors shall have power to appropriate lots for the interment of such persons, not members, as they may see proper, either by donations, sales, or other modes of transfer.
Sec. 7 – The original conveyances of lots from the corporation to individuals shall be evidenced by a certificate, signed by president and countersigned by the secretary, under the seal of the corporation, specifying that such a person is owner of such a lot; and such a certificate shall vest in the proprietor, his heirs and assigns, a perpetual right to the use of such lot, exempt from execution, attachment or taxation, for the sole purpose of interment, under the regulations of the corporation, or be transferred by him to others, either in whole or in part, for that sole purpose, with the assent of the board; and in case of such transfer from a member or members to another person, it shall be made in writing, in a book of the corporation, to be kept for that purpose; whereupon, the former certificate shall be surrendered, and a new one issued to the transferee, for the whole or a part thereof, as the case may require.
Sec. 8 – For the purpose of convenient selection and description, the board of directors shall cause a plat to be made of the lots to be disposed of for interment, designating such lots by consecutive numbers; which plat shall be recorded on the books of the corporation. The original choice of lots, between those who shall have subscribed and paid for them prior to the time of making the selection, shall be determined by lot, in such manner as the board of directors shall prescribe; and after the original selection shall have been thus determined, future purchases may select from the lots not previously appropriated.
Sec. 9 – The board of directors shall have power to enclose, improve, and adorn the grounds and avenues, and to erect buildings for the general use of the corporation, and to prescribe rules for the enclosing, adorning, and erecting monuments in the cemetery lots, and to prohibit any use, division, improvement, or adornment of a lot, which they may deem improper; and they shall make report of their doings, to each annual meeting of the corporation.
Sec. 10 – Any person who shall willfully destroy, deface or injure, or remove any tomb, monument, or gravestone, or other structure, placed in the cemetery aforesaid, or any fence, railing, or other works, for the protection or ornament of said cemetery, or of any tomb, monument, or gravestone, or other structure aforesaid, or of any cemetery lot within the cemetery aforesaid, or shall willfully destroy, cut, break, or injure any tree, shrub, or plant, within the limits of the said cemetery, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, be punished by fine of not less than five dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment in the county jail for a term of not less than one nor more than thirty days, according to the nature and aggravation of the offence; and such offender shall also be liable in an action of trespass, in the name of the said corporation, to pay all such damages as have been occasioned by his or her unlawful act or acts; which money, when recovered, shall be applied, by said corporation, under the direction of the board of directors, to the repair and restoration of the property destroyed or injured, as above; and members of said corporation shall be competent witnesses in said suits.
Sec. 11 – That Paul Wetherbee, Joseph S. Burr, Thomas Taylor, Allen Gaskill, John Knight, and their associates and successors, be and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, under the name of the Port Washington Cemetery Association; by which name they shall have power to sue and be sued, to contract and be contracted with, to have and use a common seal, make bylaws and alter the same at pleasure, and to do all other acts and things which may be necessary and proper for effecting the object of their incorporation.
Sec. 12 – That the incorporation authorized by the foregoing section of this act, shall be governed by the foregoing provisions of said act, in so far as they may be applicable to said incorporation.
JOSEPH S. HAWKINS
Speaker of the House of Representatives
CHARLES B. GODDARD
Speaker of the Senate
January 11, 1848
Source: Acts of a General Nature Passed By The Forty-Sixth General Assembly of the State of Ohio Begun And Held In The City of Columbus, December 6, 1847, and in The Forty-Sixth Year of Said State, Vol. XLVI. Columbus: Chas. Scott’s Steam Press, 1848. (pgs. 14-16)