situation of the ground will admit of all graves hereafter to be dug; and to provide himself with a suitable bier and lines, or straps, and if requested to attend at the house of the deceased, with the bier, and at the burying ground, and when the graves by him dug are settled, to fill them up and sod them over; and keep the ground clear of weeds, and put a padlock, or fastening on the gate...
The sexton's fee of $1.50 per adult and $1
per child's grave was set by the same ordinance, which also prohibited any
other person from being paid for digging a grave and provided that all
graves be dug under his inspection. By resolution, John Jones "of the
north end of Columbus" was appointed sexton at the same Council session.5
Jones apparently continued on the job into October of 1827, when he was
allowed $1.00 for cutting weeds and repairing the graveyard fence.6
THE DOHERTY TRACT
The old graveyard was the only burial place
for the city through the 1820's. With no other burial place to relieve
this graveyard, the borough found it necessary to expand the site. On
December 11, 1829 the borough council resolved (and on January 8 ordered)
that members Robert W. McCoy and Lincoln Goodale were appointed a
committee to purchase from Colonel Doherty a lot adjoining the graveyard,
with restrictions to pay not more than $400.7 The land in question reached
east from the existing graveyard to the Columbus-Worthington road (High
street) and south 330 feet toward the borough. The tract contained just
under seven acres, making a total of 8.409 acres in the two graveyard
tracts. William Doherty and Eliza his wife, who sold the lot to the mayor
and council for $400 on February 26, 1830, reserved to themselves "so much
of the ground now sold near a Beach tree as will be sufficient for a
family burying ground."8
On March 2, immediately after the purchase,
Messrs. McCoy and Goodale were appointed a committee of council to "Platt
and Lay off the new burying ground into Lots also to arrange the price of
Lots in the same." A portion of the lots were set apart for burial free of
charge for the ground used. The burials in the free portion apparently
were made in chronological order, for one newspaper account refers to "the
'cholera row' of 1849." According to Studer's history, "Another portion
was set off for the sale of lots to colored persons." The only official
reference found is an order of City Council, dated July 20, 1841, "that
the Colored People be buried under the Direction of the North Sexton, and
in the same manner that Strangers are buried."10 (The population of the
city was about 6% "Colored" in the 1830's.)
No plat of the lots in the Doherty tract
seems to have survived the years. However, clues to the arrangement of the
Doherty tract were
10