Rose Hill Cemetery Fund

ROSE HILL CEMETERY FUND

TYPE OF FUND: Cemetery Preservation Sub-Fund / Field of Interest

INITIATED:  February 21, 2017          APPROVED: May 17, 2017

PURPOSE:

Funds are to be used for the maintenance, upkeep, and beautification of Rose Hill Cemetery, located in Thomas West Virginia, to include lawn maintenance, tree/stump removal, shrub trimming, resetting of stones, landscaping, road maintenance and other areas necessary for the proper maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery (to include labor and equipment).

DISTRIBUTION:

          An annual grant will be awarded for the maintenance, upkeep, and beautification of the     Rose Hill Cemetery in accordance with the TCF Cemetery Preservation Fund            Specifications.

VARIANCE POWER:

If, in the judgment of the TCF Board of Directors, the restrictions and conditions of the fund become unnecessary, incapable of fulfillment or inconsistent with the charitable needs of the community, the TCF Board of Directors maintains the right to modify the terms of this fund.

FUNDING:  

            On a recommendation by Joe Dumire, resident and cemetery caretaker, members of the     Thomas City Council voted on Feb. 14, 2017 to create an endowment for the perpetual maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery.   

BACKGROUND:

            On April 1, 1910, the West Virginia Central & Pittsburgh Railway (later the Western Maryland Railway), owned by the industrialist Senator Henry Gassaway Davis, transferred 2.29 acres of land to the Town of Thomas to establish Rose Hill Cemetery. Of interest is the fact that a section of this acreage is devoted to indigent burials with two vertical rows in that section being devoted to the burials of African-Americans. The remainder of the indigent section was reserved for the burials of white people. A number of people who worked for the railway, or Davis Coal & Coke Company, are buried at Rose Hill.