Newsarticle on Verden Cemetery Bond - Grady County, Oklahoma

Submitted by:  Sandi Carter   SandKatC@aol.com 
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The Verden News
July 27, 1923

The proposition to vote $1,500. bonds with which to purchase a cemetery 
site to be owned by the town, which was submitted to the voters
Wednesday, was defeated by 4 votes.

This is the second time within a year that a cemetery proposition has 
been defeated by the voters here, which is evidence that they do not 
favor Municipal control of [a] cemetery.

In the present cemetery, which is owned by private individuals, all 
desirable lots have been sold, and those who wish to bury their friends 
at Verden are now required to take locations where it is necessary to 
blast through several feet of solid rock in order to reach the necessary 
depth.

The proposition which was defeated Wednesday was to vote $1,500. bonds, 
$800. of which was to purchase ten acres adjoining the present cemetery 
on the east, the remaining $700. to be used for surveying, fencing and 
improving the site and for purchasing the remaining portion of the
present cemetery that the entire tract might be placed under a cemetery
board.

It was contended by the board that, instead of being a burden, it would
have been an asset to the town inasmuch as the revenue from the sale 
of lots - figuring the sales in the present cemetery for a previous 
period of ten years - would have paid the bonds and left a large sum 
for maintenance.

Those who favored the bonds had little thought that an effort would 
be made to defeat the proposition, and very few turned out, but just 
before the closing hour an automobile was pressed into service by the 
opposing forces which rushed a number of voters to the polls in time 
to defeat the bonds.

Submitted by Sandi Carter