Chap. 258.—An ACT to incorporate the Smithfield Evergreen Ceme-
tery, near the town of Smithfield, in the county of Isle of Wight,
Virginia.

Approved February 26, 1886.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
J. W. Johnson, J. A. Brown, R. E. Holloway, A. J. Cofer,
Peter Hillyer, W..G. Rouse, J. A. Johnson, R. N. Ritman,
T. H. Southall, Geo. W. Parker, Arnold King, Jno. T. Purvis,
A. W. Tobey, C. F. Nelms, C. E. Smith, George W. Wilson,
and their successors in office, be and now are hereby constituted
a body corporate and politic, to be known as the Smithfield
Evergreen Cemetery company; by which name and style they
shall and may have perpetual succession and a common seal,
may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, contract and be
contracted with, at all times and in all courts and places, and
in all matters whatsoever.

2. The Smithfield Evergreen Cemetery company shall have
the power, right and authority to buy and to hold a piece and
parcel of land not to exceed five acres, near and convenient to
the town of Smithfield, to be appropriated and used for a bury-
ing-ground and cemetery, and for that purpose may lay off the
same into lots and sub-divisions of lots, suitable for graves,
vaults and monuments, and may improve or ornament the same
with trees and shrubbery and flowers, and lay out with roads,
walks, paths and drives; and the land thus bought, laid out,
improved and ornamented shall be held by the said corporation
for the purposes of a cemetery, as aforesaid, and for that pur-
pose only.

3. The said Smithfield Evergreen Cemetery company may
sell and convey any of the lots or sub-divisions in said cemetery,
for burial purposes, on such conditions as they may prescribe
in their by-laws; and the lots may be held for burial purposes
only, and shall not be subject to any sale by any order of court,
and shall not be conveyed by the owner out of his family, after
any interments have been made therein, and they shall not at
any time be sold to or owned or used by any person except he
be a white person.

4. The officers of the said Smithfield Evergreen Cemetery
company shall consist of a president, treasurer, secretary and
board of directors, composed of stockholders, who shall be
elected on the third day of April, eighteen hundred and eighty-
six, and on the third day of April of each and every vear there-
after, at the general and annual meeting to be held on the third
day of April of each and every year. The said officers shall
be elected by a majority of the votes cast, and each stockholder
may, in person or by proxy, cast one vote for each share of
stock he or she may own.

5. A special meeting of the stockholdcrs may be held at any
time, by the call of the president or board of directors, on giving
five days’ notice of the time and place of meeting to the resident
stockholders, when they may transact any and all business, and
do any and all things that may be transacted and done at a
regular and general annual meeting.

6. The officers for the company for the present shall be, J.
W. Johnson, president; J. A. Brown, treasurer; Richard E.
Halloway, secretary; A. J. Cofer, Jas. A. Brown, J. W. John-
son, R. N. Ritman, Peter Hillver, board of directors; and they
shall hold these offices until the third day of April, eighteen
hundred and eighty-six, and until their successors are duly
elected and qualified; and all officers thereafter elected shall
hold office until the third day of April of the year succeeding
their election, and until their successors are elected and quali-
fied.

7. The said president and board of ‘directors may employ
a skillful engineer to survey a piece or parcel of gdand bought
or which may be bought by them, to lay it off into lots and
sub-divisions of lots, paths, walks, roads and drives; and they
may determine the size and price of the said lots und sub-
divisions, and positions and depths of the graves, the en-
closure, and ornamentation of the cemetery, and make all the
arrangements for the sale and transfer of the lots when the
same is surveyed and the number, size and location of the lots
is ascertained; a copy of the same and plot showing the num-
ber, size and location of said lots, shall be filed and recorded
in the clerk’s office of the county court of Isle of Wight county.
The lots shall be conveyed by deed of the said Smithfield Ever-
green Cemetery company, signed by its president, with the
seal of the said Smithfield Evergreen Cemetery company, if
it has one, attached to the deed.

8. The said board of directors shall likewise determine how
the stock of the company shall be made, authenticated, trans-
ferred and verified. Shares of stock shall be deemed personal
property, and as such shall pass to the personal representative or
assignee of the stockholder. A book shall be kept by the com-
pany showing the number of shares and the holders of these
shares; and where they are assigned or transferred, the name of
the assignee. If theshare of any subscriber is not paid promptly
when due it shall and.may be recovered of him by warrant or
action according to the amount; and if the same with costs
cannot be made out of the delinquent subscriber, his share may
be sold at public auction for ready money, and transferred to
the purchaser. And out of the proceeds of sale there shall be
paid all costs and charges and interest thereon; and the sur-
plus if any shall go and be paid to the delinquent or his per-
sonal representative, Ifthe said company shall fail to prescribe
how its stock shall be issued, held, transferred and assigned, it
shall be held, transferred and assigned as is now prescribed by
the Code of Virginia eighteen hundred and seventy-three, page
five hundred and fifty, fifty-one and fifty-two. And if the said
Smithfield Evergreen Cemetery company shall fail to prescribe
when and how its dividends may be declared, and its capital
stock divided, then such dividends shall be declared and capital
divided as is prescribed in the said Code, page five hundred
and fifty-two, sections thirty-two, thirty-three and thirty four.
9. There shall be no enclosure of graves within the general
enclosure of the cemetery, no rank growing-vines in any of the
lots of the said Smithfield Evergreen cemetery, and no lettered
boards designating graves, unless allowed by the board of di-
rectors of the company, and unless they conform to the general
requirements of the company. But the said company or any
owner of any lot may dig a vault in his lot, or adorn it by a
monument or tombstone, or shrubbery or flowers, which are
not by their branches or roots or otherwise detrimental to the
adjacent lot or ornaments, or are not unsightly or inconvenient
to visitors; and if they are, in the judgment of.the board of
directors, detrimental, or unsightly, or inconvenient, then the
board of directors may order the removal of the same, either
specially of by such general laws as they may adopt; and if
they are not removed within the time specified, then the board
of directors may order and cause them to be removed at the
cost and charge of the party or parties who own the lot, and
may collect the same by warrant or action, according to amount;
and if any plank, earth, bricks, lime, cement, mortar or material
of any kind, used by any one in the burial of any person, or in
the adornment of any grave or lot, or for any other purposes,
is not removed by the party or parties owning the lot, or order-
ing or directing or doing the work, then the said company may
order the removal of the said earth, plank, bricks, lime, cement,
mortar, material or rubbish of any kind; and if it is not re-
moved in the time specified by its special or general order in its
by-laws, then the board of directors may order the removal of
the said earth, planks, bricks, lime, cement, mortar or rubbish
at the cost and charges of the party or parties owning the said
lot, or ordering or doing the said work, and may collect the
same by warrant or action, according to amount.

to. Any person who shall wilfully destroy, injure or remove
any tombstone or monument placed in the said cemetery, or
shall wilfully remove, destroy, cut, break or injure any railing
or fence, trees, shrubs, plants or flowers in said cemetery; or
shall shoot off or discharge any gun, pistol or other firearm
within the said enclosure, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and
shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than five dollars; and
the money, when collected, shall be applied to reparation or
restoration of the property injured, and if not injured it shall
go into the general treasury of the said company, to be applied
as said company may direct.

11. All persons and employees connected with this cemetery
shall be special policemen, with full power to arrest all intruders
and depredators on the premises; and visitors and owners of
lots are alike reminded that the grounds are secredly devoted
to the interment of the dead, and that the strict observances of
the decorum which should characterize such a place, will be re-
quired equally and alike of each and all.

12. This act shall be in force from its passage.