Rules and Regulations of the Jamesville Walnut Grove Cemetery
Jamesville Walnut Grove Cemetery – As its name indicates, is a place set apart exclusively for the burial of the human dead, and can at no time be used for any other purpose. It is therefore indispensable that there should be a strict observance of all the proprieties due the place. The officers and agents of the Cemetery are authorized to remove all those who violate the rules. Trespassers are liable to criminal prosecution, and will also be subject to pay such damages and repair such injuries as they may have occasioned.
The Cemetery is mapped in Sections I-VIII. Each section is, for the most part, divided into numbered lots approximately sixteen feet by eighteen feet together with all the appurtenances. Each lot is again divided into grave sites.
General Rules and Regulations
1. No lot or grave shall be sold before the ground is surveyed, plotted, and recorded.
2. Persons desirous of purchasing a lot or grave may apply to the Superintendent, or his/her assistant, and he/she will show the lots for sale. After a lot has been purchased and paid for, an order for interment may at any time be given.
3. No deed from the Association for any lot or grave shall be delivered, nor shall any right accrue to the purchaser of any lot until the consideration is fully paid.
4. Lot or grave owners shall not use their lots or graves for any purpose except as a place of burial for human bodies.
5. But one person shall be buried in any one grave. However, two cremations are allowed.
6. Burial of a human body in a shroud is allowed without a casket.
7. Each request for interment must be given by the proprietor of a lot or grave or by his/her heirs or their responsible agent.
8. All vehicles must keep in the roadways, and not exceed ten miles per hour.
9. Notice of each interment to be made shall be given the Superintendent or her/his agent at least twenty-four hours previous thereto, at the same time the actual size of vault or rough box. Location of grave in the lot should be stated.
10. The Board of Trustees shall adopt a schedule of prices for lots and other services, and all charges shall be in accordance with such schedule, new schedules may be adopted as occasion requires.
11. Proprietors shall not allow interments to be made upon lots for compensation, nor shall any transfer or assignment of any interest be valid without the written consent of the Trustees and entered on the Cemetery records, nor shall any disinterment be allowed without written permission being obtained of the President or Secretary of the Association.
12. Charge for interments shall be paid at the time of interment.
13. Graves shall be opened and closed under the direction of the Superintendent or his/her agent.
14. No burial will be permitted in any lot upon which the full purchase price remains unpaid.
15. No vehicles allowed to enter the Cemetery when the roads are in unfit condition.
16. All workmen employed in the grounds must be subject to control and direction of the Trustees or their agent.
17. Ten percent of the selling price of each lot or grave shall be deposited in the permanent maintenance fund. The balance will be the current maintenance fund.
18. The Regulations and By-Laws of the Association may at any time be altered or amended by a two third vote of the Trustees. The official work of the Board will at all times be gratuitous (except a reasonable compensation to the Secretary/Treasurer and the Superintendent for actual labor.)
19. These Rules, Regulations and By-Laws were originally adopted in 1860, the revised in 1908 and 1949 by a unanimous vote of the Trustees. They were redrafted and adopted, again in 2008, with a unanimous vote of the Trustees.
GRAVE SITES
20. To define the location of a grave previous to the erection of a permanent stone marker, at every interment there must be a mark set at the head of the grave with name and date of death inscribed thereon. If a permanent headstone is not erected within one year after interment, it may be done by the Association at the owner’s expense.
21. All markers or headstones for graves are required to be solid, and in one piece, not to exclude two feet in width, nor less than three inches thick. They must not exceed two and a one-half feet in height above the surface of the ground, with good concrete or stone foundations.
22. To prevent injury to adjoining lots or graves, and to preserve the beauty of the Cemetery grounds, no trees, shrubs or plants shall be planted on lots or any tree, shrub or plant cut down or removed or trimmed without permission of the Superintendent or Board of Trustees.
23. No grave shall be opened nearer than six inches from the boundary lines of the lot.
24. It is the duty of the grave digger to open and close graves under the supervision of the Superintendent.
25. The Board of Trustees have no wish unnecessarily to interfere with the right or taste of individuals in regard to the style of improvements of lots. However, in justice to the interest of the Corporation, with due notice to lot or grave owners involved, they reserve to themselves the right given by law, of preventing or removing any structure or object which they shall deem injurious to the general good and appearance of the grounds, particularly of adjoining lots or graves. This does not prohibit lot or grave owners from improving and caring for their own grave site or lot.
26. All persons are prohibited from writing upon, defacing or otherwise injuring any fence or monument or other structure upon the grounds belonging to the Cemetery or picking or taking any flowers, wild or cultivated or injuring any tree plant or shrub. Such acts are, by law, a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, besides rendering the person liable to civil action for damages.
27. Any unsightly receptacles will be removed.
28. No raised corner posts or stone or other enclosures around graves or lots will be allowed.
29. But one marker shall be placed at any grave.
30. Grave markers or boundary posts must not be set when ground is frozen.
31. No grave or lot raised above the natural formation of the ground will be permitted.
32. All materials brought into the Cemetery to be used in improving lots or graves, or otherwise, must be transported and deposited within the Cemetery in such a manner as the executive Committee or Superintendent shall dictate. All earth or rubbish accumulated must be removed, and redeposited under the direction of the Superintendent or his/her agent at the expense of the proprietor of such lot.
MONUMENTS
33. Individuals wishing to erect a monument must purchase an entire lot, and use some of the grave space for a sculpture or entablature.
34. All monuments or other erections shall be of marble, granite or other stone properly set. No improper effigies or inscriptions will be permitted. The Board of Trustees shall be the exclusive judges.
35. Only one monument, exceeding two and one-half feet in height, shall be erected on any lot.
36. Foundations for monuments must be built of solid masonry under the supervision of the Superintendent.
37. When any kind of monument, gravestone or memorial is to be removed, permission must be obtained from the Executive Committee. Application for such permission must be made in writing by owner of the lot or his/her representative, giving a description of the change to be made.
38. Persons engaged in erecting monuments or other structures are prohibited from attaching ropes or chains to other monuments, trees, fence or shrubs.