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Cemetery

St. James Township Cemetery

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

Locator map: Township of Saint James highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Township of Saint JamesLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
TypeCemetery
Coordinates45.7510° N, 85.5154° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
WithinTownship of Saint James
ErasModern era
On this page
Locator map: Township of Saint James highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago
Within Township of Saint JamesLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.
Cemetery
Coordinates
45.7510° N, 85.5154° WGoogle MapsDownload KML
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
communitydemographyheritage
Within
Township of Saint James

Summary

St. James Township Cemetery is a current mapped cemetery in Township of Saint James. It is documented by direct local reporting spanning 1963 to 2010: annual cleanup, named burials at graveside services for both Catholic and Protestant islanders, and a shared veteran-grave marking program with Holy Cross Cemetery. The held OSM polygon supplies a current volunteer-mapped location for the exactly named feature.

History

Beaver Beacon notices naming the cemetery directly span 1963 to 2010, recording routine maintenance and individual burials rather than a foundational history. An annual cleaning in June 1963 is reported alongside the same year’s cleaning of the separate Holy Cross Cemetery and the public swimming beach.

Several of the reported burials follow the same seasonal pattern: a death in winter, with interment deferred to spring. Mrs. Herman Pischner (printed once as “Fischner”), 78, a pioneer island resident, died in early February 1963; services were held February 5, with burial at St. James Township Cemetery deferred to spring and completed in May. Carl “Pete the Swede” Petersen, 76, died January 4, 1966, at Little Traverse Hospital in Petoskey; his body was placed in the mausoleum at Brookside Cemetery, Petoskey, over the winter, with burial at St. James Township Cemetery following in late May 1966. Martin Arthur Larsen was buried there in June 1964. Hattie P. Narigaw, 90, a longtime island resident, died March 27, 1977; her funeral Mass was held at St. Francis Xavier Church in Petoskey, with graveside services at St. James Township Cemetery on May 14. Sybil E. Larson, 86, of St. James, was buried there in October 1983 following funeral services at Beaver Island’s Christian Church — evidence, alongside Narigaw’s Petoskey Catholic funeral Mass, that the cemetery is not tied to a single congregation the way the parish-affiliated Holy Cross Cemetery is. The most recent named burial in the held record is Grant A. Cruickshank, age 15, of Clawson, who died June 12, 1977, at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak and was given graveside services on June 16, conducted by Gary Story of Lansing.

By the 2000s the cemetery appears in the Beacon as part of a shared community stewardship effort rather than in individual burial notices: 2006 and 2010 items ask residents to report any veteran’s grave without a flag, at either Holy Cross Cemetery or St. James Township Cemetery, to Brian and Dee Gallagher of AmVets Post 46 and its Auxiliary, who are also named as members of the Holy Cross Cemetery Committee — evidence that flag placement and at least some maintenance concern for both island cemeteries by that date ran through overlapping volunteers.

Significance

As the island’s principal non-parish cemetery, St. James Township Cemetery appears to have served islanders and long-term residents outside the Catholic Holy Cross parish community, including at least one funeral held at the island’s Christian Church. The repeated winter-death, spring-burial pattern in the 1960s and 1970s notices reflects the practical difficulty of digging graves in frozen ground on the island during the closed winter navigation season, when moving equipment or holding a graveside service would also have been harder to arrange.

Evidence and limits

These are event-specific burial and maintenance attestations, not a complete cemetery register, and this article does not attempt to compile one. Several of the named burials are of people with mainland or downstate addresses rather than resident islanders, but the held notices do not state who is eligible for burial here or how that differs from Holy Cross Cemetery’s parish burials. The February 1963 notice spells the pioneer resident’s name “Fischner,” where the May 1963 notice used for the same burial elsewhere in this record gives “Pischner”; this article does not resolve which spelling is correct.

The OSM polygon is current map evidence, not a legal boundary, title record, operating authority, or claim of public access. No held source supplies a founding date, plot map, total burial count, or a complete history of the cemetery; no GNIS feature or GLO plat record for it was found in the held retrievals. This article deliberately does not attempt to reconstruct plot locations or a burial inventory beyond the individually named, already publicly reported burials above.

The separate Beaver Island Township cemetery article preserves a 1960 obituary’s different cemetery label. The held sources do not directly establish that it is this mapped cemetery, so the records are intentionally not merged.

Open questions

  • When was the cemetery established, and under what township or civic authority?
  • Is there a plot map, sexton’s register, or total burial count anywhere in township or Historical Society records?
  • Does the 1960 “Beaver Island Township Cemetery” label in Beaver Island Township cemetery refer to this same ground, an older name for it, or a distinct site?
  • Which spelling, “Pischner” or “Fischner,” is correct for the pioneer resident buried in 1963?

See also

Sources

  1. Current OSM way 579044374 is a polygon tagged landuse=cemetery and named “Saint James Township Cemetery.” The listed coordinates are the project-calculated polygon centroid. This volunteered map record is not a surveyed boundary, burial register, ownership record, or access statement.
    osm · cemeteries
  2. PIN 013-222-021-00 is owned by TOWNSHIP OF ST JAMES, carries current situs 38303 Gallagher Ave, and has the listed representative point used as the current cemetery parcel anchor. It closely agrees with the OSM cemetery polygon centroid, but is not a surveyed burial boundary or complete plot record.
    county · charlevoix · parcels_arcgis · 2026-08-01 · island_parcel_attributes
  3. Reports that St. James Township Cemetery received annual cleaning. It does not give a boundary, burial list, maintenance record, or responsible entity.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-06_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1963-06_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Reports Pischner’s return to Beaver Island for burial in St. James Township Cemetery and graveside services on May 3. It gives no plot location or independent cemetery register.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-05_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1963-05_Beaver-Beacon
  7. Reports Larsen’s June 6 burial in St. James Township Cemetery. It does not give a plot or verify current cemetery boundaries.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-06_Beaver-Beacon
  8. The held five-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1964-06_Beaver-Beacon
  9. Reports graveside services at St. James Township Cemetery on May 27. It does not provide a burial register or plot location.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1966-06_Beaver-Beacon
  10. The held seven-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1966-06_Beaver-Beacon
  11. Reports that Grant A. Cruickshank, age 15, of Clawson, died June 12, 1977 at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, and was given graveside services in St. James Township Cemetery on June 16, conducted by Gary Story of Lansing. It gives no plot location or independent cemetery register. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    beaver_beacon · 1977-06_Beaver-Beacon
  12. The held issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published obituary.
    beaver_beacon · issues · 1977-06_Beaver-Beacon
  13. Reports Mrs. Herman Fischner, 78, a pioneer island resident, died in early February 1963; services held February 5; burial at St. James Township Cemetery deferred to spring. Spells the surname "Fischner," differing from "Pischner" in the May 1963 notice for what appears to be the same burial.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1963-02_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Reports Petersen, 76, died January 4, 1966, at Little Traverse Hospital, Petoskey; his body was placed in the mausoleum at Brookside Cemetery, Petoskey, pending spring burial at St. James Township Cemetery, completed per the already-cited June 1966 notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1966-01_Beaver-Beacon
  15. Reports Hattie P. Narigaw, 90, a longtime island resident, died March 27, 1977; funeral Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church, Petoskey; graveside services at St. James Township Cemetery on May 14. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1977-04_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Reports Sybil E. Larson, 86, of St. James, Beaver Island, buried at St. James Township Cemetery in October 1983 following services at Beaver Island's Christian Church. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1983-11_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Beaver Beacon, July 2006, veteran-grave flag notice.
    Asks residents to report unflagged veterans' graves at either Holy Cross Cemetery or St. James Township Cemetery to Brian and Dee Gallagher of AmVets Post 46/Auxiliary and the Holy Cross Cemetery Committee. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-07_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Beaver Beacon, June 2010, veteran-grave flag notice.
    Repeats the veteran-grave flag request for both cemeteries four years later, with the same contacts. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2010-06_Beaver-Beacon

Added 2 August 2026 · revised 6 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “St. James Township Cemetery”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/structures/st-james-township-cemetery/, accessed [date], citing OpenStreetMap contributors, cemetery features via Overpass API, retrieved 2026-08-01 (ODbL 1.0). (and 17 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-06. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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