Holt Free Methodist Church Cemetery, East Gwillimbury, Ontario

The Holt Free Methodist Church Cemetery is located in the little Village of Holt, which is at the intersection of Mount Albert Sideroad, and McCowan Road in East Gwillimbury, Ontario.

I ventured to this little church cemetery one Saturday morning to see if I could locate a specific grave, and ended up learning a lot about the history of our local community.

As you can see by the photo, the cemetery is fairly small, with only 23 grave markers remaining on the site.  It was originally the Thompson family cemetery, with the oldest known headstone being for Albert, the son of Kemp Thompson who owned the farm seen in the distance.  Albert died May 8, 1855.

Kemp & Ann Thompson donated the site (1/10th of an acre) to the Methodist Church in October, 1861 and in 1863, a white clapboard church was constructed immediately south of the cemetery lands.  In 1909, the trustees of the church sold it to the Free Methodist Church for the sum of $300.00.

Like many pioneer cemeteries in Ontario, this burial ground has been weathered by time and the environment.  My discussions with locals, and the current minister of the church suggest that there are numerous  unmarked graves on the site.  And given that burial records were not often kept prior to 1900, the actual number and location of the graves remains unknown.

The site underwent several "genealogical inventories" over the years, the first known one being in 1974 by the Ontario Genealogical Society.  A second just 15 years later showed  significant deterioration in the stones.   Since 1989 there has been additional deterioration to the extent that two stones have gone completely missing - likely buried as they were noted to by "prone" or "lying down" in previous inventories.

There are many stories to be learned in a cemetery like this.  For instance William Cooper is buried here, according to the New Era Newspaper.  He was working in the fields on Mr. Thompson's farm on July 18, 1884 when he was struck by lightening.  It struck him in the head, and went straight through to the soles of his shoes, and he was killed instantly, leaving behind a wife and three children.

Kemp Thompson passed away in 1877.  The cause of death was peritonitis which may have been due to appendicitis, a ruptured bladder, or any number of things.

The white clapboard church with its white picket fence and railing ties for the horses has since been replaced by a brick church, constructed in 1972.  It still serves the local Free Methodist community, with a very pleasant pastor, and a charming group of parishioners.   The cemetery is now closed for burials, and the Village of Holt has since been amalgamated into the Township of East Gwillimbury.

I didn't find proof of the person I was there to find.  But I learned a great deal about the area, and the people who lived there eons ago, and made a couple of new friends along the way.