By Alex Vastola, Intern, Pratt Institute, School of Information
Title: Founding Documents, 1837-1899
Predominant Dates:1838-1842
Extent: 4.0 Boxes
Arrangement: Arranged by Series.
Subjects: Abstracts of Title, Act of Incorporation, Bergen, Cornelius, Business--Records, Cemeteries--New York (State)--New York--History, Cemeteries--Recording--New York State, Cemeteries--United States--History, Cemeteries--United States--History--19th Century, Cemetery Development, City Council of Brooklyn, Deeds, Douglass, David Bates, Fences, Gates and Railings, Green-Wood Cemetery--New York, N.Y., Henry Evelyn Pierrepont, Land contracts, Land Development, Land Sales contracts, Landscape architecture--New York (State)--New York--Designs and plans, Legal Documents, New York (N.Y.)--Politics and Government--to 1898, New York State Senate, Real estate transactions--New York(State)--Brooklyn--History
Forms of Material: Correspondence, Newspaper Clippings
Languages: English
By the 1830s, New York City and the surrounding area had a pressing need for a large, rural burial ground. Before 1838, burial procedures were carried out various churches, which caused unsanitary conditions for the city’s water supply and its people. Most churchyards were terribly overcrowded by this time, and there were few regulations to ensure sanitary and respectful disposal of human remains. In late 1837, a committee was formed to seek land that could be developed for a large burial ground. An area of Gowanus, Brooklyn was soon identified, selected for its beauty and for the availability of the land. The committee turned its attention to the organization of Green-Wood Cemetery, and crafted the first regulations and procedures under which the cemetery would operate.
In 1838, the New York senate passed an act of incorporation granting Green-Wood Cemetery the status of a corporation. The cemetery had been in planning for some time, largely under the direction of Henry Pierrepont and Major David Bates Douglass.
The Founding Documents collection contains a large array of documents related to the founding of Green-Wood, including rare correspondence, legal documents, financial records, and minutes and resolutions of the founding committee, detailing the process by which Green-Wood was developed as New York’s first large rural cemetery. Also included are maps, charts, and news articles relating to the incorporation and development of the Green-Wood Cemetery between the years of 1837 and 1899.
This collection is divided into eight series: Legal Documents, Land Development, Financial Records, Committee Reports and Resolutions, Committee Minutes, Henry Pierrepont Correspondence, Miscellaneous Correspondence, and Printed Materials.
The Founding Documents collection and its contents are important for providing insight into the proceedings of the physical and legal establishment of the Green-Wood Cemetery and how such developments have had a lasting effect on the policies of the cemetery in the present day. This collection is contained within four boxes, most of which are designed for oversized materials. Many documents are in embrittled condition, and the worst have been encased in Mylar. All materials are organized by subject and are original to this collection. Please refer to the container list for further information.
Researchers may also wish to consult the following collections: The Henry Pierrepont Papers, which contains more information on Pierrepont’s role in the founding of the cemetery; Farm Conveyances and Deeds, for information regarding the purchase of the land that would become Green-Wood Cemetery; Cemetery By-Laws and Act of Incorporation, for later information on committee procedures and changes to the charter; Minutes of the Standing Committee, for information on later committee procedures; and Reports of the Board of Trustees for more records regarding the development of the cemetery and its early operation.
Abstracts of Title
Act of Incorporation
Bergen, Cornelius
Business--Records
Cemeteries--New York (State)--New York--History
Cemeteries--Recording--New York State
Cemeteries--United States--History
Cemeteries--United States--History--19th Century
Cemetery Development
City Council of Brooklyn
Deeds
Douglass, David Bates
Fences, Gates and Railings
Green-Wood Cemetery--New York, N.Y.
Henry Evelyn Pierrepont
Land contracts
Land Development
Land Sales contracts
Landscape architecture--New York (State)--New York--Designs and plans
Legal Documents
New York (N.Y.)--Politics and Government--to 1898
New York State Senate
Real estate transactions--New York(State)--Brooklyn--History
Repository: The Green-Wood Cemetery
Original/Copies Note: For more information please see http://thegreen-woodcemeteryfoundingdocumentsexhibition.weebly.com/.
Related Materials: For more information please see http://thegreen-woodcemeteryfoundingdocumentsexhibition.weebly.com/.
Processing Information: Accession #: 009-2013
Item #248: Notebook: Executive Committee Minutes of Meetings from November 3, 1838 to November 1, 1839
In this notebook, all the minutes of the first meetings of the Green-Wood Cemetery Corporation are recorded from its two founding years: 1838 and 1839. These minutes reveal the monthly decisions of the company during its first years, including during the first meeting, where they decided to nominate candidates for President and officers for the company.
This notebook is significant because it reveals what the decisions were of the Board of Directors of the Green-Wood Cemetery and how they conducted business during the first years of the cemetery’s incorporation and operation. This includes the first official meeting of the members of the Green-Wood Cemetery Company on December 15, 1838 (Richman, ed., 2013, pages 18-19). These “civic-minded” men, from the City of Brooklyn took the ferry across the East River to where the law office of Stephen C. Williams was located at 54 Wall Street, and gathered to both nominate and elect the first officers of the Company, and to create a structure to organize the Company (Richman, ed., 2013, page 19). At this meeting, they asked Alonzo G. Hammond to be the Company’s Chairman, and appointed Henry E. Pierrepont to serve as the Company’s first “recording secretary” (Richman, ed., 2013, page 19). In addition, a committee of Messrs. Douglass, Howland, and Pierrepont, was created to nominate potential officers for the Company, to report changes to the cemetery’s charter, and to negotiate with landowners to get their terms for land sales to the cemetery (Cleaveland, 1866, page 17). These first minutes that Mr. Pierrepont recorded gives an insight into the thoughts of the Board of Directors of the Green-Wood Cemetery Company when it was first founded (Richman, ed., 2013, page 19).
Item #249: Envelope: “Minutes of Executive Committee in early 1839.”
Empty envelope – no significance.
Item #250: Piece of Paper: “Drafts of Resolutions + Reports”
Scrap of paper – no significance.
Item #251: Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting of the Green-Wood Cemetery Company, December 20, 1838
In these minutes, the committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery explains the progress of the effort of letting lot owners subscribe to capital stock for burial lots in the cemetery. From this explanation, the committee decided to perform three actions. First, it decided to petition the New York State Legislature to amend the cemetery’s charter to make it a general trust instead of a joint-stock company. Second, a Committee on Lands was authorized to buy land for the cemetery to use for burial purposes and to obtain the title deeds for these lands. Third, that the Committee on Lands also be authorized to communicate with religious corporations and societies on the subject of setting aside lands in the cemetery for their use.
These minutes are important because it documents when the cemetery’s committee decided that it wanted to become a non-profit trust, and decided to buy lands for expansion and to work with religious organizations on allowing them to purchase their own land tracts in the cemetery for the first time.
Item #252: Executive Committee Minutes from April 30, 1839, to May 8, 1839
These minutes record the committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery Association’s decisions from April 30 to May 8, 1839. Examples of the decisions recorded are appointing a committee to decide the value of bonds issued to lot subscribers, appointing a committee to draft by-laws and regulations to use to run the cemetery, creating a fence on the cemetery’s Fifth Avenue boundary, and creating a survey map of the cemetery grounds.
These minutes are important because they document the cemetery association’s first attempts to both establish defined boundaries for the cemetery and to perform the first survey of the cemetery grounds. In addition, these minutes note that a fence was created on the Fifth Avenue boundary of the cemetery. This is important because this was the first work done on the cemetery grounds after the land was acquired to form the cemetery (Cleaveland, 1866, page 23).
Item #253: Executive Committee Minutes from June 20, 1839
These minutes record the decisions of the Executive Committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery Association during their June 20, 1839 meeting. The major resolutions at this meeting were approving and putting on file the finished survey map of the cemetery grounds prepared by Major Douglass, the cemetery’s surveyor.
These minutes are important because they show that by this time, the cemetery had surveyed and mapped all of the lands that it owned in Brooklyn and had officially established the boundaries of the cemetery.
Item #254: Executive Committee Minutes from June 24, 1839
These minutes record the decisions of the Executive Committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery Association during their June 24, 1839 meeting. The major resolution at this meeting was deciding when and where to sell bonds to lot subscribers and the members of the committee who would financially back these bonds. In addition, the Executive Committee reported that they had almost finished building an avenue both through and around Green-Wood (Cleaveland, 1866, page 24).
These minutes are important because they show that by this time, the cemetery was trying to determine how to financially redeem the bonds they were offering to lot subscribers. This was also a public call to attention to the fact that the avenue built around and through the cemetery would lead to lot sales (Cleaveland, 1866, page 24). The committee stated: “It is to be remembered…that the institution is no longer one of profit, but of benevolence. It looks solely to the accomplishment of a great philanthropic object without the consideration of gain to any one; and it may therefore appeal with confidence to the philanthropy of every public-spirited citizen. Let such only look fairly into the aim and purpose of our institution, and its ability, unquestionable, as we think, to carry out those purposes in a manner credible to this trust and to the community at large, and the result must be certain” (Cleaveland, 1866, page 24).
Item #255: Executive Committee Minutes from July 10, 1839
These minutes record the decisions of the Executive Committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery Association during their July 10, 1839 meeting. The major resolutions at this meeting were appointing a committee to find and hire a gardener and superintendent of the grounds of the cemetery and appointing a committee to draft by-laws for the preservation of the grounds of the cemetery and the sale of cemetery lots.
These minutes are important because they show that by this time, the cemetery was attempting to execute some of the provisions laid out in its charter, by establishing by-laws to regulate the preservation of the cemetery grounds and the sale of lots, and to try to hire a superintendant to manage this maintenance.
Item #256: Executive Committee Minutes from July 29, 1839
These minutes record the decisions of the Executive Committee of the Green-Wood Cemetery Association during their July 29, 1839 meeting. The major resolutions at this meeting were appointing J. A. Perry as the Board of Trustees’ Secretary, and deciding to authorize the President of the Board of Trustees to obtain materials for fencing around the cemetery’s boundaries and to employ a superintendant of cemetery grounds with a $3.00 per day salary, and to authorize the purchase of lands at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-Fourth Street in Brooklyn to expand the cemetery.
These minutes are important because they show that by this time, the cemetery was attempting to maintain its grounds by hiring a superintendant, define its borders with fencing, and expand the cemetery grounds with new land purchases, indicating a growth of the size of the cemetery. In addition, these minutes record the appointment of J. A. Perry as the Board of Trustees’ first Secretary.
Item #257: Board Meeting, October 11,1839
In these board meeting minutes, the major decisions made during this meeting was: the payment of Major Douglass for his services with $4,500.00 in bonds, that Major Douglass had both published a pamphlet about the Green-Wood Cemetery Association’s plans and designs and advertised in the newspapers the opening of the Association’s books for the subscription to burial lots in the cemetery for subscribers, and to appoint a three-man committee to look into the prospect of allowing churches to reserve lots for their use in the cemetery.
These minutes are important because they describe both the growing relationship between the cemetery and subscribers for burial lots with the advertising of the opening of subscriptions in pamphlets and the newspapers, and the growing relationship between the cemetery and churches, by considering opening lots to the churches for burial.
Item #258: Executive Committee Minutes, October 11, 1839
In these board meeting minutes, the major decisions made during this meeting were: the payment of Major Douglass for his services with $4,500.00 in bonds, that Major Douglass had both published a pamphlet about the Green-Wood Cemetery Association’s plans and designs and advertised in the newspapers the opening of the Association’s books for the subscription to burial lots in the cemetery for subscribers, and to appoint a three-man committee to look into the prospect of allowing churches to reserve lots for their use in the cemetery (Mr. Ogden was chosen as Chairman, and Messrs. Hammond and Freeman were appointed by him as his co-chairs on this committee). A few months ago on July 2, 1839, the Trustees of the cemetery had no funds to go on with the improvements of the cemetery or to pay for past work done, so they resolved that the bonds of the company should be issued for $10,000.00, which would be redeemable from lot sales (Cleaveland, 1866, page 25). At the October 11, 1839 meeting mentioned in this document, the President stated that he executed the company’s bonds for $4,500.00 cash, advanced by five Board member: Messrs. Perry, Le Roy, Ray, and Pierrepont (who each provided $1,000.00), and Mr. Stebbins (who gave $5,000.00) (Cleaveland, 1866, page 25).
These minutes are important because they describe both the growing relationship between the cemetery and subscribers for burial lots with the advertising of the opening of subscriptions in pamphlets and the newspapers, and the growing relationship between the cemetery and churches by considering opening lots to the churches for burial.
Item #259: Committee Minutes, October 26, 1839
In these minutes, the important decisions made were that Major Douglass was paid $4,000.00 for his services, and that H. C. Beach was appointed the Association’s general Secretary, with the responsibilities of keeping the books to record the Association’s finances along with obtaining subscriptions to burial lots in the Green-Wood Cemetery. The Association would receive a profit of six percent on all subscribed lots: two percent going to the general Secretary and four percent going to the President.
These minutes are important because it records the appointment of the cemetery’s first general Secretary, showing that the cemetery has grown to a size that they needed to hire a professional to manage the subscribed sale of cemetery lots for burial purposes from the large number of tracts of land that the cemetery owned.
Item #260: “Meeting 10 Nov 1839 Sale to churches”
In these minutes the important decision made was to appoint Mr. Hammond and Mr. Pierrepont as the committee members to report on the presentation made to the churches about the reservation of land for their use in the Green-Wood Cemetery.
These minutes are important because they record that the cemetery Association is getting serious at this time about offering land to the churches in the cemetery since they are assigning committee members to make a presentation to these churches about it.
Item #261: Minutes from Board Meeting, November 23, 1839
In these minutes, the major decision made was that the Board decided that it was the responsibility of the Association’s Finance Committee and President to inform the committee members of the committee to negotiate with churches of the their appointment and to also file any vacancies in case any of these members do not end up serving on this committee.
These minutes are important because it shows that the Green-Wood Cemetery Association wanted to make sure that the committee for negotiating with churches on the reservation of cemetery lots for their use was filled with appointees willing to serve on the committee so that the negotiation with the churches went successfully.
