A series of unauthorized burials at Hudson’s Sunnyside Cemetery dominated discussion at the April 20 meeting of the Cemetery Board of Trustees, prompting concerns about oversight, communication, and the legal status of burial rights at the historic site.
“Twice I’ve come on situations where I just happened to be there for something else,” said Secretary Christina Madden. “So I have no idea if other people were buried when I wasn’t there, but people were conducting burials.”
Madden described two recent incidents: one involving what she called a “do it yourself” burial in which individuals dug a hole and placed cremated remains in an urn without notifying the Trustees, and another involving Farwell Funeral Home, which conducted a burial for Frederick Fuller on a Saturday without the Board’s knowledge.
“We had no knowledge of these burials, and we still have no proof those two burials were actually authorized, since we have no deeds,” Madden said.
Sunnyside Cemetery is officially closed to new burials, except for individuals who already own a deeded plot. The Trustees emphasized that this policy has been in place since the Town of Hudson assumed responsibility for the cemetery.
“That is really the problem, people coming in and they’re not telling the Cemetery Trustees,” Madden said. “People are claiming they had no idea the cemetery had been turned over to the town as their defense. What is a troubling problem is that people are saying, ‘Fred told me I could go bury here,’ with no other authorization. That is a problem.”
Chair Daniel Barthelemy reiterated that no new plots are being sold, and only documented, deeded burial rights are valid.
“Just to clarify, we’re not selling any further plots. There are no additional plots available,” Barthelemy said. “Any plots that have been sold in the past prior to the town taking over the cemetery would need a deed before they’re allowed to be buried. If there were any handshake deals that happened without paperwork in decades past, we don’t have any documentation on that.”
To prevent further unauthorized burials, Madden recommended a formal notification process.
“We need to have a formal notification, and we need to send a formal letter to all of the local area funeral homes so that they can’t say they didn’t know,” she said. “Maybe we should somehow put a sign up at each entrance basically saying that Sunnyside is a town cemetery and is closed to burials, contact Cemetery Trustees or something like that. At least then there’s something there.”
At Barthelemy’s suggestion, the Trustees unanimously voted to issue a public notice and send formal letters to surrounding funeral homes. A second vote approved the installation of signage at the cemetery entrances.
While these steps are intended to curb the problem, Trustee Mel Gannon raised questions about enforcement.
“If we run into this issue again where we show up and someone is doing a burial, what should we do about this? What actions should we be able to take?” Gannon asked. “What actions can we take?”
She also expressed concern about potential legal disputes involving old, undocumented burial agreements. Barthelemy acknowledged the possibility but said the Board must rely on clear documentation.
“As far as the other side, them coming after us and saying, ‘We have a legal right to bury here’ – that’s fine,” Barthelemy said. “As soon as you provide us that legal right, you can bury here. Until you provide us something that proves your legal right, then we can’t allow it.”
The Trustees indicated that trespassing charges could be considered in extreme cases, though they hoped the new notification measures would prevent future conflicts.