Undertaker Roy Lynn and his assistant, Charles Spratt, spend Thursday morning disinterring the remains of Moses Gregory and wife, Eliza Gregory, at the old Funk cemetery and burying them in the Gregory lot in Greenlawn Cemetery.
Portsmouth Daily Times After December 12, 1912 Remains Moved
Eliza Gregory was a daughter of Major John Belli, whose remains were brought from Friendship to Greenlawn last fall. The above work is done at the instance of Mrs. Catherine Gregory of Fontana, Ky., a daughter-in-law of the late Moses Gregory. Many other families are also taking up the remains of departed relatives from the old Funk cemetery which is to be abandoned.
Preparatory to disinterring the bodies in the Funk cemetery, lying northwest of the city, the tombstones and grave markers were removed Tuesday by a force of men.
Portsmouth Daily Times December 12, 1912 Preparing to Move Bodies
Extra precautionary steps have to be taken in the matter, so as not to get the bodies confused. Each stone bears a prominent mark and in this manner confusion will be avoided. Oscar Moore, who has the contract, is personally supervising the work.
The absolute need of more ground for building purposes will in the next few weeks obliterate Portsmouth’s oldest cemetery, Funk’s burying ground, which for more than a century has been located on Kinney’s Lane, a quarter of a mile west of the Boulevard Road.
Portsmouth Daily Times December 1912 Need for Buildings to Obliterate a Cemetery
It was founded by the late Martin B. Funk, a Revolutionary soldier, and one of the pioneer settlers of this section of the country. The fifty bodies buried there, or what is left of them will be disinterred and will find a permanent place of rest in Greenlawn, or until the hand of progress shall touch this section of the city and demand its cutting up into building lots.
The contract for the re-interment of these bodies was awarded Tuesday to Oscar Moore, who will begin work on the tedious task at once. Suitable monuments and markers are to be placed at the head of the new row of graves that will be made in Greenlawn through this change.
Through a decision recently rendered in local courts the plot of ground known as Funk’s cemetery goes to Samuel B. Timmonds, of New York City. With the removal of the bodies the ground will be platted and another series of desirable building lots will be placed on the market.
Martin B. Funk was the grand-father of Mr. Timmonds. According to historians who were fond of writing about the early exploits of Mr. Funk, he at one time grasped the right hand of President George Washington and became engaged in an animated conversation with the first president of our country.
Each grave in this little silent city, which is about to be converted into building lots, is carefully marked and no confusion will be encountered in the removal of the bodies, according to Attorney Joseph T. Micklethwait, who is giving this matter his personal attention.
Mr. Timmonds will arrive here in the near future to take over the acre of ground and complete arrangements to place the lots on the market.
By agreement of counsel, the case of Julia B. Moore against Samuel B. Timmonds and forty-one other defendants, filed last July, involving the old abandoned cemetery established in 1838 by Martin Funk, was settled in the common pleas court late Wednesday. The cemetery is located on the north side of Kinney Lane, within 25 rods of Greenlawn cemetery, and contains about one acre. The cemetery contains the bodies of about 150 persons, several Revolutionary soldiers and man early settlers of this section being buried there. Now that it is unfenced and abandoned, the cemetery is a menace to public health, it was declared, and for this reason the suit was brought. The land is part of the Timmonds additions.
Portsmouth Daily Times Thursday, December 5, 1912 Cemetery Suit at Last Settled
Under the terms of the settlement Filmore Musser was appointed to have the remains moved from the cemetery to a lot already selected in Greenlawn cemetery and have new monuments erected at the graves of the ones who served in the Revolutionary war and the expense of this work will be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the tract as ordered by the court. A.H. Bannon, Ed J. Corson and Smith Grimes were named as appraisers.
The opposing attorneys were N.W. Evans and Jospeh T. Micklethwaite.