�� Minute# 1981.12.11.13

December 11, 1981

To�� Mount Toby Monthly meeting

From:�� Burial Committee

Subject: Recommendations concerning a Meeting burial ground

At the September Meeting for Business, our committee agreed to make some recommendations to the Monthly Meeting by December. The present report reviews past recommendations, agreed upon by Monthly Meeting in August 1977 (1977.08.29 � min. #21 & #22 � no report attached to minutes), and makes some further suggestions.

Agreed on in August 1977

1. Graves in the proposed burial ground will be made 3'6" by 7'.

2. There will be no standing headstones, but only flat markers.

3 Graves are to be 5' deep (to the bottom of the coffin).

4. In case of cremation, the top of the container for ashes are to be deep enough for a marker to be placed above it.

5. Where ashes have been placed in a grave plot, ashes of other members of the same family may be placed there as desired.

6. Ashes of a single person may occupy a whole plot. but unrelated persons may request burial of ashes in the same plot. (12/81: It was left ambiguous as to who would receive such a request or by what criteria it would be considered.) (This matter to be considered by the committee.)

Those were the only clear agreements that we found in the earlier minutes. It was also suggested at that time that grave plots will need to be num�bered, and indeed a definitive plan has to be filed with the Town of Leverett. It was proposed that the form of a record book be decided on after some experience is gained, probably including a page with biograph�ical material about each person buried. It was mentioned that the Committee had contact with a local undertaker who will cooperate with a simple burial, but did not wish his name published widely, and, finally, that it will be acceptable to hire a local backhoe operator for digging a grave.

Recommendations for December 1981 Monthly Meeting

1. The present committee has agreed to proceed with the plan for establishing a burial ground. We intend to submit a definite plan to the Town. (The plan will show the location of the 150' by 70' cemetery, and six clusters of 40 grave plots--each measuring 14' by 70'--separated by five strips of 13' wide which will be left empty.) � Approved 12/11/81

2. We recommend that the use of the burial ground is for members, of the Meeting and their immediate families (spouse and children). If exceptions are to be considered, we suggest that their precise phrasing be agreed to now or before the formal beginning of the burial ground, so as to avoid embarrassment both to the families of the deceased and to the Meeting, and to avoid difficult decisions in the future that would be made under duress. � Not approved 12/11/81

One possible exception would be as follows: Mt. Toby attenders who are. members of other Friends Meetings, and who have served on Mt. Toby Meeting committees. Exceptions to the general rule should be stated with precision to avoid future ambiguity.

3. We recommend that plots themselves be free of charge to eligible individuals, but that a one-time charge (of perhaps $100-200, adjustable in future years according to inflation) be assessed at the time of burial. This charge, or the future income therefrom, would pay for the maintenance of the burial ground.

4. Following the formal establishment of the burial ground, we recommend that our committee be laid down. Another committee should then be formed, whose duties it would be to concern itself with future matters of burial as well as concerns of dying and coping with grief

5. We recommend that the future committee start a suitable record book to take note of those persons who are buried in our burial ground, and perhaps elsewhere. A companion volume might .also be started to record births.

Additional Recommendations

In an August 1974 report of the Burial Committee, two additional suggestions were noted:

That no plots be reserved in advance, except a single plot for the spouse of a person already buried.

That concrete vaults not be required, unless we find upon investigation that they are legally required.

Robert Archer

Thomas Crowe

George Levinger

Robert Myers

Richard Ulin

Jeffrey Wood