Untitled Document

HUMAN CONCERN:

TOUGH DECISIONS

By VI MURPHY
Dispatch Feature Editor

Nov. 25, 1966

If you,didn't pay your sissociation dues and upkeep assessnent, you were invited firmly to exhume the body you had buried in the cemetery and find some place else for the grave.

And it happened.

The history of Rock River View Cemetery, east of Moline near Oakwood Country Club, is studdded with human concern, tough decisions and firm action in order to keep the little burial ground solvent and going.

The association owning the cemetery relinquished authority earlier this year at the annual meeting of South Moline Township Board of Trustees when the township, so requested by petition, assumed ownership

The move was requested by the society because the directors are getting along in years and members of the omganizations were getting fewer and the cemetery is too old, historic and vital to too many local families to be abandoned.

South Moline Township inherited about $14,000 from the very solvent cemetery society and there will be income com ing in tax from sale of lots for future burials. Of the 238 lots in the cemetery, about 30 remain available for use with 208 occupied.

There will be no special levy to support the new township acquisition due to its excellent financial condition. A township budget appropriation should be sufficient, William Foley, township supervisor said recently.

The cemetery came into being after the citizens on the north side of Rock River met at the Frick School House one September eventing in 1870.

Case in point, to organize a society to supervise a cemetery founded by the Adam and Michael Hartzell families, one of the first to settle in South Moline township.

The society was formed that evening and the name of the burial place was changed from Hartzell Grave Yard to the
Hartzell Cemetery. A board of direetors was elected and Mark South was first president. The group was officially in business.The cemetery ground was surveyed and plotted in the fall of 1870 and the association was open for membership.Members received a certificate by paying whatever price the association deemed the lot worth. This could be from $1.50 according to the lot.

"Said certificate gives the holder the exclusive right to said lot and no person or persons has a right to bury there only the holder of said certificate, or by request of said or the said holder of said certificate..

Another decision made at the Nov. 12, 1870 meeting was to request a Mr. Norman Cowell "to remove the child that is buried in the main avenue that leads from the gate through the center. If not removed, then the grave be leveled down."

The association at that time also requested that all persons having friends buried in the cemetery furnish the board the secretary with the name, date of birth, and age when died

A year later the board decided to levy a 25,cent charge on each person a lot in the cemetery.

In 1872 lots were auctioned off to members of the society, and a man was hired to clean off a new addition.

They also decided that any person or persons wishing lots in the cemetery must first become a member of the society. And any member not paying their regular dues of 50 cents be charged 60 cents with the additional dime to go to the secretary for having to collect the delinquent assessments..

When the by-laws were drawn up, peace and serenity during meetings was insured.

"Any person or persons having any remarks to make to the society shall first address the president (courteously!) then proceed with his remarks . . . and the remainder of the members remaining quiet dispensing with all communications.

"In failing to observe good order they shall be reprimanded by the president."

The by-laws are inscribed in the book of meeting minutes in an oniate, curly script, written in purple ink. The elaborate penmanship was often livened by large, printed, and filled in letters by the secretary, J. G. Heck, who apparently whiled away more than one dull spot in a meeting filling in loops in capital s's and small f's, l's and o's.

He kept the records for years and dropped in small details that frequently indicated more lively activity going on between the lines than he cared to record for posterity.

In 1873 one society member was insturcted by formal board resolution "to remove her tombstone out of the walk." Notices were sent out firmly warning trespassers to stay off the grounds. That same year remaining lets in the old cemetery were sold off for $2 to $4 each, a bargain rate to stimulate interest. Members were also assesd $1.50 each to finance building a road into the cemetery. enase who didn't pay the assessment were expected to put that much actual work ino the construction project.

In 1874 the board instructed the secretary to inform delinquent members that if they fail to pay their yearly dues within 30 days, they will be expelled from the association."

A couple of months later the first delinquent member was expelled.

The guiding director kept the society's business affairs in good order. Notes were paid off as speedily as possible and loans kept small for practical budgeting :against income which wasn't exactly magnificent either.

The members of the association worked together on upkeep of the cemetery and met on Saturday afternoons to build fence, clear new land added from time to time to the original core site, and develop and maintain roads leading into or through the graveyard. They met regularly at the old Ziegler School and kept association business up to date.

People using the cemetery were expected to keep their business with the society as meticulously up to date as the board kept the Organization's. In 1882 the board cracked down on people dragging their financial feet on lot payments. Those who are delinquent on lots are requested to pay up in six months. . .and if not paid at the expiration of the six months, the owner or owners, are to remove their bodies from cemetery.

"The cemetery association has the power to remove the bodies at the owners' expense and resell the lots." Carried unaninously by board vote.

They even toughened it. "All who to pay cash and if not cash give a note 8 per cent interest."

By now the cemetery name had been changed to River View Cemetery in honor of thesweeping view of the valley and river from its hilltop location

The name remains today in perpetuity with the little buria grounds that indepndently made itsway to space age solvency. They weren't aboce a little free promotion and advertising in the tombstone business in the good old days.

. The Davis Camp Co. of Davenport tidily inscribed for perpetuity its name on the marker of Maria C. Frick, wife of pioneer Abraham Frick and who died Oct. 6, 1861 at the age of 59. She is buried in the historical old Rock River View Cemetery.

Submitted by Mike Peal

Illinois Ancestors