In May 1873, Riverview Cemetery Company Board of Trustees purchased 222 trees from J.B. Cline a New York nurseryman for $222.00. These trees were planted along the Main Avenue within the cemetery.
In 1921, the Board of Trustees of the First and Central Presbyterian Church made an agreement with the Riverview Cemetery Company to move the cemetery remains in their adjoining churchyard (on Market Street between 9th and 10th ) to section H, west side at Riverview Cemetery. This 200 year old cemetery was moved so that the land could be sold by the church. The Wilmington Free Library was built and still stands at that location today.
In the May 6, 1963 Riverview Cemetery Board of Trustees Minutes: Mrs. Clara Wallace Eyre of the Caesar Rodney Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) requested permission to copy the records of burials in Riverview Cemetery and send the copies to the DAR Library in Washington, DC. This request was granted by the Board. - (Note:) These records have not been found.
The public mausoleum has the remains of 246 people. The first funeral was held in the mausoleum in 1917 and the last one in May 2002. As you will notice on the cemetery map (www.Riverviewcem.com) there are five private family mausoleums on the West Side. These include: Todd, McDonough & Porter, Scott & Tharp, Stoeckle, and Dayett.
From it's beginning, Riverview Cemetery provided a dignified final resting place to everyone. Did you know there is a potter's field of public graves on the East Side near the old garage? Almost 5000 people are interred there many of whom are children and some of whom died in mass epidemics.
Riverview's early interment books list cause of death and some terms such as Apoplexy, Dropsy, Bright's Disease, and La Grippe were not familiar to us. So we have defined a few terms: Apoplexy was used to describe any sudden death that began with a sudden loss of consciousness; heart attack and ruptured cerebral or aortic aneurysms fall under this category. Dropsy or edema refer to the same condition; an increase in interstitial fluid in any organ resulting in swelling. Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases first described in 1827. La Grippe was one of several names used to describe the influenza that caused a flu pandemic in 1918.
The Riverview Cemetery website was created and is maintained by:
Russ Pickett Page Last Updated: 11/4/2008
