Search Michigan Death Records

•  Michigan Newspapers, Full Search (1817-2018), 293 titles
•  Michigan Obituary Search, (1869-current)
•  Michigan Birth Records Database, (1817-1999)

 

Riverside Cemetery
Saugatuck, Allegan County, Michigan

GPS: 42.668939, -86.190958

Blue Star Highway & Clearbrook Drive.
Saugatuck, MI 49453

Date published: March 17, 2004
Total records: 2,971

Riverside Cemetery is owned and managed by Saugatuck Township.

Take I-196 12 miles South of Holland, MI to the Saugatuck/Douglas Exit 41. At the stop sign turn South (right) on Hwy A2 (Blue Star Highway) for 1.3 miles. Then turn West (right) on Clearbrook Drive and directly on the Southern (left) side of Clearbrook Drive is the Saugatuck Riverside Cemetery.

History

When the first settlers arrived in Saugatuck in 1830 there was an old Indian cemetery on "The Flats," the level area at the foot of a hill located near the present day City Hall. Settlers began using the area for burials.

By 1869 a decision was made to have all graves in the old cemetery removed, either by family or the authorities from the location in town, to a better location and most went to the present cemetery site. Records for the new cemetery show burials beginning in 1864.

For many years this cemetery was just known as the Saugatuck Cemetery, but in a 1920 letter in the Commercial Record it was proposed that the cemetery be named, and offered the suggestion "Riverside." This was adopted, though the cemetery is not near the river.

The remains of the Indian cemetery were excavated during some construction, in 1930, at the Saugatuck centennial celebration, a boulder with a bronze plaque in "Memory of the First Indian Burying Ground, 1800 to 1850" was dedicated and a few remains were reburied in a mound nearby.

Cemetery Records

Contributed by Aaron Sheridan, Mar 17, 2004, last edited Sep 30, 2011 [aarons@saugatucktownship.org]. This transcription is from the township cemetery records, and is a complete updated list for all records for this cemetery.

Surname Index:

• Surnames A-G
• Surnames H-O
• Surnames P-Z
• Miscellaneous Records