White Lake area’s Mouth Cemetery, solemn and perhaps slightly eerie.

Grave of Capt. William Robinson III

Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake and the Mason County Historical Society, which operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum, Historic White Pine Village and the Rose Hawley Archives in downtown Ludington.

Editor’s Note: I tend to focus on history that is related to Mason County. But, as a person who loves to explore cemeteries, the Mouth Cemetery near Montague is worth a visit and worth discussing its history.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

WHITE RIVER TOWNSHIP, Muskegon County — I normally see cemeteries as solemn places that hold a lot of history, telling stories of the people who made up a community. That certainly is the case of Mouth Cemetery as well. However, it also skirts on the edge of eery as well.

Fittingly, it is located at the end of Sunset Lane, a dirt road that is accessed behind the former Mouth Elementary School, which had been part of the Montague School District. Sunset Lane is a narrow, wood covered dirt road that winds past various homes that are tucked back in the woods.

The cemetery’s grounds are unkept. When I visited about three weeks ago ferns covered most of the grounds. A Michigan historical marker greets visitors commemorating that the graveyard is the oldest in Muskegon County.

According to the White Lake Historical Society, the cemetery was established in 1837. However, records between 1848 to 1859 are missing. In a published WLHS essay written by Barbara Bedau Brow, the oldest marked grave is that of Christian Merke, who died on Nov. 17,  1851. Other sources state that the oldest grave is that of Sarah Jane Beatrice who died on Feb. 28, 1851.

The oldest known settler buried is Quis Mo Qua, an Ottawa woman born in 1787 in a Native American settlement on the Grand River. according to Brow, Quis Mo Qua came to the White Lake area as a young girl. She married an Ottawa man who went by the surname of Anderson and she died on Dec. 12, 1897 at the age of 110.

Brow states in her essay that a Native American village was located near the mouth of the White River with legend referring to a massacre between tribes occurring on the north shore of White Lake in the mid-1600s. She states that many of those who died are buried in unmarked graves (but the article isn’t clear if she means that those who died are buried at the site of the cemetery).

The area of Mouth was once an established lumber town. Additionally, the nearby White River Light Station was built in 1875, about a mile from the cemetery.

The most notable, and most well-maintained area of the cemetery, is the Robinson family plots, the decedents of Capt. William Robinson II, father of Capt. William Robinson III, first keeper of the White River Light Station.

The Robinson family plot

William Robinson II (1800-1872) was born in Tynemouth, England. In 1854, he left England for the United States, along with his wife, Ann (Sanderson) Robinson (1807-1888) along with six family members. They settled in the White Lake area in northern Muskegon County.

William and Ann’s son, William Robinson III was born on Sept. 14, 1831 in Tynemouth, England. On May 4, 1852 he married Sarah J. Cooper (1833-1891) in Tynemouth. They immigrated to the US in 1866, along with their eight children. They had five more children after arriving in Michigan.

Capt. William Robinson III

William III and his sons worked at sawmills to support the family. When the U.S. government established a lighthouse at the channel to White Lake in 1875, he became its first keeper, a job he kept until the year he died at the age of 87. The Robinsons raised 13 children at the lighthouse.

Sarah Robinson, died on Oct. 20, 1891 at the age of 58.

A Nov. 26, 1907 article in the Muskegon Daily Chronicle featured the Robinson family. The article stated that William Robinson had been maintaining the light for 36 years, which would mean he began in 1871 (however, most historical accounts list the lighthouse as being built in 1875).

Sarah Robinson

“A rugged weather-beaten face framed in a rim of white hair beneath a cap of blue looked fearlessly out above a short blue jacket shining with brass buttons in this city yesterday and Muskegon saw Captain William Robinson, probably the oldest lighthouse keeper in this state,” the article states.

William Robinson’s son, Thomas Robinson, was the keeper of the Muskegon lighthouse. Another son, George Robinson, was the keeper of the Ludington lighthouse. His grandson, Thomas Robinson, Jr., was the assistant lighthouse keeper in Manistee.

In addition, other grandsons and sons-in-law, including Henry Berg, were members of lifesaving crews in Muskegon, Michigan City, Ind., and Chicago.

“It is a family of sturdy English stock, brave enough to face any storm in any weather to preserve the life of a human being,” the article states.

“Captain Robinson came to Muskegon on his brief trip yesterday to visit an aged sister, Mrs. Isabelle Briggs, who is a patient at Hackley hospital. He was accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. G.E. Bush of White River, and brother, Robert Robinson of Grand Rapids.”

William Bush, grandson of William Robinson, succeeded his grandfather as keeper of the White Lake light.

Cat. William Robinson III died on April 2, 1919.

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