Concentrated in sections along the bluff overlooking the Delaware River, Riverview Cemetery includes the works of a number of the nation’s leading monument firms that catered to the tastes of the city’s upper class. Among familiar names are Batterson, Canfield and Company of Hartford, Connecticut; McDonnell and Sons of Buffalo; New England Granite Works of Westerly, R.I.; Presbrey-Coykendall Company and its successor Presbrey-Leland Company, both of New York City; and Smith Granite Company of Westerly, R.I. , while not-as-distant are works from J.M. Gessler and Thomas Delahunty, both of Philadelphia. These firms complemented a number of others within the city that catered to a burgeoning middle class and whose works are found throughout all its sections.
A recently “discovered” cemetery ledger details the transactions for several thousand foundations, monuments, and markers for the period from 1906 to 1924. This illustrated paper will draw upon this ledger and other cemetery records, newspaper reports, and city directories, to provide an overview of the bustling activity at Riverview Cemetery during this 18-year period in the early-20th century.
About the presenterRichard A. Sauers
Cemetery historian at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton, N.J., and chair of MAPACA Death in American Culture.