Jurisdiction: Niles Township Section 20
Established:
Status: BCGS Cemetery Records include information up to August 6, 2012
Location: Morris Road West of Harrah Road on Private Property
Cemetery Governing Body: Niles Township
Location of Cemetery Records: None
Size:
Harrah Road/Ives Cemetery is part of the former Morris Farm complex, turned Bob-O-Lou Farm built by the late E. M. Morris. In 1975, Mrs. Judd Leighton, daughter of E. M. Morris, owned the farm. Left unattended, the cemetery has been the victim of much vandalism and natural deterioration and many stones are in disarray.
Timothy H. Ives immigrated with his wife and 8 children to Niles Township in August of 1835 from Tioga County, Pennsylvania. They settled on the bank of the St. Joseph River in section 29. The family lived there until 1878. From “The Berrien County Record” Tales of an Old Town Installment #196, which originally ran from 1939 to 1944, W. C. Hawes writes:
“The best-kept rural burying plot in the vicinity of Buchanan is the old Ives Cemetery on the Morris estate east of Buchanan. There, where E. M. Morris reconstructed that beautiful replica of the old church at Williamsburg, Virginia is a cluster of 23 marked graves, those of Timothy Ives and wife and his descendants and in-laws. And here’s the story, those 23 graves have the following inmates: Timothy Ives, died at age 63, Sophia, his wife, died at 79, six women, all wives but one, who died at ages ranging from 26 to 39, mostly around 30, four men who died under 40, 11 children, all of whom died in infancy and nearly all at less than 1 year old. Just to the northeast of the foot of Father Timothy’s grave was that of a daughter, Edith, wife of R. Wade. She died at the age of 39, a year after the passing of her father, and on the headstone was inscribed (probably at her own request),
“Here at my father’s feet I lie”.
Another daughter was Pamelia, wife of Joshua Covert, who died at 30 years. On her gravestone is the following verse, probably the original contribution of her spouse or someone else:
“Your friends this lonesome way will pass
And with a sigh move slow along,
Still gazing o’er the spears of grass
With which your grave is overgrown”
David Savage, member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society, transcribed the few stones that were left in the summer of 1975. Of those remaining, the surnames visible were Ives, Ware/Wade and Wynn. The earliest burial visible during this time was that of Almira Ives, who died on November 29, 1818 at the age of 30 years and 9 days.
Written By Chriss Lyon
