Have You Seen the Middleville Cemetery?

The early pioneers who settled this Lanark county cross-roads community can rest in peace. While other historic graveyards have fallen into neglect or have been ploughed under in Middleville century-old markers have been preserved. Here-25 weathered headstones have been inlaid into a flower-bordered monument in the village’s four-year-old pioneer cemetery, located over the original gravesite adjacent to Trinity United Church. The tombstones are there for the viewing and telling of 19th century tales. One marker covers three graves. Agnes Affleck, age 7, died Aug. 19; her – sisters, ‘ Jane, age 4, Aug. 28, and Elizabeth, age one, Sept 3 all in the same year, 1856, victims of one of the periodic epidemics of scarlet fever or diphtheria that swept the countryside.

In fact it was fear of the epidemics that led to the establishment of the Greenwood cemetery site north of the village in the early 1870’s. Because of the worry of seepage from the old graveyard affecting well water, several of the plots were dug up and the remains transferred to the new site, recalls 80-year-old Agnes Yuill the village’s “unofficial” historian.

Over the years, the old site fell upon hard times, although in the 1960s attempts were made to clean it up. But attempts expired because of fear of damage to the many fallen and crumbling markers buried under the overgrown grass, noted Mrs. Yuill .

However in the late 1960’s a savior was found and the pioneer “happy-hunting grounds” began its resurrection. A donation from Amprior resident, Mrs. Jessie Stewart Gilles, funded the reconstruction as it was part of a bequest of her husband, the late David Gilles, that the ‘gravestone of the family’s Canadian founder’, James Gilles, be restored. His headstone, dating back to 1851, is the oldest in the cemetery. He had come from Scotland in 1821 at the age of 55 with a wife and five children. He established a saw mill near the village shortly after it was founded in 1820 as part of the Upper Canada district of Bathurst (comprising most of Lanark and Renfrew counties and all of Carleton).

Borrowing the monument idea from the pioneer site at Upper Canada Village, the work was completed in 1971 and dedicated in official ceremonies by former Ottawa mayor, the late Charlotte Whitton, in 1972. The gravestones cover a 26-year-old period from 1851 and the ages of the deceased range from one to 92.

The strong Scottish, traditions of the village are evident in the names Reid, Clark, Angus, Mclnnis and Brash. The area’s first’ church, Presbyterian, was built at the site and later taken over by the United Church. The village itself was first called Middleton, but was later changed when it was found a Nova Scotia post office had the same name.. The pioneer-cemetery has become a tourist attraction, for passing motorists on the route between Almonte and the Lanark-Calabogie road.

McNichol Family Middleville

Middleville School _ History and Names Names Names

Jane Rankin Middleville –Gazette Correspondent

Middleville–The Vertical Board House–Another Beaver Medallion

Middleville School Photos- Laurie Yuill

Photos of Laurie Yuill- Somerville/Mather Picnic 1937–Charles Home, Lloyd Knowles House–Foster Family

Mr. Lionel Barr’s Store Middleville and Other Mementos –‎Laurie Yuill‎

Middleville– Yuill- Photos Laurie Yuill

Did you Know we have a “World Class Museum” right in Lanark County?

The S.S. #6 Middleville School

Drummond Cemetery Photos by Glenda Mahoney

 

All Photos Glenda Mahoney

On is the of the oldest cemeteries in Drummond is the Old Drummond Centre Cemetery that is situated on land drawn from the crown in 1816 by Donald McDonald and was deeded to him on march 30,1824.

The Drummond Cemetery. We have always called it the Malloch cemetery. It is very old. 4 generations of Mallochs interred in that beautiful spot. The new  monument of the Ross’s was set in place once the site of the lost children was found. They had been buried there before the cemetery was sanctioned ground.

In 1816 at the first site two children were buried in the field, their grave marked by a Hawthorne Tree. Their name was believed to be Ross, as a family by that name squatted there very early and also drew Lot 23 Con. 5 close to the road. At the second site there are at least 2 graves and a third site containing the graves of 3 children is on Lot. 23 Con. 5 close to the road. These were not cemeteries in the official meaning of the word, but the graves of family buried close to home. This was not an uncommon occurrence but there is no doubt there are more such grave sites through the township that have been long forgotten.

 

When we were children we spent time wandering the cemetery and marvelling at the dates and names. To say we had a reputation as a wild bunch may be true but we were taught from an early age to be very respectful and quiet in the cemetery.

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Recently I was at the cemetery just visiting with my nephew Ethan who is 7. We wandered from old stone to old stone while he traced with his little fingers the worn names and dates and I read out to him some of the words we could barely see. We picked wildflowers and distributed them. It made me realize once again how important our past is.  Then we walked back to the Farm and spent the rest of the day with family who were very much alive and very noisy. A perfect day.

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place and The Tales of Almonte

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun  Screamin’ Mamas (USA)  and The Sherbrooke Record

The Oldest Cemetery in Drummond

Faeries on the Malloch Farm

 

A Time Capsule on the Malloch Farm

The Malloch Barn and Other Things

The Mahoney Legacy Ends–Masonry Runs in the Blood

Being a Tombstone Tourist

 

Being a tombstone tourist sounds pretty ghoulish doesn’t it? But if you are a genealogist, or a local history buff like myself, you are going to spend a lot of time wandering local cemeteries. I find myself wondering about the stories behind the graves as well- every person counts in my mind as they were part of the community. When I was a young girl my Mother was in the hospital most of the time, but when she wasn’t she had my Father drive us to all the cemeteries in Brome-Missisquoi in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. After all, to her they were kind of like parks without the crowd

Bernice Ethylene Crittenden Knight wanted me to know who I was related to, and even those that I wasn’t related too. She told me that a cemetery can tell you about a culture and history of an area and she was right. At that age I wasn’t totally enamoured of the idea, and constantly worried what my black patent Mary Jane shoes were walking on. Rural cemeteries became the poor person’s art gallery, offering carvings, statues, and buildings of spectacular local craftsmanship.

 

 

She always pointed out the symbols of flowers on the gravestone, which were known to have their own language.  A rose could signify love, or friendship, and it could also mean innocence or secrecy.  There were many roses in the cemeteries she took me too due to early death during childbirth, or unwanted or secret pregnancies. Calla Lilies represent marriage and fidelity and a Lily of the Valley signified innocence, humility and renewal. Speaking of flowers; my late sister Robin in later years horrified us all one day when she gathered up all the flowers in the United/Union Church Cemetery and sold them to folks living on Dieppe Blvd. We were number one on the gossip sheet for weeks.

Did you know that a cemetery was one of the first places where upper and middle-class Victorian women could wander unchaperoned and unmolested? After cemeteries became fashion in the 1830s they were thought to be extensions of the home (of which women were the chatelaines and guardians, of course), and hence an appropriate place for women to attend at their leisure. Women took full advantage of this freedom, and frequently walked and talked with their friends as they would in an ordinary public park, without worrying that men would bother or accost them. My Mother never thought about these rules of the past, she just thought it was a great place to picnic while my Dad sat in the car refusing to venture in.

I love a good wander around a cemetery. I like reading the headstones and thinking about who that person was. That person was so important to somebody that they were commemorated for hundreds of years– similar to the funerals beforehand. Did you know that a funeral was so costly but so important, that lower class families often went without the necessities of life because the family refused to spend their funerary funds on things like food, clothing, and shelter?  How could parents starve their children to ensure that they could bury them? That was because families who were unable to provide for a proper funeral and burial of their loved ones were forced to rely on the local powers to be who would provide the bare minimum in burial – a pauper’s funeral.

 

There were lots of Irish where I came from and their funeral customs probably came over from Ireland with the waves of Irish who came to work as labourers. The Irish certainly had and have many funeral customs and superstitions about death. Irish wakes sometimes became so rowdy that the corpse was taken out of the box and dragged around the dance floor. When I went to funerals as a young gal the open casket was in the middle of the community hall. Cases of beer filled the hall along with square dancing in front of the coffin until the time of burial.

At any rate, what I was taught among other things was that you should wear black to visit the cemetery. You should appear as a “shadow” rather than a body so the dead person’s spirit won’t enter your body. Oh boy….

One of my favourite flowers Lily of the Valley grew everywhere among the headstones, and after my Mother died they sent home her blue Samsonite suitcase. When I opened it a bottle of her favourite perfume Coty’s Lily of the Valley had broken inside. For years, each time I opened that suitcase, I relived the rare hours spent with my Mother, and remembered how she spoke of that flower representing innocence, humility and renewal on the tombstones. That is how I try to live my life before I become one of those names of a tombstone.

 

Charles Neville Ross Here’s one. There were a couple of grave diggers hand digging a new burial plot in one of the cemeteries in Sherbrooke. a couple of mischievous kids crawled up on them to scare them. When they popped out from behind and adjacent head stone the both of them ran away so fast they left their shoes behind. My Dad swore it really happened.

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place and The Tales of Almonte

1. Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun  Screamin’ Mamas (USA)  and The Sherbrooke Record
2. 

George Bailey –Headstone– the Cemetery on the Ninth line

The Sinclair Family Cemetery–Photos by Lawrie Sweet with Sinclair Genealogy Notes

Did You Know They Moved St. Paul’s Cemetery?

Have You Ever Paid Tribute to our Pioneers? Middleville Pioneer Cemetery

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

The Clayton Methodist Cemetery

St. Mary’s “Old” Cemetery

In Memory of the Very Few–Adamsville Burial Site

The Oldest Cemetery in Drummond

So Who was Buried First in the Franktown Cemetery?

Kings Warks and Cemeteries–Interesting Discoveries of Lanark County

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

The Forgotten Cemetery at the End of Lake Ave West

Stairway to Heaven in a Cemetery? Our Haunted Heritage

Before and After — Auld Kirk

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

Young Hearts Run Free — Warning– Story Could be Upsetting to Some

George Bailey –Headstone– the Cemetery on the Ninth line

 

I posted this photo this week from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum.

The only thing I could find out was the following:

Name: George Bailey
Death Date: 8 Mar 1859
Death Place: Lanark County, Ontario, Canada
Cemetery: Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Mississippi Mills, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada

But what I did find out was that the from the looks of the headstone in this recent photo it has been thankfully repaired.

 

Opened in 1827, this cemetery which lies on the road between Almonte and Carleton Place, contains the remains of many early settlers of Upper Canada. Daniel Shipman, founder of Almonte, and Joseph Teskey, founder of Appleton are just two of the interred.

It was closed as a cemetery in 1947, and fell into disrepair. In 1979, Jean Steel and Dawn Leduc spearheaded a drive to restore the cemetery. Many headstones were preserved by placing them in concrete. Others have been lost to time, although some are occasionally uncovered.

There are no records of who was buried here but Archives Lanark (http://www.globalgenealogy.com/archiveslanark/index.html) has surveyed the remaining stones and published a partial list of who is buried there. There are also references to burials there in the archives of the Almonte Gazette which are available on the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum’s website (http://mvtm.ca/museum/?page_id=2759.) Researchers should note, it is often referred to as “the cemetery on the ninth line,” referring to the prior name of the road.

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

The Sinclair Family Cemetery–Photos by Lawrie Sweet with Sinclair Genealogy Notes

Did You Know They Moved St. Paul’s Cemetery?

Have You Ever Paid Tribute to our Pioneers? Middleville Pioneer Cemetery

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

The Clayton Methodist Cemetery

St. Mary’s “Old” Cemetery

In Memory of the Very Few–Adamsville Burial Site

The Oldest Cemetery in Drummond

So Who was Buried First in the Franktown Cemetery?

Kings Warks and Cemeteries–Interesting Discoveries of Lanark County

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

The Forgotten Cemetery at the End of Lake Ave West

Stairway to Heaven in a Cemetery? Our Haunted Heritage

Before and After — Auld Kirk

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

Suicides and Crime Genealogy–Know Your Burial Procedure

Photo by Robert McDonald- St. James Cemetery Walk

 

Some times it gets frustrating not finding church records or headstones for those searching their families genealogy. If one of your ancestors took a dram of Carbolic Acid or Paris Green, or charged with a felony, chances are you will have great difficulty in finding them.

Church law on suicides has never been as simple as many make out, in most cases it fell on the the locals to decide whether the body could be buried in the churchyard or not and indeed whether he would perform the funeral service in the church at the grave or not at all.

In the St, James Anglican Church cemetery in Carleton Place there are bodies buried on the outside of the fence near the road as they had been charged with a crime or committed suicide. The responsibility of deciding in what case the exceptions be made was once thrown upon the clergyman who had cure of all the souls in the parish where the suicide is to be buried.

In the year 1823 it was enacted that the body of a suicide should be buried privately between the hours of nine and twelve at night, with no religious ceremony. In 1882 this law was altered where every penalty was removed except that internment could not be solemnised by a burial service, and the body may now be committed to the earth at any time, and with such rites or prayers as those in charge of the funeral think fit or may be able to procure. It was now lawful for these to be buried in consecrated ground, although without the benefit of a religious service. It also brought to an end the tradition of driving a stake through the body and throwing lime over it.


Before 1880 no body could be buried in consecrated ground except with the service of the Church, which the incumbent of the parish or a person authorized by him was bound to perform; but the canons and prayer-book refused the use of the office for excommunicated persons, for some grievous and notorious crime, and no person able to testify of his repentance, unbaptized persons, and persons against whom a verdict of felony had been found. .

 

 

At a burial in a cemetery (as opposed to churchyards) there would have been the usual burial service (always assuming that there were mourners there to attend of course). It wouldn’t have been any different to any other funeral really, and the grave could have been in either consecrated or unconsecrated ground.

Not all ground in a cemetery is consecrated because if you think about it logically, there are burials for all different sorts of religions and creeds and it would not do for a Muslim for example to be buried in consecrated ground, or someone of the Jewish faith to be interred in such ground. These faiths usually have their own sections within cemetery grounds.

Deaths by suicide are eventually registered in the normal way however as the death is “unexpected” it will be reported to the Coroner and he will hold an inquest. If such a death occurred in your family in the past there should be some record within the coroner’s office – but not sure how long they keep the records – not all coroners keep them since the year dot!!

 

From - The Dominion Annual Register For the Twentieth Year of the Canadian
Union 1886.  Edited by Harry James Morgan.

RECORD OF ACCIDENTAL DEATHS, SUICIDES, &C. 1886

CLICK HERE CLICK HERE

 

 

Clipped from The Pittsburgh Press,  16 Jul 1911, Sun,  Page 2

 

 

Believe it or Not!!!-

Clipped from The Brandon Sun,  08 Jul 1975, Tue,  Page 12

 

Clipped from The Winnipeg Tribune,  24 Sep 1915, Fri,  Page 9

 

Clipped from The Coffeyville Daily Journal,  02 Jan 1897, Sat,  Page 2

 

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

Twitching or Grave Dousing– Our Haunted Heritage

The Sad Lives of Young Mothers and Children in Early Carleton Place

The Non Kosher Grave — Our Haunted Heritage

Tales of the Tombstones — The Crozier Children

 

 

 

Shadows of Beckwith Cemeteries

Photos- Linda Seccaspina

If you take a walk around the Dewar Cemetery that is on Glenashton Rd, in Beckwith and the Kennedy Cemetery that lies across the road there is no other place that you can understand local history better. Cemeteries are full of unfilled dreams- countless echoes of ‘should have’ or ‘could have,’ but none more powerful than the shadows that speak at these two cemeteries in Beckwith.

Alexander (Sandy) Archer’s headstone is probably the most unique with his medals of the 91st Regiment of Foot once cemented into the tombstone. Unfortunately someone saw fit to steal history and they are no longer there. These old burying sites contain names of those that brought their families to a new land and drove the forests back and made them fields. If you read the headstones carefully they tell of stories of who lived a full life, or those whose lives were cut off early, whether it was in a river or a deadly epidemic. Lack of skilled medical services and fevers and consumption– this in spite of a supposed sure proof remedy of crude molasses.

There are souls from The Derry, and family names such as: Garland, Kennedys, McEwans, McDiarmids, McLarens, Kidds, Leaches, Stewarts, Livingstones and many others now lie in the cold ground. In the Kennedy cemetery lies one of the earliest graves: the widow of Donald Ferguson, whose husband perished at the age of 90 while attempting to cut a road through Richmond in the bitter winter of 1818.

Headstones marking the Kennedys: Donald, John and Robert who were great musicians that if you listen closely are still playing their bagpipes and instruments in the clan gatherings that surely still go on in the dead of night. The McDiarmid family with all their various spellings of their last name lie close to the Livingstones with a relationship from a marriage to the great David Livingstone, explorer of Africa.

http://bodie.ca/FreePages/dewar/plaque.htm

If you look closely towards the Dewar homestead near the cemetery you can still see the shadows of the people that came for miles carrying vessels and immerse the crook of the staff of St. Fillion into their waters that was supposed to provide miraculous powers. Sadness cowers on one particular headstone of a 24 year-old man who had cradled grain from morning until night and then died young becoming just another tragedy of Beckwith Township.

What happened to some we will never know- the many young mothers especially. There were those with difficult births with also an important predictor of infant mortality being breastfeeding. In areas where mothers didn’t breastfeed their babies, infant mortality rates soared, sometimes reaching thirty to forty percent. Beliefs about breastfeeding differed greatly between areas, sometimes even between the local villages. Even those who intended to breastfeed had a difficult time juggling this with their normal tasks which often required them to work in the fields all day. Or maybe loneliness in the wilderness was a burden too great for their physical and mental resources. The riddle of life in those days still remains unsolved and all true stories begin and end in cemeteries.

Dewar Cemetery

Dewar’s and Kennedy’s cemeteries, located together on the eighth concession road near Ashton, were named for the Kennedy and Dewar families who came there from Pershire in 1818, the Kennedys from the parish of Dull, and the Dewars from the parish of Comrie.

Kennedy’s cemetery, the older one, is on land located in 1818 by John Kennedy and later owned by Robert Kennedy, long noted in the distsrict for his skill with the bagpipes. Robert, who came there with his parents at the age of eight, moved to Ashton and died in 1900 at Carleton Place.

The site of Dewar’s Cemetery originally was one of the clergy reserve lots, with the farms of Archibald and Peter Dewar beside it, and on the opposite side those of Finley McEwen and Malcolm Dewar. Archibald Dewar jr. son of Peter, was reeve of Beckwith for many years and died in 1916.

The Dewar families for centuries had been the recognized hereditary guardians of the staff or crozier of St. Fillan. Traditions of St. Fillan who was venerated as early as the eighth or ninth century in Glen Dochart and Strathfillan in the present Perthshire, have an important place in ancient Christianity in Scotland.

The head of the saint’s crozier, of silver gilt with a smaller crozier head of bronze enclosed in it, is reported to have been brought by Archibald Dewar to Beckwith, where its powers remained highly regarded, and to have been transferred by his eldest son to its present location at the National Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Beckwith 1820 Census Lanark County–Who Do You Know?

The Beckwith Highlanders and “Humpy Billy” Moore

So Where is that Gnarled Oak in Beckwith?

“Teachester” Munro and the S.S. No. 9 Beckwith 11th Line East School

John Goth–Tales of Beckwith Township

Beckwith –Settlers — Sir Robert the Bruce— and Migrating Turtles

What I Did on Beckwith Heritage Days – Alexander Stewart – Ballygiblin Heroe

The Now Complete Page Turning Story of the Beckwith Grandfather Clock

Update on The Manse in Beckwith

The Manse on the 7th Line of Beckwith

Home and Garden Before Home and Garden Magazine

Desperately Seeking Information About the “Beckwith Copperhead Road”

Hobo’s and Tragedies in Beckwith

Beckwith Child Stolen by Natives

Take Me Home Beckwith Roads– Photo Essay

What Was it Like Living in Beckwith 1800s? Christina McEwen Muirhead

Beckwith Fire Department 1965 Names Names Names

They Built this Township on….

The Sinclair Family Cemetery–Photos by Lawrie Sweet with Sinclair Genealogy Notes

All photos by Lawrie Sweet. — Scotch Line

Sinclair Pioneer Cemetery– Sinclair Pioneer Cemetery, Scotch Corners – Lot 2, Con. 9 Beckwith Twp.

Scotch Corners, Ont.

Burials – 1858 to 1964 — Click here for site

 

One of my favourite cemeteries is the old Sinclair Cemetery on Scotch Line Road.. All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

The Sinclair Cemetery, Scotch Corners. PIONEERS. Here lies the original Scottish settlers John & Colin Sinclair Bros. from Argyllshire, Scotland and Colin McLaren who settled on the adjacent farms, on the 9th of November, 1822, also Wm. MacDonald in 1838

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

All photos by Lawrie Sweet.

 

 

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  05 Dec 1951, Wed,  Page 8

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  04 May 1906, Fri,  Page 7

 

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  03 Mar 1908, Tue,  Page 7

 

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  18 Feb 1907, Mon,  Page 12

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  10 Feb 1887, Thu,  Page 3

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  30 Mar 1901, Sat,  Page 5

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  03 Jan 1949, Mon,  Page 21

 

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  18 May 1908, Mon,  Page 6

 

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun andScreamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

 

 

 

Did You Know They Moved St. Paul’s Cemetery?

Have You Ever Paid Tribute to our Pioneers? Middleville Pioneer Cemetery

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

The Clayton Methodist Cemetery

St. Mary’s “Old” Cemetery

In Memory of the Very Few–Adamsville Burial Site

The Oldest Cemetery in Drummond

So Who was Buried First in the Franktown Cemetery?

Kings Warks and Cemeteries–Interesting Discoveries of Lanark County

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

The Forgotten Cemetery at the End of Lake Ave West

Stairway to Heaven in a Cemetery? Our Haunted Heritage

Before and After — Auld Kirk

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

 

 

 

 

I have been writing about downtown Carleton Place Bridge Street for months and this is something I really want to do. Come join me in the Domino’s Parking lot- corner Lake Ave and Bridge, Carleton Place at 11 am Saturday September 16 (rain date September 17) for a free walkabout of Bridge Street. It’s history is way more than just stores. This walkabout is FREE BUT I will be carrying a pouch for donations to the Carleton Place Hospital as they have been so good to me. I don’t know if I will ever do another walking tour so come join me on something that has been on my bucket list since I began writing about Bridge Street. It’s always a good time–trust me.

Are You Ready to Visit the Open Doors?

 

Did You Know They Moved St. Paul’s Cemetery?

1979

photo-– Scott Reid– 175th Anniversary of St. Paul’s

Reverend Michael Harris travelled afar setting up local parishes as early as 1819 in Lanark County, and St. Paul’s Anglican Church was one of them. Set in the midst of the original cemetery overlooking the Perth Highway, the church partially built in 1852 celebrated its 175th anniversary this year.

The mission of Lanark dates from 1819 when the Rev. Michael Harris began ministering to the people in the community. St. Paul’s was built in 1842 on land donated by Mr. James H. Manahan. A new parsonage was built by 1899 and renovated in 1906 at which time the church was enlarged.  It missed being damaged by the Lanark Village fire  in 1959 but was considerably damaged by fire in 1945 and while repairs were being made, services were held in the Congregational Church. The parsonage was sold around 1990. 

It hasn’t changed much except for the small hall to the right that was built in 1964, but the belfry, porch, tower, sanctuary and vestry were added on in 1906. It thankfully escaped the Lanark fire of 1959 but it suffered fire damage to the roof and interior in 1945.

Their first organ was an old pump organ and then the United Church gave thenm mone that was powered by a hand pump. In 1953 someone willed the church their home and the contents and after the house was sold it bought Sr. Paul’s a new pulpit.

The cemetery in the churchyard was closed in 1917 and a new burial ground was obtained. St. Paul’s Church celebrated its centenary on June 28, 1942. The dead were buried strictly in the churchyards in those days, but back in 1917 local health officials requested that the original old cemetery built on the hill next to the church be closed and moved two miles out of town.  People worried about risks to public health and they came not only from the dank odours of the churchyards, but from the very water the people drank. In many cases, the springs for the drinking supply tracked right through the graveyards of the original churchyards.

Did you know suicides, if they were buried in consecrated ground at all, were usually deposited in the north end, although their corpses were not allowed to pass through the cemetery gates to enter. They had to be passed over the top of the stone wall or fence. In the case of St. James in Carleton Place they were buried outside the fence.

They once tried to ban the use of coffins altogether for health reasons, insisting that ‘all people should be buried in sacks’ for sanitary purposes. The Victorians recognized the dangers of lead coffins, and made it mandatory that pine be used as an alternative as it ‘decays rapidly,’ thus allowing the corpse to return to the earth more naturally.

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal,  23 Jan 1945, Tue,  Page 16

Other Churches

Sacred Heart of Jesus Church under construction about 1890’s, Lanark Village.

Drovers who transported the limestone for the above church from the W. C. Stead quarry.

Ken Potter

Where was the S.C. Stead quarry?

Blair T. Paul, Artist – Canadian and International

Great photos…where was the quarry? It was believed that at the end of Paul Drive, west of what used to be Playfair’s Planing Mill there was a quarry. We always called it that as kids anyway.

Ken Potter

Blair T. Paul, Artist – Canadian and International Interesting. I live at 121 Paul dr at the end of the road. It is possible that it was quarried out of the side of the steep hill next to what is now Centennial Truss. I know that is lots of limestone on my property.

Doris Quinn

My late husbands ancestors helped build this Church. Bringing the stones etc. At the time they questioned themselves thinking that soon their Church in Ferguson’s Falls would be closed and they would all travel over the hills to Lanark. And so it is. Understandable though as Lanark had a bigger population. Sacred Heart Church in Lanark opened in 1903.

My late husband, James Quinn was direct descendant of John Quinn, one of the seven Irish men who came over from Ireland in 1820. So yes I have always loved this type of history and have accumulated a lot over the years. Now to get it into the book I always planned to write. At it a bit each week.

PAKENHAM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1897– $338.50 on the Cornerstone?

St. Andrew’s Pakenham celebrates 175th anniversary October 9– 2015– Click here–Millstone

For the Love of St. Andrew’s– 130th Anniversary

Who Really Built the Baptist Church in Carleton Place?

Old Churches of Lanark County

Who Really Built the Baptist Church in Carleton Place?

Notes About The First Baptist Church in Perth

Smith’s Falls and District Baptist Church

Memories of The Old Church Halls

Tales From the Methodist Church in Perth

Knox Church– McDonald’s Corners

The Littlest Church in Ferguson Falls

Another Example of Local Random Acts of Kindness- Zion Memorial United Church

The Beckwith Baptist Church

Old Churches of Lanark County

Before and After — Auld Kirk

Another Example of Local Random Acts of Kindness- Zion Memorial United Church

Hallelujah and a Haircut —Faces of St. James 1976

What did Rector Elliot from St. James Bring Back from Cacouna?

The Emotional Crowded Houses– St. James

A Sneeze of a Tune from St. Andrew’s Church in Carleton Place

The Old Church in Island Brook That Needs a Home

Let The Church Rise– A Little History of St. James Anglican Church

The Church that Died

St James and St Mary’s Christmas Bazaar 1998 -Who Do You Know?

Old Churches of Lanark County

When The Streets of Carleton Place Ran Thick With the Blood of Terror!

I have been writing about downtown Carleton Place Bridge Street for months and this is something I really want to do. Come join me in the Domino’s Parking lot- corner Lake Ave and Bridge, Carleton Place at 11 am Saturday September 16 (rain date September 17) for a free walkabout of Bridge Street. It’s history is way more than just stores. This walkabout is FREE BUT I will be carrying a pouch for donations to the Carleton Place Hospital as they have been so good to me. I don’t know if I will ever do another walking tour so come join me on something that has been on my bucket list since I began writing about Bridge Street. It’s always a good time–trust me.

Are You Ready to Visit the Open Doors?

Have You Ever Paid Tribute to our Pioneers? Middleville Pioneer Cemetery

 

Photo Linda Seccaspina 2015

 

Compared to some of our older cemeteries that are literally decaying before our eyes the Middleville pioneers can  rest in peace. Have you ever driven to Middleville and seen the 25 original headstones inlaid into a flowered bordered tribute adjacent to Trinity United Church? While not part of *Lanark’s 7 Wonders just looking at them you can practically hear their 19th century stories. The headstones cover a 26 year old period from 1851 and located over the original grave site.

One marker of note covers three graves. They are the Affleck children: Agnes age 7 and her sisters Jane and Elizabeth 4 and 1 who all died in August and September of 1856 from either diptheria or scarlet fever that swept Lanark County that ye

 

In Memory of John, son of Archibald & E. McInnes, died Nov 21, 1857, aged 1 year & 6 months. Middleville Pioneer Cemetery Middleville, Ontario. Burials 1955 – 1900 CLICK HERE

 

Like the St. James Anglican church cemetery in Carleton Place that removed their hand water pump  Middleville too worried about seepage of contaminated graves from the old graveyard into the town’s well water. Middleville decided to move their cemetery to the Greenwood Cemetery in the 1870s.

Several of the plots were dug up and the remains transferred to the new site. Over the years the old site fell upon hard times and in the 1930s they tried to clean it up but they stopped fearful of damage to the crumbling markers that were now buried under the overgrown grass.

In the 1960s Mrs. Jesse Stewart Gillies funded the reconstruction from a request from her husband David Gilles that the founder’s Headstone James Gillies be restored. His headstone dating back to 1851 was the oldest in the cemetery. James had come from Scotland in 1821 at the age of 55 with his wife and children. He established a sawmill near the village shortly after it was founded in 1820 as part of the Upper Canada district of Bathurst.

Borrowing the idea of the monument idea from Upper Canada Village the work was completed in 1971 and an official ceremony dedicated by former mayor the late Charlotte Whitton was in 1972. If you have never visited this Lanark location you are missing part of Lanark’s great history.

 

Photo Linda Seccaspina 2015

 

 

*The Seven Wonders of Lanark County

IN 2016 this happened

 

Middleville Pioneer Cemetery Middleville, Ontario. Burials 1955 – 1900 CLICK HERE

 

JUNE 5– Middleville Museum CLICK HERE

Family History Day – Canada 150

Lanark Township (Highlands) descendants of our early settlers (and those who wish they were😉), join us on Sunday June 25 at the Museum for our Canada 150 descendants group photo. Stephen Dodds will be there with his drone to get several group photos at 1:30. David Murdoch will speak about his 1867 ancestry quest at 11:30 and 2:15. We will have copies of David’s research for those who are interested. This will be a great chance to catch up with friends and neighbours. Refreshments will be served. We hope to see many of you there.

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)

 

 

 

 

Middleville

It’s the Middleville News

Hissing Steam, Parades and a 1930 Hearse–Pioneer Days Middleville

When History Comes to You–A Visit from Middleville

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF DALHOUSIE-Tina Penman, Middleville, Ont.

Visiting the Neighbours — Middleville Ontario and Down the 511

When History Comes to You–A Visit from Middleville

Where is it Now? The Heirloom of William Camelon

 

Cemeteries

 

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

The Clayton Methodist Cemetery

St. Mary’s “Old” Cemetery

In Memory of the Very Few–Adamsville Burial Site

The Oldest Cemetery in Drummond

So Who was Buried First in the Franktown Cemetery?

Kings Warks and Cemeteries–Interesting Discoveries of Lanark County

The Ghost Lights in St. James Cemetery

The Forgotten Cemetery at the End of Lake Ave West

Stairway to Heaven in a Cemetery? Our Haunted Heritage

Before and After — Auld Kirk

 

Just a Field of Stones Now? “The Old Perth Burying Ground” Now on Ontario Abandoned Places?

Photo-Cheryl Moss

 

Re: The Old Burying Ground — Perth

Dear Linda,

I read with great interest your article on the Ole Burying Ground in
Perth today. It’s a site near and dear to my heart.

I’ve been trying for a couple of years to have the town clean it up as
they own it and it’s a designated Heritage property here. I live a block from it and see the pickets being bent and go missing every week in this cemetery.  I started the attached letter last winter and your post has inspired me to finally send it.

Thank you very very very much Linda!   I needed the encouragement!

Cheryl

 

 

 

Photos-Cheryl Moss

 

 

 

This is the Cemetery where the stone of Robert Lyon is located. For those of you who don’t know, Robert Lyon was a law student that was killed during a duel for the hand of Elizabeth Hughes by John Wilson.

This location is imperative to our local history as the majority of the stones are from the early 1800’s, with a few being buried in the early 1900’s. As far as I can tell there is no one buried in this cemetery after roughly 1910. It is now listed on Ontario Abandoned Places. While this is a private user website, it is heartbreaking that this location of history is even considered abandoned.

While this property is not really abandoned the question of abandonment can be inferred from the acts or recitals of the parties, interpreted in the light of all the surrounding circumstances.  Such abandonment is a question of fact or a mixed question of law and fact.

A cemetery is not abandoned as long as it is kept and preserved as a resting place for the dead with anything to indicate the existence of graves, or as long as it is known and recognized by the public as a graveyard. The fact that for some years no new interments have been made and that the graves have been neglected does not operate as an abandonment and authorize the desecration of the graves, where the bodies interred in a cemetery remain therein and the spot awakens sacred memories in living persons.

“I think this illustrates why this cemetery is so important. Vital records of Births, Marriages and Deaths were only required to be kept starting in 1869 and compliance for the first decade or so was rather hit-and-miss. Many early church records are either missing or only available at archives in distant cities so monuments can sometimes be the only evidence for the births and deaths of our ancestors. Occasionally they provide genealogical gems such as the year of emigration or the exact birth locations back in the homeland that can provide that tidbit of information that smash brick walls in our research and allows us to “hop the pond” and trace the ancestral lines further in the old country. Another concern is that the monuments in this cemetery are at risk as many are weathering to the point of illegibility or victims of vandalism”.–Bruce Gordon

So the “Ole Burying ground’ is not abandoned but it is neglected and desperately needs to be rescued. Someone please help and thank you Cheryl for your love and concern!

The “Old burying ground” located in Perth Ontario–Bill Daykin
GPS location: N44 53′ 56.3″  W076 14′ 26.6″

Background and history

This cemetery was used for the first hundred years and more, after the Perth military settlement was established and is the final resting place of Robert Lyon who fell in a duel with John Wilson in 1833.

Without question this site is of local and county significance. Many eminent people are buried here from representatives from Lanark and other counties who sat in the Legislative assembly for upper Canada to the settlers who helped build and shape Perth and the surrounding country. It’s interest lies in other directions too; as the first burial site the grounds were divided for use by three different denominations, and perhaps what brings so many tourists to Perth that the last fatal duel in Upper Canada was fought here, and Robert Lyon is buried in the Cemetery. This gives the cemetery provinvial significance and to some degree will influence the program for conservation and maintenance.

Happy Birthday Perth (Craig St./Pioneer Cemetery)

by Bruce Gordon • 22 Sep 2016 • 0 Comments

The beautiful village of Perth situated on the Tay River in Lanark County Ontario is celebrating the 200th anniversary this year of the founding of the Rideau Military Settlement.

My mother-in-law, Annie, grew up in Perth and her parents are both descended from Irish emigrants who were escaping poverty, famine and oppression back in the homeland. A few years ago out of a frustration in the paucity of early records in Ontario I visited St. Bridget’s Catholic Cemetery in the historic North Burgess Township, now part of the present-day Tay Valley Township to find and photograph monuments of these pioneer families. Each visit led to discovering new connections which, in turn, required more visits to photograph other monuments. Eventually I photographed all the monuments. Read the rest here…CLICK

 

 

 

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)

Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.

 

 

The Old Burying Ground — Perth

Alternate Ending to The Last Duel?

Would You Duel Anything For Love?