(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, COLL P0001, 1985:09:26-012.)

Before the nineteenth century, most burials took place in association with churchyards or family-owned lands. During the nineteenth century, cities saw the need to regulate more closely the burial of human remains. Public cemeteries became areas, usually on the periphery of cities, where families could “purchase” space for their loved one’s body to “rest.”