Friends of Riverside Cemetery

Preserving A Legacy for the Future

The Friends of Riverside Cemetery recognize that the expensive and laborious task of maintaining a community asset falls on all of us, all the time. This is reflected in our mission:

“To Preserve and Promote the Physical Beauty and Financial Health of Our Community’s Historic, Independent, Non-Sectarian Cemetery.”

Friends of Riverside is a 501(c)3 registered organization, so all donations are tax-deductible. This aid helps defray the enormous, and ever rising, expenses of maintaining the extensive grounds, roadways, bridges, ponds, and historic structures that make our cemetery such a serene place.

While the cemetery is a self-sustaining entity, it is occasionally confronted with large projects outside of its annual budget capacity. At these times, assistance from the Friends of Riverside is most needed.

Please contact us at friendsofriverside@gmail.com for more information.

...if you would like to donate...

We would be very grateful for your help. You can send a check to:

Riverside Cemetery

4024 County Route 57

Oswego, NY 13126

Or you can donate securely through PayPal using the button below. No account at PayPal is necessary to use this option.

Thank You!

The Story of Henry Oakley

Henry Oakley appears in an 1859 directory of Oswego as living on Utica Street near East Third Street. Instead of being listed with an occupation, like his neighbors, he is listed simply as “colored”. And yet, Henry is buried on a quiet lane just off one of the most prestigious sections of the cemetery.

Henry was a trusted employee of a very prominent citizen and became more like a member of the family than a servant. When he died, the family wanted to bury Henry in Riverside. Polite society, however, was scandalized by the proposed inclusion of a colored man in a traditionally white cemetery. Certainly, they said, he couldn’t be included among the wealthy, and white, graves. But Henry’s fans won out - to an extent. Since 1887, Henry Oakley has rested in a large plot on a shady lane just steps from the most prominent citizens of Oswego.