The following death records due to smallpox were found in the Ottawa County Death Records. It is believed that this cemetery was begun due to smallpox deaths in the 1870’s. There may have been more burials after this date but the death records were searched for Georgetown Township from 1867 - 1879 for smallpox deaths in particular. Below this first list you will find some persons who lived in the area of the cemetery and are not recorded in either the Georgetown Twp. Cemetery or the Hanley Cemetery.
The Smallpox Cemetery was located on Van Sloten family land.  The property was sold in 1943 with little sign of the cemetery.
A gravestone was found in 1964 on property near Vos Street and 10th Avenue.  Bones reportedly had been unearthed during the paving of 10th Avenue and names of known smallpox victims were later traced to the burial site.
In 1984 Anna Van Sloten Brinks campaigned to save the cemetery from development when sewer and water lines were installed..  The cemetery was referred to as the smallpox cemetery and the Indian cemetery.  In 1994 Virginia Timmer approached the township to preserve the site. The developer agrees to leave an area of the cemetery untouched and a 30-square-foot piece of property was deeded to the Jenison Historical Society and they had the waste and debris removed.  A marker was purchased listing the known names of those buried there.  In 2006, the stone was moved to the Tiffany House museum and an explanatory marker placed at the cemetery.

Transcriber: Evelyn Sawyer
Created: 1 May 2002
URL: http://ottawa.migenweb.net/cemeteries/georgetown/smallpox.html