Project Scroll Research Note 2026-53
J. M. Studebaker’s entombment in the South Bend City Cemetery on 20 March 1917 and the Riverview chapel contracted in 1922
Summary
J. M. Studebaker, the last of the five brothers, was not first buried at Riverview Cemetery, where the Studebaker National Museum now places him. The South Bend News-Times reported that after private services at his home on Tuesday afternoon, 20 March 1917, “The funeral cortege passed along Jefferson blvd. to the city cemetery where the body was placed in the family mausoleum.” His move was planned five years later. On 30 November 1922 the same paper reported that his executors had let a contract for “the most costly and most elaborate chapel of any so far built in South Bend cemeteries,” to be built at Riverview at a cost of $75,000 to $100,000, in the Tudor Gothic style, whose marble sarcophagus would “hold the remains of the late J. M. and Mrs. Studebaker, now placed in the Studebaker mausoleum in City cemetery.”
The record
“J. M. Studebaker Buried,” South Bend News-Times, 20 March 1917, p. 4
“Private funeral services for J. M. Studebaker, sr., were held at the residence in Sunnyside Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock. ... The funeral cortege passed along Jefferson blvd. to the city cemetery where the body was placed in the family mausoleum.”
Library of Congress, Chronicling America · See the record
“Mortuary Chapel to Cost $75,000,” South Bend News-Times, 30 November 1922, p. 4
“The edifice will be built in Riverview cemetery at a final cost estimated at between $75,000 and $100,000. ... The sarcophagus will hold the remains of the late J. M. and Mrs. Studebaker, now placed in the Studebaker mausoleum in City cemetery. ... Architectural design is Tudor Gothic.”
Library of Congress, Chronicling America · See the record
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, South Bend City Cemetery (2014, resubmitted 2018), section 7, the Studebaker-Milburn Mausoleum (1884)
“The mausoleum is now vacant, due to the disinterment of the Studebakers and their removal to Riverview Cemetery in South Bend in 1932.”
National Park Service, NPGallery · See the record
The same, the second Studebaker Mausoleum, built in 1896 for Clem Studebaker and demolished 18 April 1989
“In 1936, the remains had been moved to Riverview Cemetery in South Bend and the structure remained empty and deteriorating until its demolition.”
National Park Service, NPGallery · See the record
What it changes
J. M. Studebaker’s first resting place is shown to be the family mausoleum in the South Bend City Cemetery, where he was entombed on 20 March 1917, and his removal to Riverview is traced to the chapel his executors contracted for in November 1922; the rest of the family followed from the 1884 mausoleum in 1932 and from Clem Studebaker’s mausoleum of 1896 in 1936.
Limits
The 1922 report gives the plan and the contract; the day J. M. Studebaker’s remains were moved into the chapel is not given in it. The nomination of 2014 gives the years of the later removals without their sources.
What we searched before calling it new
The Studebaker National Museum; Wikipedia; the South Bend City Cemetery National Register nomination; Chronicling America for 1917–1931.
Our standard for calling a finding new is set out in How we research, and how we weigh each kind of record in Scrollsigns.
“New” means new to print as far as we can tell. If you know of an earlier publication, tell us and we will credit it here and raise the note’s version.
Works cited
Earlier work, catalogues and databases named in this note, besides the records quoted above.
- “John Mohler Studebaker,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mohler_Studebaker
The full story
The finding is set out in context, with the rest of its sources, in The day the line stopped. In the discoveries register:
How to cite this note
Michael Urbanski, “J. M. Studebaker’s entombment in the South Bend City Cemetery on 20 March 1917 and the Riverview chapel contracted in 1922,” Project Scroll Research Note 2026-53, version 1 (5 November 2026), https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-53/. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23968742.
BibTeX
@techreport{urbanski202653,
author = {Urbanski, Michael},
orcid = {0009-0006-8183-5828},
title = {{J. M. Studebaker's entombment in the South Bend City Cemetery on 20 March 1917 and the Riverview chapel contracted in 1922}},
institution = {Project Scroll},
type = {Project Scroll Research Note},
number = {2026-53},
year = {2026},
month = {nov},
url = {https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-53/},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23968742},
note = {Version 1}
}