At the beginning of the 19th century, a French hunter and trapper named DuPaze (now DePage) settled at the junction of the East and West branches of the river that now bears his name. The winter of the "deep snow" in the 1830-31 found the first settlers staking their claims. Click here for the Photo Gallery.

The land on which the cemetery lies first belonged to James L. Alexander (1805-1876), who came to the area from Wayne County, New York in 1837 and purchased this land in 1841. The first burial was that of his three-year-old daughter, Mary Alexander, on October 9, 1845.