My friend Ella knows how she wants to be buried. She’s put to writing the songs to be sung, the funeral home to prepare her body and the place to bury it. She’s even written her obituary and designed the funeral program.
She’s done something that most of us would prefer not to even think about – much less write it down on paper. She wants to leave here knowing that her final arrangements have been set – not by a family member who lacks her sensibilities but by her.
I admire her bravery, but I thought it was a bit eery to spend so much time planning that final getaway. I also thought that it was something new and different, an idiosyncrasy shared by a handful of people like her. Her preparations may be a little on the far side, but buying a cemetery plot apparently is not.
At auction recently, I came across documents for a plot at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, Long Island, NY. Someone had bought it for $20 in 1911.
“The holder of this license receipt is entitled to interment privileges in the public ground,” the document stated, in “Grave No. 23, Range No. 52, Plot No. 6.”
Two names of the dead were listed on one of the documents: Frederick W. Swanson and Alexander Kayson, with a date of Sept. 29, 1935, typed next to his name, along with a charge of $20. At the top of this form was a statement about who could and could not be buried in the plot: “No interment of colored persons permitted in Plot 6, 6c, 7 and 7c.”
The other document was a pamphlet with rules for interment at St. Michael’s. Conformity and consistency seemed to be key in keeping the appearance of the cemetery uniform.
I believe the plot was for a St. Michael’s whose address is now listed as 7202 Astoria Boulevard, East Elmhurst, NY, in the borough of Queens. The cemetery was founded in 1852 by the Rev. Thomas McClure Peters as a burial place for poor people who could not afford plots elsewhere, according to the cemetery website. It started out with seven acres and has now grown to 88. Portions of the grounds, according to the website, were assigned to other churches and institutions in the city.
Scott Joplin, an African American ragtime pianist and composer who died of syphilis in 1917, is buried there. He had been in a pauper’s grave until a marker was laid in 1974. The cemetery is also the burial ground of some New York firefighters, police officers and Port Authority workers who died in 9/11.
The documents at auction laid out some rules regarding the appearance of the plots:
No pictures, toys, sea shells, tiles or stones.
No wooden, cement, tile or metal headstones. They must be natural stone and in only two pieces. They must not be laid flat on the ground. Only one headstone and footstone permitted, except in Plot 7.
No dogs or firearms
No drunken and disorderly people. They were subject to prosecution.
No mounds, trees, shrubs, rose bushes, daisies, sunflowers, creeping plants or vines. All others must be kept trimmed.
No holders for cut flowers (water in them would attract mosquitos).
St. Michael’s still has a set of rules and regulations – similar, I’m sure, to ones you’d find at other cemeteries back then and now.
Here some suggestions for buying and selling a plot at a cemetery. And here are some pointers to help you to be as efficient as Ella in planning your funeral.
