Pilgrim Home Cemetery is an outgrowth of the burial grounds of Holland's first log church, built by the colonists in 1847. The log building was used for services until the congregation moved into its new building, the Pillar Church on Ninth Street, in 1857. The first recorded burial in the log church burial ground was September 21, 1854. The name officially became Pilgrim Home Cemetery on October 31, 1889.
In August 1877, the Holland Township Cemetery Association was formed to operate Fairlawn Cemetery on the south side of 16th Street, then the southern city limit. The first recorded burial was September 17, 1877. Fairlawn Cemetery operated until May 15, 1934, when it was deeded to the City of Holland, and became Pilgrim Home Cemetery #2.
Pilgrim Home expanded west of the old Fairlawn Cemetery, into the former fairgrounds area. The north half of the acreage was developed into Pilgrim Home Cemetery #3, opening in 1940. During the fall of 1991, half of the remaining land to the south was developed for the purpose of further expansion.
The history of the Graafschap Cemetery area has been handed down from generation to generation more as oral history than written word. Caskets were transported by horse-drawn wagons or hand-carried to the cemetery. One story describes casket bearers, exhausted from illness and malnutrition, making a burial just off the road they were traveling; they were unable to reach the cemetery in Graafschap.