Jurisdiction:  Hagar Township Northeast Corner of Section 13

 

Established:  1839

 

Status:  Active.  BCGS Cemetery Records updated  August 2009.

 

Location:  South Side of Riverside Road

 

Cemetery Governing Body:  Hagar Township

 

Location of Cemetery Records: 

 

Size:  2.13 acres

 

Although the Berrien County land records have it listed as Clymer Cemetery, Harris Cemetery is tucked away on a hill with a small grove of trees on either side and a majestic ash tree some 14 feet wide at the entrance.            On April 21, 1875, Alinda Hazard, Matthais Farnum, Abby Emerson, Nancy A. Emerson and Jean Huysck deeded the land to the Hagar Board of Health and is still owned and cared for by Hagar Township.

 

The far south end of the cemetery contains the graves of the Farnum Family.  Mathais Farnum, the second permanent settler to Hagar Township, helped create Harris Cemetery and the first burial was that of Clarinda Farnum, who was born on December 8, 1850 and died on October 5, 1851.  A section in the back was used as a Potters Field.

 

Early sexton records were destroyed in a fire in the 1950’s and most have had to be recreated.  Berrien County Genealogical Society members David and Diane Savage transcribed the headstones in September of 1980 and at that time, they found 135 headstones.

 

The mystery of why Harris Cemetery was also called Clymer Cemetery has never been answered but some have speculated that it might have been named for Clymer School, which was 1 mile north of the cemetery.