From the Richmond Times, 11/4/1892, p. 4, c. 4

OLD SHOCKOE CEMETERY.
An Effort to Keep the Sacred Burying Ground in Better Condition.

Numerous complaints have been made during the past by section owners of Shockoe Hill cemetery as to the abominable condition of that burying-ground. For a number of years that part of the cemetery which was formerly used for single graves has been left unattended, and quite a number of private sections have also been left without the proper care.

Mr. R. W. Carter, the superintendent of the almshouse, who is in charge of Shockoe Hill cemetery, has only two men at his disposal to keep the burying-ground in order, and all he can do with that insufficient force is to keep the city sections and the roads and pathways in order.

About two months ago the Committee on Cemeteries asked the City Council for an appropriation of $1,000 to have the cemetery thoroughly cleaned up. The matter was referred to the Finance Committee, and on the recommendation of the latter the Council in September last appropriated $500 for that purpose.

About the 20th of that month Superintendent Carter set an extra force to work in what is known as the single grave burial department at the northeast end of the cemetery.

Owing to the fact that the weeds had been permitted to grow for years and that a good many graves had sunken in, it was impossible to use a plow and every inch of ground had to be cleaned with the pick axe.

Quite a number of headstones and boards were broken and had to be reset, and some of the cedar trees had to be pulled out. By Saturday evening the amount appropriated by the Council will be exhausted.

Twelve ranges of graves, containing seven sections each of 15 by 15 feet, will then be placed in first-class condition and sowed in grass. This completes about one-half of the work to be done in that portion of the burying ground, and the Committee on Cemeteries will visit the ground on Monday afternoon to see for themselves.

Another resolution will then be introduced in the Council asking for another $500 to complete the work.

If it should be deemed advisable to have the deserted private sections put in order by the city an additional $500 would be required. While it would be difficult to find the owners of some of the private sections, yet there are about a thousand sub-sections, the owners of which have since bought lots in Hollywood or elsewhere, and who could be traced without any great trouble.

Some of them are in well-to-do circumstances, and should be easily induced to defray the expenses of clearing up their sections.

It is to be hoped that an ordinance will be passed in the near future requiring all section-owners to pay an annual fee to keep their plots in order. If this fee was fixed at only $1 per section a fund of $1,000 could be created, sufficient to employ three additional men, who could with ease keep that portion of the burying-ground in order.

During the past summer Mr. Carter succeeded in having four private sections cleaned up by his men during their leisure time, and among them was the old Tredegar section.

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