Jacob M. Taylor, “late [a] farmer” and director of several companies, conceived the idea of establishing a cemetery in Trenton on the highlands above the Delaware River at the southern edge of the city sometime in 1857. He presented his plan to William M. Force, a merchant; John K. Smith, a retired iron manufacturer; Isaac Stephens, a merchant; David Witherup, a carpenter by trade and an incorporator and superintendent of Mercer Cemetery; and William S. Yard, a blacksmith and railing maker; and they together founded Riverview Cemetery on January 16, 1858.
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| A portion of the “Sixth Ward of the City of Trenton” map published by Everts and Stewart, Philadelphia, in 1875. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress |
The Riverview Cemetery Corporation, a stock company, was incorporated by an act of the state legislature on February 28, 1858, and the newly formed Cemetery immediately set about constructing avenues and pathways on the grounds, then but a few acres that encompassed the Friends’ Burying Ground, along with the planting of trees.
From these modest beginnings, Riverview Cemetery is today comprised of some 40 acres that are beautifully landscaped with trees, shrubs, and flowers, all of which complement a fine collection of 19th and 20th-century funerary art and architecture.
