RIVERSIDE CEMETERY

Inscription

RIVERSIDE CEMETERY
LAND DEEDED IN 1821 BY
FREDERICK & KATHARINE BROWN.
EARLY RESIDENTS & VETERANS OF
REVOLUTIONARY WAR & LATER
WARS INTERRED HERE.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

In 1821, Frederick and Katharine Brown deeded two acres of land for the express purposes of a meeting house, parsonage, and a burial ground to the trustees of a Presbyterian congregation in what was then the town of Milford in Otsego County, New York. The congregation, which had formed around 1815, had recently constructed a meeting house on the Browns’ land. According to the 1878 History of Otsego County, New York, before the meeting house was completed, church services were originally held in Frederick Brown’s barn on the property.

In 1830, the town of Oneonta was formed from parts of Milford, Otego, and Huntsville. By 1870, the burial ground had been taken over from the Presbyterian church by the recently established Riverside Cemetery Association.

With burials dating before the founding of Oneonta itself, Riverside Cemetery includes over 2,000 burials and serves as the resting place for early residents and veterans. Brothers William and Thomas Morenus, veterans of the Revolutionary War, are buried in Riverside, and a 1914 memorial placed by the Oneonta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution stands in honor of nine additional veterans of the Revolutionary War believed to be buried here. Riverside Cemetery is also the resting place for at least 160 veterans of the Civil War, and veterans of World War I and World War II.