Riverside Cemetery is a cemetery located in

Fairhaven, Massachusetts Fairhaven (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a New England town, town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzz ...

at 274 Main Street. Laid out in the rural style, it was established in 1850 by

Warren Delano II Warren Delano Jr. (July 13, 1809 – January 17, 1898) was an American merchant and drug smuggler who made a large fortune smuggling illegal opium into China. He was the maternal grandfather of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Early li ...

, the grandfather of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

History

By the late 1840s Fairhaven's old burial ground, established in 1771 and later known as the Railroad Cemetery, could no longer accommodate the increasing population of the town which had become a center for shipping and the whale industry. In addition, the Fairhaven Branch Railroad was being planned which would require closing part of the old burial ground.

purchased 14 acres of farm land in 1847 which was destined for the building of a new cemetery and gifted it to the town of Fairhaven. The cemetery was consecrated on July 7, 1850 with 1000 people in attendance. The first burial there was Mary Evans Delano who had died at the age of 15. When the railway came to the town in the mid-1850s, half of the bodies in the Railroad Cemetery were moved to Riverside. Eventually, all the remaining bodies there were re-interred at Riverside. A sexton's cottage was built in 1881 and is one of the rare examples of the Eastlake architectural style in the area. Delano purchased a further five acres of farmland in 1889 to enlarge the cemetery. In 1893, Frances Mills was the first African-American to be buried there.Harris, Charles A. (1947)
''Old-Time Fairhaven''
pp. 221–222; 244–245; 249. Reynolds Printing Massachusetts Historical Commission (1981)
MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Fairhaven
p. 11 The cemetery was enlarged again in 1905 and now encompasses 44 acres. It is run as a charitable corporation and has also incorporated Naskatucket Cemetery, another 18th century burial ground in Fairhaven.

Notable burials and monuments

A monument designed by George F. Meacham to commemorate the soldiers and sailors from Fairhaven who had died in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

was erected in the cemetery in 1868. Twenty members of the

Delano family In the United States, members of the Delano family include U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, and writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Its progenitor is Phili ...

, including Warren Delano I and Warren Delano II, are buried in the Delano family tomb. The tomb was erected in 1859 and designed by

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 ...

.Riverside Cemetery and Crematorium
A Brief History of Riverside Cemetery
Retrieved 9 February 2018.

Henry Huttleston Rogers Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was an American industrialist and financier. He made his fortune in the oil refining business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil. He also played a major role in numerous corporations a ...

, his wife Abbie G. Rogers, and three of their children are interred in a mausoleum erected in 1893 which was designed by

Charles Brigham Charles Brigham (June 21, 1841 – July 1925) was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts. Life Brigham was born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts schools and graduated at age 15 in 1856 in the first class of Wa ...

after an ancient temple to

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

. Other notable burials include: * William Bradford (1823–1892), artist and photographer * William Howell Forbes (1837–1896), businessman and uncle of

* William Foster Nye (1824–1910), founder of a lubricating oil business still in existence today and known as Nye Lubricants. *

Warren Delano Robbins Warren Delano Robbins (September 3, 1885 – April 7, 1935) was an American diplomat and first cousin of President of the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1931 to 1933 an ...

(1885–1935), diplomat and first cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. * Noah Stoddard (1755–1850),

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

who distinguished himself during the American Revolution * George W. Weymouth (1850–1910),

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from Massachusetts * William H. Whitfield (1804–1886), the sea captain who rescued

Nakahama Manjirō , also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was a Japanese samurai and translator who was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Bakumatsu, opening of Japan.* He was a fisherman bef ...

from a shipwreck in 1841 and supervised his education in Fairhaven.

References

External links

* * {{Find a Grave cemetery , id= 91515, name= Riverside Cemetery 1850 establishments in Massachusetts Cemeteries in Bristol County, Massachusetts Fairhaven, Massachusetts Cemeteries established in the 1850s