October 12, 2007

RIVERSIDE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION

P.O. Box 133

Bethel, Maine 04217

2007 Board of Directors

Donald Brooks, President

Musa Brown, Vice President

Roger Conant, Secretary – Treasurer

Mary Valentine

Donald Feeney

Ronald Snyder

Wilbur “Bill” Myers

Elizabeth Gilbert

Judith Coolidge

In 1890 the 2d Congregational Church society dissolved. The Mayville Cemetery which had been under the congregation’s care had no designated association to care for it.

In 1905, a new association was formed to take over cemetery care and make it a credit to the town.

The Preamble of the new association’s by-laws read as follows:

“For the purpose of better management and control of the Cemetery situated near “Mayville” in Bethel, Maine, the applicants have applied to Albert W. Grover a Justice of the Peace for the County of Oxford, State of Maine to be incorporated as a cemetery corporation under the name of Riverside Cemetery Association and the following is the Constitution and By-Laws to govern said corporation –“

Bethel Riverside Cemetery Association, Inc.

The following was extracted from the May 24, 1978 By-Laws.

Sec.1 The Association shall consist of not less than seven (7) members. It shall be known as the Bethel Riverside Cemetery Association Incorporated, as of April 1, 1957, recorded in the Office of the Secretary of State, Vol. 16 – Page 43, as a non-profit organization.

Sec.2 Any person owning and improving a lot shall be a member of the Association and be entitled to one (1) vote.

First meeting, April 29^th, 1905 for the election of officers:

President, S. B. Twitchell; Vice President, E.C. Chamberlain; Secretary and Treasurer, H.N. Upton; Directors: E.C. Chamberlain, H.C. Barker. E.L. Bartlett.

Treasurer’s Report: Bethel Savings Bank account No. 3603, $83.21, and Cash, $16.00 for a total of $99.21.

Riverside Cemetery is the largest of the town’s 14 cemeteries. Located on the north bank of the Androscoggin River in the town’s village of Mayville, it is adjacent to the Bethel Regional Airport and reached from U.S. Route 2 by taking the North Road. Although, Riverside Cemetery is the most active cemetery in the town at this time, the West Bethel Cemetery, Pine Grove Cemetery Association, is also active and has cleared more area for future burials. Another of the 14 cemeteries, one on Grover Hill in Bethel, has interred deceased military veterans in the last decade.

In mid 19^th Century, a congregational society formed in the cemetery’s section of Bethel and established the 2d Congregational Church of Bethel. About this time, the village around the church acquired the name of Mayville; soon thereafter the cemetery became known as Mayville Cemetery. The new church took on the job of cemetery oversight and maintenance.

Since the mid 20^th Century Riverside Cemetery has assumed the role of the town’s principal cemetery. According to cemetery association estimates, sufficient landscaped space is available to accommodate future burials for at least another 100 years.

Extracts of association minutes follow:

October 15, 1943: The Association received from Fred L. Edwards a piece of land about 10 rods wide and about 28 rods long opposite (across the Northwest Bethel Road) the cemetery and cemetery house lot. Paid Gerry Brooks ten dollars for making deed; and H.H.(?) Hastings six dollars for surveying same.

March 21, 1957: Following the application to incorporate and in accordance with the warrant issued there under the applicants met at the home of Kimball Ames, Bethel, Maine, March 21, 1957, at 7:30 P.M. having waived publication of the notice for the purpose of having the Riverside Cemetery Association Incorporated as a non-profit organization, The President presided.

Voted the name of the corporation to be Riverside Cemetery Association, Inc.,

Voted election of the following officers by the Secretary casting one ballot for:

President: Kimball Ames, Vice President: Charles Tuell, Secretary: Olive Douglass, Treasurer: Fred Douglass

Trustees: Harold Bennett, E.L. Brown, Albert Silver, Alice Taylor and Paul Thurston

Voted to adopt the former (1944) by-laws of the association and to appoint a committee of the officers to present revised by-laws at the annual meeting in May.

Voted the corporation to take over all assets, property, rights and privileges as well as liabilities, obligations and responsibilities of the former Riverside Cemetery Association and to operate the Association as a non-profit corporation in the same manner as in the past.

Voted to authorize the officers to prepare and file a certificate of this action as required by law.

Bethel Citizen, 4/26/1962: REAL ESTATE For Sale. House and barn at Riverside Cemetery to be removed. Send bids to Box 73, Bethel.

Bethel Citizen, July 5, 1962: The one-time Stowell buildings above Riverside Cemetery have been moved to the property of Henry Godwin at Mayville

Return to the Riverside Cemetery Home Page.