Riverview Cemetery
Canton, GA
Established c. 1844
ABOUT
Riverview Cemetery is a historic privately managed cemetery consisting of family-owned lots and individual graves under the management, and receiving general maintenance, by Riverview Cemetery Association, Inc.
Please contact the Riverview Cemetery Association relative to all internments, lot constructions or other matters affecting the cemetery property, as well as for Association membership and family contact information updates.
Riverview Cemetery is located on the periphery of the business district of Canton, Georgia, behind the historic marble Courthouse and Justice Center buildings. The property is partially surrounding the Cherokee Arts Center (former Canton First Methodist Church) located at 94 North Street.
Riverview Cemetery is open to the public during daylight hours as a place of tranquil reflection and historic research. Pedestrian traffic is encouraged. Roadways are narrow and unimproved, with access limited to family and service vehicles.
A directory of known burial history and general grave locations is available for download or from the Association via email inquiry. Many graves are unidentified. Mapping, area designations and improved historic family lot descendant contact information are Association goals.
Riverview cemetery was originally established on donated land around the year 1844 and was generally known as Canton Cemetery. The original cemetery was expanded by private development beginning around 1923, and continuing through the 1960's, under the name River-View Cemetery, although records from this development are scarce. Riverview Cemetery Association was established and incorporated by local concerned citizens and various cemetery lot owners to provide maintenance and oversight in 1989. Association membership includes known family representatives and descendants.
There are no new lots or grave sites available for purchase in Riverview Cemetery at the current time.
Riverview Cemetery Association is a domestic nonprofit Georgia corporation with IRS 501(c)(13) recognition. Donations to the Association are welcomed.
Riverview Cemetery is not a perpetual care cemetery as defined by current terminology. The Association strives to provide grass mowing and general landscape care, as well as care for individual grave burial areas. Upkeep of family owned lots, including wall and monument upkeep and landscape ground coverage, is the responsibility of family descendants.
Origins and Association Development
Riverview Cemetery began with a donation of property for a public cemetery prior to the first known burial, which occurred in 1844, by Judge Joseph Donaldson of Canton. Over the years the cemetery was referred to as Canton Cemetery, City Cemetery, and Town Cemetery. This property surrounded the former Canton Methodist Church building on three sides, with the oldest section located at the top of the hill to the west, then to the east, and finally directly behind the building. Although on adjacent land, there is no record or claim of the cemetery having any known connection or involvement with the church itself.
Additional adjoining property further to the west of the original cemetery was procured by W. L. (Will) Blackwell, a Canton realtor, who created a River View Cemetery development plan in 1923 and had Power of Attorney to sell family plots for individual family development and upkeep. The proposed plan was never fully developed relative to driveways and infrastructure. No known records from these sales have been discovered beyond deeds that have been retained by family members. There was no known perpetual care agreement in association with the plot sales, and no known attempt to formally integrate the new and old cemetery areas.
Following the gradual conclusion of plot sales and the death of Mr. Blackwell, the entire cemetery was left without oversight or management.
Seeing the need for maintaining the ensuing, and by then neglected cemetery, along with the need to establish a record of families and burial locations, local citizens with ancestry ties to the cemetery began researching burial data and the means for funding minimal overall property maintenance.
The current Riverview Cemetery Association was begun following an organizational meeting at the home of Marjorie and Elizabeth Johnston where the following
association officers were elected: William G. (Bill) Hasty, Sr., President; J. O. Garrett, Vice President; Jeanette Bobo Williams, Secretary; and William A. (Bill) Teasley, Treasurer. The Association became a non-profit cemetery corporation of the State of Georgia in 1989 and obtained tax-exempt 501 (c)(13) approval in 1990.
Bylaws were developed, amended and approved in 1991. The first Directory appears to have been published in 1995. The association functioned for many recent years under the almost sole leadership of Bill Teasley, Bill Hasty Sr. and (later) Billy Hasty, Jr.
Gradually the original members of the Executive Committee changed with new leadership from families buried in Riverview. Brian Groves, President; Ann Fincher, Secretary; Cliff Owen, Treasurer all took office on 1/1/2019 with Dan Owen, Manager of Property, remaining on the Executive Board from previously. Betsy Teasley Trope agreed to be Vice President in name only to fulfill a grant request. Sandra Henry, after several years of active volunteering, was voted as new Vice President in May, 2024 to help with organizational and marketing goals. This active volunteer executive board meets monthly to conduct the business of Riverview Cemetery.
Please contact Riverview Cemetery Association members relative to corrections or additions. If you own a plot and have a loved one buried there, the Association appreciates your upkeep of your property. General maintenance oversight consists of mowing where possible, prevention of further deterioration as much as possible on a limited budget, and setting work days by members to remove debris and care of headstones. Many families repair their walls and other infrastructure, as there is no perpetual care at this time, and also generously give donations for general upkeep.
Donations are always welcome. If you enjoy this lovely green space in downtown Canton, you may give at any time through this website with Zelle or by sending a check to treasurer Cliff Owen, 136 Breeze Hill Lane, Canton, GA 30114. Be sure if you use Zelle, that you send your name/email address as the donor to clowen1@hotmail.com so your gift can be acknowledged. Thank you!
Revised June, 2026