Philadelphia County PA Archives News.....Philadelphia Cemetery Trouble 1906 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Cyndie Enfinger cyndiee@tampabay.rr.com October 29, 2007, 8:48 pm The Philadelphia Inquirer 1906 The Philadelphia Inquirer 02 Aug 1906 FIGHT AGAINST POTTER'S FIELD Passyunk Avenue Burying Ground Claimants Preparing for Bitter Struggle Bodies Must be Removed by Fall or Go to Paupers' Cemetery-Trouble Much Involved Complications in the affairs of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company, of West Passyunk avenue and Tentieth street, are increasing to such an extent that a panic has spread among the hundreds of lotholders, who have been notified that if they do not remove the bodies of their dead interred there the city will disinter them and bury them in another palce, the other place being the Potter's Field. Chief Hunder, of the Bureau of Highways, said yesterday: "Those bodies must be removed because the streets must be cut through the grounds. If the lotholders or the cemetery company do not remove them, then the city will have to do it. "Agents of the company have reported at this office that the funds to have been devoted to the purpose of removal have been misappropriated and that in consequence the company is without money to remove the bodies. We are disposed to give the lotholds, under the circumstances, all the time possible, and we do not intend to remove teh bodies during the summer. They must, however, be removed in the fall that the latest." Warfield's Contract Counsel for Charles S. Warfield, the plumber of 333 South Twentieth street, with whom Treasurer Henry J. Hancock, of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company, divided the $66,694.50 received by Treasurer Hancock as damages from the city to the company for extending streets through the cemetery say that there is no reason why the Philadelphia Cemetery Company should plead lack of funds, since Warfield stands ready at a moment's notice to pay them $15,000 cash, in pursuance of a contract made by him with officers of that company for the purchase of the grounds, and the Arlington Cemetery Company is also rady to remove the bodies to its own grounds for $15,000, in accordance with a contract which it also has made with officers of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company. Warfield's position is this intricate matter, as stated by himself at the hearing in the office of John Douglass Brown, one of the counsel for the receivers of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company, when depostions were taken by order of court, is briefly this: He made a contract with Hancock and other officers of the company, whereby he was to purchase the company's grounds for $15,000, and he, in return, was to have all money awarded as damages for cutting streets through the cemetery. The Arlington Cemetery company, whose grounds are at Landsdowne, also made a contract with the same officers of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company to remove, for a consideration of $15,000, to Arlington Cemetery all such bodies from the Philadelphia Cemetery as should not be removed by lotholders. Warfield purchased land from the Arlington Cemetery Company, in which the bodies from the Philadelphia Cemetery Company were to be reinterred, lot for lot. For this accommodation the Philadelphia Cemetery Company's bodies Warfield was to be reimbursed by the Arlington Cemetery Company to the extent of $15,000. Warfield is vice president and general manager and now acting president of the Arlington Cemetery Company. He says that the bargain with the Philadelphia Cemetery Company is a good one fro the latter, inasmuch as the Arlington lots are much more valuable than the others. He explains his division of the money paid over to Treasurer Hancock, of the Philadelphia Company, as the award of damages from the city, by stating that while, by virture of his contract, he was entitled to the whole amount, Hancock assured him that he also had made a private agreement with the officers of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company by which he was to get one-half of any damages awarded to the company. Warfield thereupon consented to divide the award of damages with Hancock. He states that fo the $66.694.50 of such damages paid to Hancock as treasurer of the Philadelphia Cemetery Company, Hancock turned over to him as his share $32,500. Warfield claims perfect legality in all these proceedings, as his contract with the Philadelphia Cemetery Company bears the signatures of its officers and its seal, and says that if the courts shall decide that the money he recieved from Hancock belongs to the company and not to him he will pay it over to the company, but not before. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb