FIGHTING OVER A CEMETERY Trinity Methodist Church Trustees Appealing for Votes The Trustees Claim That Pastor Emil E. RICHTER Is Endeavoring to Overreach Them in Trying to Dispose of Union Cemetery Property-- Circulars Issued to the Congregation, Stating Their Side of the Quarrel.
Very interesting developments are promised at the annual meeting of the trustees of the Trinity Methodist Protestant church, South Fourth and Roebling streets, which will be held in the chapel of the church Monday evening, April 19. The question whether the views of Pastor Emil E. RICHTER or the board of trustees in relation to the sale of property in question known as Union Cemetery. The cemetery is located at Palmetto street and Irving avenue and is about ten acres in extent. It was opened at 1858 and closed in 1893, the congregation in the latter year obtaining the consent of the court of appeals to remove the remains, purchase new lands and sell the burying ground. The cemetery is now estimated to be worth from $75,000 to $150,000, being one of the most valuable pieces of property owned by any church in the city. Mr. RICHTER assumed the pastorate of the South Fourth street church about a year ago. The membership has been slightly decreasing mainly from fault of location and it is said on good authority to be Mr. RICHTER'S desire to sell out the valuable asset held in the shape of a city surrounded graveyard and convert the building into a modern institutional church. Considerable feeling has been shown on both sides and the majority of the trustees aver that the coming Sunday will be the last upon which Mr. RICHTER will preach in the church. Two circulars which were handed to an Eagle reporter in the Eastern District yesterday, signed by five old the six trustees, namely; Henry L. JOY Hezekiah MILLER Theodore COCHEU Isaac B. GULSCHARD and John A. WEES, develop the latest features of the controversy. The first and most important reads as follows: Brooklyn, April 5, 1897 To the members of the First M. P. Church ("Trinity") Village of Willamsburgh: The trustees of this church constitute the corporation of Union Cemetery, situated in the Twenty-eighth ward of the city. Burials in the cemetery have been prohibited by law during the past four years, and the rights of the church have been contested up to the highest court of the state, and the position and claims of trustees have been upheld. The trustees fully realize the importance of securing a new burial place, and of removing the remains, now interred in Union, thereto without unnecessary delay. Careful estimates of competent and reliable parties make the expense of removal of remains, tombstones, etc., etc., more than $80,000, beside the cost of new ground, legal expenses, etc., which takes it away above the $100,000 mark. The interests of the church and the plot and the grave owners demand that such removal shall be done decently and in order, and to some place at least as good as the present one, and where future disturbance may be guarded against. Negotiations were in progress by the trustees for the sale of the cemetery land, at a figure that would have which would have enabled them to purchase new ground and remove remains by this time, but those negotiations were interrupted by one man in the church, assisted by Pastor RICHTER, who are determined to force the trustees to sell the cemetery property for $75,000, and on three improper and illegal occasions they have induced members of the church to vote for resolutions to that effect, which resolutions being promptly forwarded to intending purchasers, have naturally prevented any higher sum being obtained by the trustees. Having thus far failed to coerce the trustees these parties now prepare to carry out their plans by changing the board at the forthcoming election. Your votes will determine the matter. As the only money available for the purchase of new land and removal thereto must come from the sale of the present cemetery land, the impropriety of a sale for anything like $75,000 is obvious and it is being urged, without regard to the final welfare of church or cemetery, but solely for the purpose of getting the immediate use of a few thousand dollars, after which these agitators will have dropped out of this affair and gone elsewhere. We feel that our services have been loyal and faithful, and that your hearty endorsement of our acts would materially assist in a prompt sale and removal in the interests of all concerned. The other communication is to the members of the church and while calling attention to the trustees' side of the case notifies members that the meeting for election of trustees is to be on April 19, instead of April 12, the latter date being the one the pastor desires. The remaining trustee is Arthur PRIESTLY and he is said to be the ally of Mr. RICHTER in the present dispute Trustee COCHEU was asked last evening to explain some of the passages in the circular and said: "I trust that you will not make this to appear like a controversy, because, with the exception of one of the trustees, we are practically unanimous. We have always, so far as possible, kept business and church work apart. Mr. RICHTER has been holding meetings against our protest. At last monthly meeting we believed he was going to bring the matter of his re-employment up and many of us who had been staying away went to the meeting. The RICHTERITES, however, had a large delegation there and as we found ourselves not large enough resolutions were passed in favor of his remaining. But Mr. RICHTER wont be pastor after next Sunday. He is not an ordained minister." Back to CEMETERY INDEX Back to CEMETERY INDEX Back to BROOKLYN Page Main