CHAPTER 196 - CEMETERIES
AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE DISINTERRING AND REINTER-RING UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE STATE BOTRD OF HEALTH OF BODIES BURIED IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE BURYING GROUNDS WHICH HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED BY THE STATE OR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE PURPOSES OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT AND PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN REGULATIONS PERTAINING THERETO.
WHEREAS, human bodies supposed to number approximately 400 and upwards have been interred at intervals during the years between 1867 and 1935 in the burying ground known as Mt. Pisgah Union American Methodist Episcopal Church Burying Ground, near Summit Bridge, Delaware, the dates of interment, the causes of death, and the names of the individuals so interred in many cases now being unknown;
AND WHEREAS, said burying ground has been condemned and taken by the United States of America for purposes of public improvement;
AND WHEREAS, an award has been rendered and set aside in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in the sum of Twelve Thousand Three Hundred Dollars ($12,300.00) for the removal of said bodies and their reinterment in another cemetery or cemeteries;
AND WHEREAS, the State Board of Health has advised that the public health will not be endangered by the removal of said bodies;
Now be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
That the State Board of Health is hereby authorized and directed to modify and relax its regulations and restrictions relative to the disinterring and reinterring of dead bodies, including the securing of separate disinterment and transfer permits of the bodies in those cases where the bodies are in public or private burying grounds which have been condemned by the State of Delaware or the United States Government for the purposes of public improvement, in order to enable the carrying into effect of complete removals in such cases, to the full extent that the same can be accomplished, in the opinion of said Board, by licensed undertakers under its supervision and without jeopardizing the public health.
Approved April 29, 1937.