According to local oral tradition, the family of Ward Keeler, a New York native who came to Bosoue County about 1870 and founded the town of Iredell, donated the land for this cemetery and the adjacent church. The oldest documented grave here is that of James W.P. Ware, who died in November 1870. For generations the primary burial ground for Iredell citizens, Riverside Cemetery contains more than one thousand interments, both marked and unmarked, and its varied styles of gravestones reflect the community's pioneer heritage.