Ordinance, 30 January 1843, as Published in the Wasp
Source Note
Nauvoo City Council, Ordinance, , Hancock Co., IL, 30 Jan. 1843. Version published in “An Ordinance in Relation to Interments,” Wasp, 1 Mar. 1843, [2].
Sec. 1 Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of , That all graves for the interment of human bodies in the burying ground or grounds belonging to the City of , shall be dug fully six feet deep from the surface, and in covering the same it shall be left well filled, raised up, and rounded upon the top, and the Sexton shall receive the sum of two dollars for digging the grave and interring the body of every person; and shall keep a regular record thereof in a book set apart for that purpose, as hereinafter set forth.
Sec. 2. Any person who has not procured a lot or place in the burying ground, and who wishes to dig a grave, and inter therein without the assistance of the Sexton, shall call upon the Sexton, whose duty it shall be to point out the place where such interment shall be made, for which he shall receive the sum of twenty-five cents.
Sec. 3. Any person having a lot or place in the burying ground may inter their dead without the assistance of the Sexton, and they are hereby required to make a due return to the Sexton of each case of interment so made, within three days thereafter.
Sec. 4 The City Sexton shall keep a Book of Record in which he shall record the names and ages of all persons deceased, coming to his knowledge, and the nature of the diseases of which they died, and to enable him the better so to do, he is to procure such information as he may require from the persons referred to in section two (2,) of this Ordinance, and he shall also make a weekly report for publication, to the editor of some newspaper published in this .
Sec. 5. Should the City Sexton be unable to procure his pay from the relations or assets of the deceased, or from overseers of the poor, upon substaniating these facts to the satisfaction of the City Council he shall receive pay therefor out of the City Treasury.
Sec. 6 Any person acting in violation of this Ordinance, respecting the manner and order of interments, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars, to be recovered before the Mayor or Aldermen of this at their discretion.
Sec. 7. This Ordinance to take effect, and be in force from and after its passage, all laws or ordinances to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.