A Grave Atop the Hill

About a month ago I was driving home from work on the same route I've taken for almost 10 years now, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted what looked like a headstone poking out of the top of a hill.  My first thought was that I'd been spending far too much time looking at headstones, obviously.  While little pioneer burial grounds are common around here, lying in and amongst the farmers fields, this was not a typical spot.

Curiosity got the better of me though, and a couple of days later I loaded up Google Earth to see if I could figure out what it was that I'd seen.  This was the strange sight that I found:

To give you some perspective, when I'm driving on that roadway on the right of the photo, the green plot of land is about 40 feet above the roadway, so when I saw this aerial I couldn't figure out what it was that I was actually seeing.

On a trip to the library a couple of weeks ago, I did some more reading to see if I could learn more before I went to visit the spot. Thanks to documents from the Ontario Genealogical Society I learned that the name of the cemetery was the Selby Burial Grounds, and that it had been operational from 1809 to 1920, and was situated on the border of farms originally owned by Thomas SELBY and John WEDDEL.

After a bit more digging, I discovered a short series of articles about the cemetery that were published in the Newmarket Era and Express in July, 1948.    (Copies of these can actually be read at OurOntario.ca. )   With that little bit of history in hand, I knew I had to drop by for a visit, which I did earlier today.

In 1809, John WEDDEL transferred 144 square rods of land at the southeast corner of his property to a group of local elders (Sutherland, Finch, Stiles, Clubine, Tyler, and Huntly).  As of 1948 the Weddel family was still farming this plot of land originally granted to them by the crown.  In fact the family still had the original deed with its seal of King George III on it.

The 200 acres immediately south of the Weddel land grant was granted to Thomas SELBY in 1812, and documents show that the family resided there for some 70 years afterwards, although it has subsequently been divided up and sold to various families.

Several documents indicate rumors of a wooden log church, believed to be Wesleyan Methodist, that was built atop the hill near the cemetery.  But it was burned in a long ago fire, and no remnants of it exist.

The first known burial on the site was Robert SELBY, believed to be Thomas SELBY's son or father, who was buried in 1818.  That headstone still existed in the Selby family plot at the time of the 1948 newspaper articles.

The cemetery was restored and rededicated in 1975.  In an effort to preserve the fragile stones, they were realigned into their current linear pathways, and laid at an angle surrounded by pea gravel.  This has undoubtedly helped many of the stones survive the test of time, although now their detailed engravings are becoming hidden by the spread of grass and moss. 

There are many sad tales to be read in this cemetery.  Like the family of Henry Dodd STILES and his wife Thirza.  Of their 12 children, 7 of them died in infancy, 4 of them within days of one another.  Their plot of headstones includes Candace (June 1823- March 17, 1832), Joanna (May 1825-March 25, 1832), Elizabeth (March 1828- April 1, 1832), and Submit (December 1829-April 5, 1832).   One can only assume they were stricken by scarlet fever or diphtheria.

This headstone belongs to the Honorable Alexander ARBUTHNOTT, who was born in Forfar, Scotland.  He was the son of the 7th Viscount of Arbuthnott, John Arbuthnott.   His wife, Jean MATHER, is buried along side of him.  She is believed to have been his mother's maid, and they were married in Scotland in 1818, about 6 months before t hey boarded the Brig "The Patriot" and emigrated to Canada.

 

In all there are 292 grave markers still visible, if not legible, at the burial grounds.  This includes a small plot known as the Weddel Family Plot, which is at the northeast corner of the site.  The Weddel farm can be seen in the back of the above photo, and their corn fields surround the cemetery on two sides.    I am impressed, to be honest, how well the site is maintained given its location.

When I'm done sorting the 292 photos, I'll be sending them off to Murray Pletsch who runs the The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery so that Murray and his band of volunteers can edit them and add them to the site.  Who knows, maybe someone will find a long lost relative in and amongst this beautiful, albeit spooky, little field of stones. 

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.