Mouth Cemetery

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Old Channel Trail & Bayou

White River Township

Sec. 35, T11N, R18W

History

A village flourished at the old Mouth for nearly forty years.  When lumbering died, it died with it, and Boom Town, suddenly dead.  It was variously known as “Stump” or “Stump Post Office”, as “Ferrysville”, and the “White Haven”, and more familiarly as the “Mouth”.

A first name may allude to the fact that a hollow stump was used as a repository of the mail as it came up the beach from Grand Haven.  The second was the name that the Ferry’s tried to attach to the settlement after they had a steam mill there.  Just as the men of the lake called the mouth of the Grand River, Grand Haven, so they called the mouth of the White River, White Haven.

When, however, the government established a post office there in 1854, the first one on the lake, they named it the White River Post Office.

The plat of the village, as recorded, is under the name of the White River Village.  It was, however, known probably to more people as just the “Mouth” just as the school at the top of the hill and the cemetery by it, are still know to this day as the Mouth School and the Mouth Cemetery.

The oldest settler buried there is Quis-Mo-Qua, an Ottawa woman born in an Indian settlement on Grand River, who came to White Lake when a little girl.  Her birth was believed to be in 1787 and she died December 12, 1897.  She married an Ottawa Indian who chose the surname of Anderson.

Their daughter, She-Ka-Gaw, married a man named Armstrong and descendants of their two sons, Thomas and George still live in the White Lake area.  Another old timer, buried there, is Captain William Robinson, the first lighthouse keeper of White Lake.  He was the father of Mrs. William Murray.  His grave lies in a shady secluded spot with most of the ground covered with myrtle, just off Old Channel Trail.

(From the White Lake Area Historical Society book)

Thank you to Barbara Johnson, Linda Brandt and Peggy Smith for all the hard work taking and submitting the photos. 

For photos see www.findagrave.com