A Place Apart

A Search for the Pioneer Cemeteries of the Lower Gatineau Valley

by Norma Geggie, 1999

Original document ^{4.5 MB}

(See A Place Apart for copyright information.)

A PLACE APART

A Search for the Pioneer
Cemeteries of the Lower
Gatineau Valley

by Norma Geggie

Front cover

Foreword

As I began to document the many cemeteries of the Gatineau which had become familiar to me over the years, I became aware of a similar project being undertaken by friend and historian Carol Martin, who had proposed a publication on the historical cemeteries of Chelsea Municipality.

Of necessity I have included the earliest and important burial sites in the original Township of Hull, as this collection would be incomplete without them. Each researcher has a different approach and I trust that Carol Martin's monograph can be read in conjunction with my own.

Geographical Notes

All of the cemeteries recorded here were established prior to the amalgamation and namechanges of Municipalities in the 1980s, and I have recorded them in their original Townships. Those previously within the bounds of the Township of Hull have subsequently become part of the townships of Chelsea or Cantley. The townships of Masham and Wakefield are now incorporated into Lapêche Municipality. The townships from Low north have remained unchanged.

Abbreviations used throughout the text include the following:

• The Historical Society of the Gatineau - H.S.G.
• National Archives of Canada - N.A.C.
• The Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society - O.B., O.G.S.
• Range - R
• Lot - L
• Township - Twp
• Up The Gatineau - U.T.G.

St-Pierre-de-Wakefield is somewhat distant from the Gatineau Valley, but my reason for searching there was specific: to attempt to locate the burial site of one of Wakefield's original settlers, Hugh McGarry.

It should be noted that most of the family cemeteries, and all of the unmarked traditional burial sites are on private property. It is not my intention to direct people to explore these remote places, but rather to record their existence, and in some cases, to promote an improvement in their overgrown state. I appreciate and thank the present owners of these properties for having assisted me and cooperated in recording the sites.

Documentation of many of the established cemeteries has been done by volunteers, an invaluable service to genealogical societies and researchers. This monumental task entails the numbering and recording of each headstone with names and dates inscribed, the indexing of the names, and in many cases the mapping of the cemetery.

Norma Geggie, 1999

Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Search for our Pioneers
The Cemeteries of Hull Township
The Protestant Burial Ground, Old Chelsea
St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Old Chelsea
Pioneer Cemetery, Chelsea
The Baldwin Family Cemetery, Meech Creek Valle
Ste. Elisabeth Roman Catholic Cemetery, Cantley
United Cemetery, Cantle
Blackburn Cemetery, Cantley
Cemeteries of Wakefield Township
Copeland Family Cemetery, Wakefield
Hall Cemetery, Wakefield
Pritchard Cemetery, Alcove
Pritchard-Hamilton Family Cemetery, Alcove
St. Camillus Roman Catholic Cemetery, Farrelton
Cemeteries of Masham Township
MacLaren Cemetery, Wakefield
Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Lascelles
Union Cemetery, Rupert
Old Cemetery, Lake Settlement, Rupert
Irwin Family Cemetery, Rupert
Sainte-Cécile-de-Lapêche Cemetery, Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham
French-Protestant (Huguenot) Cemetery, Duclos
Cemeteries of Low Township
Holy Cross Cemetery, Fieldville
Protestant Cemetery, Low
St. Martin's Cemetery and Memorial, Martindale
Cemeteries of Mont Ste Marie Township
Lac Ste Marie Cemetery
Cemeteries of the Anglican Churches of Kazabazua, Danford, Cawood and Aylwin
St. Stephen's Anglican Cemetery. Kazabazua
Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Danford Lake
St. Peter's Anglican Cemetery, Cawood
St. John in the Wilderness, Aylwin
Cemeteries of the United Churches of Kazabazua, Aylwin and Danford
Methodist Cemetery, Kazabazua (United Church)
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Cemetery. Aylwin (United Church)
Methodist Cemetery, Danford Lake (United Church)
Cemetery of Saint-Pierre-de-Wakefield
Paroisse Saint-Pierre Cemetery
Cemetery Management
Traditional Unmarked Burial Sites in the Gatineau
Township of Hull
Cascades Burial Site
Cross/McFadden Burial Site, Meech Creek Valley
Brown, McClelland and Colonel Cantley Burial Sites, Cantley
Township of Wakefield
Mullen Burial Site, Wakefield
Township of Masham
McCorkell Burial Site, Masham
Stewart Burial Site, Lascelles
Prentiss Burial Site, Usher Lake
Township of Denholm
Maxwell Burial Site
A Word from the Headstones
Afterword
Endnotes
Annex "A"
Reference Works, Church Histories, Cemetery Records
Other Sources
Index

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my husband Stuart,
who shared my enthusiasm for old cemeteries
and accompanied me on all my rambles.

Acknowledgements

A great deal of what follows is oral history - stories which have been passed down from generation to generation. There is a possibility that these stories may have been embellished over the generations; although impossible to authenticate, they are nonetheless of great value. I am grateful to the many people who patiently answered my questions and shared their stories, as well as to the others who accompanied me to these remote sites. They include: Ray Daly, the late Tom Foran, Stan and Bill Cross, Mabel and Jim Hammond, Martha Sully, Michel Frisque, the members of the Conservation Club on Malone Road, Bob McClelland, Joanne Macdonald, Denis Prudhomme, Gary Blackburn, Dennis and Harvey Ryan, Lloyd and Pansy Spallin, Bill Kuhns, and Lloyd Fitzpatrick. I am also grateful to those whose properties I have visited (with their permission): Bill Hogg, Michel and Johanne Lebel, Bill Kuhns and Dennis Ryan. For encouragement and generous criticisms I thank Ernie Mahoney, Jack and Heide Martin, and Judy and Andrew Geggie.

For the stories behind the folklore and legends surrounding burials and graveyards, I have sought the extensive knowledge of two prominent folklorists who have generously responded to my questions. I thank Phil Tilney and Sheldon Posen for their personal comments and for supplying me with sources on this interesting subject.

I am indebted to Jay Atherton and Alan Heginbottom, who have spent hours scrupulously editing this work. Any remaining errors are my responsibility.

As always, I have leaned heavily on the annual publication of the Historical Society of the Gatineau, and have given bibliographic credit to the authors of several articles in Up The Gatineau!

The mammoth achievement of documenting and mapping several of the pioneer cemeteries is to be admired. This was done in most instances by Patrick Evans often alone, but on occasion, with helpers. Bruce Elliott was responsible for the documentation of the Rupert Cemeteries. This work makes any historical research simpler.

The publication of this book has been made possible with the support of the Historical Society of the Gatineau. As well, I have received generous assistance from McGarry Memorial Services and Crematorium, Wakefield. Both Brian McGarry and Sharon Moore McGarry have deep roots in the Gatineau, being the fifth generation of original pioneers of the area. They have always retained their association with the Gatineau and continue to support local endeavours. I am appreciative of this assistance.

Norma Geggie.

Introduction

Cemetery rambling becomes a way of life. For forty years or more my husband Stuart and I found ourselves drawn to these lonely places, stopping to find what mystery the stones might unfold, signposts on the way. There is so much to fire the imagination and both gladden and sadden the heart. One experiences a certain cosiness in a well established graveyard, a congregation of souls who have lived out full lives and fulfilled most of their dreams. The sadness comes with the realisation of lives cut off just as they were blossoming, of children lost in infancy.

The interest is universal. In the old St. James Anglican churchyard on Moose Factory Island in northern Ontario, many tiny rectangles are surrounded by white picket fencing marking the graves of native children, far too numerous. The smallness of the enclosures emphasize the infancy or extreme youth of the occupants of the tiny graves.

As the vicar lives in the vicarage, and the rector in the rectory, so the Hudson's Bay factor lived in the "factory". Thus was named this island in the Moose River which flows into James Bay. Weathered, leaning headstones near the factor's residence point to the presence of the Hudson's Bay Company on this site from the midseventeenth century.

In gold-mining country in Beechworth, Australia, a section of a large cemetery contains the simple headstones of Chinese gold-seekers, close to small temple-like Buddhist structures.

They are separated by thousands of miles from their families back in China, and separated also from the Christian section of the burial ground, as they were no doubt separated in their daily struggle seeking gold in that rough country.

Without doubt the loneliest cemetery on earth is surely the island of Grosse Isle in Quebec. No headstones exist here for the more than five thousand, buried of necessity in mass graves, mound after rolling mound. These were victims of cholera and typhus on board crowded, pestilence-ridden ships bringing Irish immigrants to what they had dreamed of as a new opportunity in a new land. A magnificent granite Celtic cross stands on the highest point of the island in the St. Lawrence River, downstream from Quebec City. The message, in Gaelic, English and French, is to the memory of.. Thousands of the children of the Gael (who were lost on this island while fleeing from foreign tyrannical laws and an artificial famine in the years 1847-48. ¹

Wherever they are cemeteries are poignant sources of information about the lives of the people they serve to represent. This is true in our local area as well. More than thirty years ago Stuart and I came upon the stone memorial to the Rev. Thomas Robert Johnson by the side of a little-used dirt road in Pontiac County. The message read:

... late Missionary of the Church of England who in the discharge of his Master's work died by an accident near this spot 1873, Aug. 13. "To die is gain."

A patch of petunias bloomed bravely in front of the stone. Two tall white spruce on either side must have been planted decades ago. When we passed recently. (1996), a plaque had been added, no doubt placed there by the now scattered congregation of the Greermount Anglican Church some kilometres further along the road. Thomas Johnson was on his way to minister to his flock when he apparently was thrown from his horse at the foot of a steep hill. Despite the isolation of his headstone, he is remembered.

Not so Catherine Keeler. We had to fight the raspberry bushes and stamp out a path to reach the enclosure where her monument hides, close to the Ragged Chute on the Quyon River. Inside the wire fence daylilies and tansy tangle between the hawthorn bushes, and one needs to part them to read the inscription. She died at the age of 57 in 1871. Did she have children? Where is Uriah, her husband? Are they buried in consecrated ground? It would seem very unusual for a Catholic burial to take place in such a place. Or was she Protestant? If so, a home burial would have been acceptable, in fact, almost customary in an isolated area.

These examples illustrate that such remote cemeteries have tales to tell if we could unlock the mystery.

Once we began our search for small private burial sites in the Gatineau Valley, we were astounded at the number of such areas, stories of many passed down for generations, the names and numbers of occupants lost with the telling. In some cases all physical signs of the burial site are lost, trees overgrown, markers toppled or even buried sometimes. Oral history passed on by elders is all that remains. This monograph is an attempt to record these sites before even more are lost.

The Gatineau River was used by the nomadic aboriginal population long before European settlement. There are understood to be sites of First Nations burials in this valley.²

This river was travelled by voyageurs in the 1600s. It was a treacherous and wild waterway with difficult rapids, and it is most probable that some of these men met their deaths in the turbulent waters. If wooden crosses were left on their burial sites they would have long disappeared before the same route was travelled by the loggers who followed.

Settlement came to the lower Gatineau Valley in the early 1800s. The first to arrive were New Englanders seeking the opportunity offered by wider vistas, untapped resources and the freedom to develop a new life-style in the promising forests of Upper Canada.

The expansion of Philemon Wright's community at the Chaudière Falls brought a wider family of relatives and contacts, some from England. Later, more recent newcomers from Ireland found work in the mills, foundries, farms, and the expanding lumber industry. The often told story is of immigrants squatting on land, progressively moving further north, clearing and later claiming and paying for the acreage that they had continued to farm and expand over a period of twenty years or so.

Despite the relative proximity of fellow immigrants, many from the same county or town in the Home Country, these deeply religious people did not find the comfort of a priest or clergyman for some twenty years after their arrival.

Life was hazardous. If they had managed to survive the rigours of an Atlantic crossing on disease-ridden ships, and in some cases, years of poor diet and hardship prior to departure, they possibly were wiry enough to come through the first years of restricted provisions and severe winters. They were to a great extent a young population, and although life expectancy was shorter than we know it, they still could expect to have thirty or forty productive years ahead. The risk of bearing and raising children was great. There are fewer children's burial plots in our cemeteries than the census returns would lead us to believe as being the true record of their fragile lives. There must have been many early deaths within that twentyyear period before the demand for religious leadership was met.

They were a Christian people, practising a devotion to their faith not often seen in our present day. Whether Catholic or Protestant, most shared in family devotions daily. In the absence of ordained clergy, an adult, most likely male, but perhaps at times female, would have followed the rituals of comfort to the dying and of Christian burial.

We readily recognise the plight of these pioneers in confronting illness with little or no medical help available. Of equal or greater concern to them would have been the absence of a member of the clergy in the event of a death in the family.

Catholic missions were established in Old Chelsea, Aylmer, and North Wakefield in the 1830s, but the services of the priest were in demand over a vast area, from the logging camps in the farthest reaches to the two or three Mission stations long distances apart. There must have been times when Absolution for the dying would have been impossible and a cemetery not within reach. Despite the distance, every effort would be made to have the burial in consecrated ground.

Hector Legros writes of the residence of M. Ovide Belanger, in the new settlement in Masham, as having been the place where baptisms, funerals, and marriages took place prior to the construction of a chapel on his property in 1843. This leader in the community, M. Belanger, was authorized by the Bishop of Montreal, Msr. Bourget, to receive the consent of marrying couples. When a priest eventually arrived in the area, he would ratify the marriage canonically.³

For the Protestant population, in our valley Methodist, Anglican and Presbyterian, private burial grounds were acceptable.

Much thought would go into the choice of a burial site: perhaps a rocky knoll, a sheltered bay backed by a grove of trees. These are places where I would choose to have a picnic, on a rise, with a view to the fields below, or a secluded tree-lined edge of field. A farmer may be laid to rest on a spot where he had habitually stopped to take refreshment and rest from his morning of ploughing, where he could survey the expanse of land. A child might be placed in a favourite glade where he or she had played, a special place, a place apart, where a grieving mother might look to where her little one lay, “Asleep in Jesus”, as many epitaphs read.

Such very special places remain in our valley, some marked with headstones, some only marked in people's memories, but preserved as such from generation to generation. It is very possible that many others are unmarked and forgotten, overgrown with the passage of time.

With the advent of church construction came sites for burial of the flock. At times however, the church location did not provide a suitable area for a burial ground, and a member of the congregation might offer land for this use.

In other instances, with growth and prosperity of the congregation, a new church might be built. The old church would be demolished, but the graveyard would remain, initially cared for, but in time forgotten and neglected. At least two plots in the area are known to have been crudely bulldozed. Most established cemeteries in the area are now well tended. Perhaps we should move to repair the others that are forgotten.

The Search for our Pioneers

The Cemeteries of Hull Township

In the Township of Hull, settlement took place as the nineteenth century began; thus this township was some thirty years ahead of the adjacent ones to the north, Wakefield and Masham

The Protestant Burial Ground, Old Chelsea

This old cemetery is located in the centre of the community of Old Chelsea, and holds some of the earliest graves in the area. The land was granted in 1824 to Thomas Brigham. It was sold to Charles Chamberlin in 1850 and remained in his possession until the mid-twentieth century. The cemetery became the responsibility of the Municipality of Chelsea in 1989.⁴

The earliest headstone is that of Thomas Wright, who arrived in the area with his younger brother Philemon. Thomas died in 1801 before Wrightville was fully established. There are some doubts as to whether he is actually buried here, or simply memorialized. Another pioneer who was prominent in the growth of the young community was the Rev. Asa Meech, whose headstone records his death in 1849. He had arrived from Massachusetts in 1815, and settled at Meech Lake in 1821.⁵

Isaac Cross, whose sister Mary was married to Robert Sully, followed his relatives to the Meech Creek area after marrying in Bytown where he had been working.⁸ Despite the considerable distance from this northerly location in Hull Township. to the Protestant Burial Ground in Old Chelsea, it is here where Robert Sully, his wife, Mary Cross; Isaac Cross and his wife Sarah Earle, were buried. Thyme creeps between the ancient stones, filling the air with its pungency and, loitering here, one is transported into an earlier century.

The iron gates of the Protestant Burial Ground bear the date 1891 despite the early headstones therein. In time the burial ground became quite neglected until, in the 1980s, its very overgrown condition became an issue. Finally it was rescued by a conscientious group of local residents. Members of the Historical Society of the Gatineau undertook to pursue funding sources for the necessary repair of stones and the return of this historic site to some order. Local historian Patrick M. 0. Evans, together with Cyril Payne, documented the stones and mapped the site in 1985.⁹

Rather surprisingly, there are signs of more recent burials included amongst these historic headstones: Barbara Lonergan, 1933-1980, worked energetically in her community and was serving on local Municipal Council at the stage of her untimely death: Graham Spry, who died in 1983, left a great legacy to the nation in his work for the foundation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Old Chelsea

A short distance east of the Protestant Burial Ground is the cemetery of St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church in Old Chelsea. Initially a mission station, the community of Chelsea was elevated to a Parish in 1845, and a wooden chapel was built.¹⁰ While the present fine stone structure dates from 1879, the adjoining graveyard holds headstones from the 1850s onwards. The large, extended nature of the families of the Irish settlers are evident.

Of interest are a row of memorials to members of the Daly family. On several of the headstones there is variation in the spelling of the names. For example, Richard is DAILEY, as is Catharine, wife of Thomas Dailey, whereas the memorial for David, son of Richard, records DAILY. The wife of Peter O'Bryne was Mary DALY. Yet again Mary Welsh is recorded as the wife of Richard DALEY. The appearance of these four different spellings on adjacent headstones is not unusual for the time, when perhaps names weren't written down very frequently and literacy was not very widespread. The most common spelling today is "Daly".

Michael and Richard Daly had, in about 1827, taken advantage of the secluded but open sweep of the Meech Creek valley. In fact, in 1842, the enumerator recorded five Daly families in that area.¹¹ While the distance from their homes to St. Stephen's Church in Old Chelsea was considerable, it was here where they attended when able. For more than 150 years members of the Daly family have proven themselves true pioneers in settling several townships: Hull, Wakefield, Aldfield, and possibly others farther north. Their many descendants remain in the Gatineau.

St. Stephen's Cemetery holds graves from the 1860s to the present day, and tells something of the perils of the early days. Two drownings are recorded: in 1865 Thomas Sheahan perished in the Gatineau River, and in 1877 Michael Carrol lost his life in the Madawaska.

Although St. Stephen's remains an active cemetery, it is one to stroll through to experience the historic significance of so many stones. This cemetery was documented in 1980.¹²

Pioneer Cemetery, Chelsea

In Chelsea, off Route 105 to the north of the Village, is the Pioneer Cemetery. This possibly originated as a burial plot for members of the Church family, dating from the 1850s. It became the final resting place of about fifty members of original families of the area until early in the twentieth century. with a total of sixteen monuments. What brought the cemetery to prominence was the search, in 1960, by the Department of National Defence, for the whereabouts of the grave of Richard Thompson. He was the sole Canadian recipient of the Queen's Scarf of Honour, seven of which were crocheted personally by Queen Victoria. Private Thompson earned this unique decoration for his exemplary role in the field as a medical attendant during the Boer War. His wife was Bertha Alexander, whose family settled at Meech Lake.¹³

Following his early death from appendicitis at age 31 in 1908, he was buried with full military honours in the graveyard of his choice in Chelsea. Fifty-seven years after his burial, the significance of the cemetery became recognised nationally with the unveiling of a memorial marker.

The cemetery site has since been donated by Cecil Meredith to the Historical Society of the Gatineau, the members of which have, with physical labour and financial support, made great improvements to this exceptional site.

This cemetery has been documented by Patrick Evans. ^{4.8 MB 14}

These three well-located Chelsea cemeteries are each worth a visit.

The Baldwin Family Cemetery, Meech Creek Valley

In 1840 James Baldwin earned a grant for the 200 acres which he had cleared and built on in the Meech Creek valley, Lot 25, Range 15, Township of Hull, in return for his service as a Sergeant in the 80th Regiment of Foot.¹⁵

On this land a private burial plot was established. This is still in evidence, some two hundred metres from where the homestead stood; and it is, as one might expect, on a rocky rise from which one can view the expanse of farmland so vigorously cleared and worked.

The cemetery is located off Pine Road at the northern end of Meech Creek Valley, and has recently been enclosed within a white chain-link fence with a gate.

One monument still stands, an eroded octagonal marble column on a square concrete base. It is the headstone for Charlotte Wright, and the inscription on the east side tells us she died November 19, 1909, in her 80th year. On the north side of the same stone is an inscription for William Baldwin, who died June 11, 1869, aged 35 years, and on the west side, an inscription for Robert Earle, who died November 10, 1879 at age 73. Charlotte, who was a granddaughter of Thomas Wright, was married first to Hugh McMullin¹⁶ (not buried here), so that William Baldwin was her second husband, and Robert Earle her third. All three predeceased her.

The base of a second stone is visible, but the stone has been broken off above the base. The broken monument has been removed and preserved by a descendent, Mrs. Mabel Hammond. It would appear that this headstone was erected by Charlotte for her sons and husband, whereas the stone remaining on the site was erected as the story of Charlotte's life. The broken stone bears the following inscription:

William Baldwin, June 11, 1869, AE 35 years.
Frederick Baldwin, died, Feb.2. 1869, AE 3 years.
William Baldwin, Jan 29, 1892, AE 29 yrs.¹⁷

So the tragedy of Charlotte's life unfolds. She lost her first husband and was just 39 when she lost a three-year-old son and then her young second husband just four months later, leaving her with a six-year-old, William Junior. And although Robert Earle was considerably her senior, they had less than eight years together before she lost him as well.

This of course was the pattern. It was more frequent for the man to marry two and three times, when he might be widowed while young, and father of several young children. It was also a time when the security of marriage was so much more of a necessity for a woman.

The brick homestead which served as the Baldwin residence, stood nearby. In the early 1900s the property was owned by the Hyde family, and operated by a member of the Hyde family, as the Morningside Home for the elderly between 1960 and 70. The land was expropriated in the 1980s with all of Meech Creek Valley for a proposed zoo, and the buildings were demolished.

Mr. William Cross, who farmed the land in more recent years, remembers a third tombstone¹⁸. What is missing is the headstone of the patriarch, James Baldwin. Was he in fact the first to be buried on his own land, in an unmarked grave, or was a wooden marker or a local stone erected which has been dislodged? If the lack of a headstone is any indication, he was not, like his neighbours further along the valley, transferred to the Old Chelsea Burial Ground. This is one of the several mysteries concerning the whereabouts of pioneers' remains.

Ste. Elisabeth Roman Catholic Cemetery, Cantley

This large church, established in 1868, is on Ste Elisabeth Road on the crest of a hill. The adjoining cemetery, comfortably situated and beautifully bordered by huge pines, seems just to have grown into the landscape. The well groomed burial ground contains many older headstones.

Names included are those of many of the original settlers: Holmes, Lynott, Hogan, Fleming, Maloney, Foley, Millks, Shields, Cashman, Burke, Tempeny and Kearney amongst others. The variation of spelling again is evident, with Tempeny/Tenpeny/Tenpenny: Millks/ Milks; Easy/Easey and Boon/Boone.

Two Barton memorials have Military tablets:

and

Also included on the Farmer monument is

This cemetery was recorded ^{4.9 MB} by P.M.O. Evans and Patrick Horan in 1977 and 1982.¹⁹

United Cemetery, Cantley

Although this cemetery is immediately to the west of Highway 307, it is very difficult to find; unless one ventures slowly south on the highway as one approaches Ste. Elisabeth Street it is very easy to miss the narrow road leading to it. A house of recent vintage is immediately to its north, and at the rear of the large fenced burial ground a newer house has been built. Their location is a pleasant one however, as the well groomed grassed cemetery creeps down the steep slope from the now busy highway, and is edged by tall trees, with the occasional giant pine and oak in its midst. Several of the older headstones are now hidden in the centre of lilacs, as though protected by them, as perhaps they are.

The parents, J. and F.A. Brown, recorded their four children's ages to the day, as well they might, as they lost them in 1892, at the age of 1 year, 6 months and two days; in 1895, at 1 year, 1 month and 8 days; in 1895, at 4 years, 9 months and 20 days, and finally in 1896 at 9 months and 9 days. What a tragic tale of loss.

Names well-known in the area to this day appear on some of the earlier stones: Wilson, Brown, Patterson, and McClelland.

Perhaps the earliest headstone is that of Crisstiana Sifton, wife of James McClelland who died, Feb. 3. 1860 at 57 years, and James McClelland himself, a native of County Armagh, Ireland, who died at 50 years in 1865.

This was recorded in 1977 as Protestant Cemetery, Cantley, Que.²⁰

Blackburn Cemetery, Cantley

J. L. Gourlay wrote that: the Blackburns were the highest up white settlers on the Gatineau in their time of location (1829).²¹

Andrew Blackburn Senior was 59 when he came out from Scotland with two of his sons, Andrew, aged 18, and David, 14 years. The mother, Isabella Lennox, and a younger son arrived the following year. Andrew Blackburn's name appears on early Presbyterian Church records from the Wakefield charge. ²²

The place where they settled was a height of land above the east bank of the Gatineau River. Here, on what is now River Road, is a cemetery enclosed within a white picket fence.

At first glance this appears to be a private Blackburn plot, but on investigation we found that the fairly recently erected picket fence had been installed to surround only the remaining stones of what had been a much larger cemetery. Prior to the establishment of the Protestant Burial Ground, (the United Cemetery, Cantley). many burials were performed on the Blackburn site, for residents of the community with no connection to this family.²³

The extant Blackburn monuments are memorials to some fifteen members of this pioneer family. A tall fairly elaborate marble stone (which appears to have lost part of the top) commemorates Andrew Blackburn, Snr, who was born Dec. 9. 1770 and died April 29, 1855; his wife Isabella Lennox, born Aug. 13, 1775, died June 14, 1860, and their son John, born Dec. 18, 1817, died 1866.

On the same stone is the memorial to their son, David Blackburn, born July 19, 1815, died June 28, 1899; his wife Catherine Davis, born July 22, 1822, died May 9, 1851, and their sons, William, born Nou, 30, 1845, died July 10, 1847; and Andrew born Aug. 29, 1844, died March 17, 1875.

By examining these dates we see that Catherine lost her little boy William when he was just 20 months. She then died herself four years later leaving her son Andrew at 7 years.

The second stone is for the eldest son, Andrew Blackburn, born Jan 18. 1811. died July 31, 1890, and Margaret Pollack, his wife, born July 23, 1812, died Mar. 8, 1886; as well as possibly a daughter of Andrew and Margaret, Christina Blackburn, wife of D. Cameron, died Sept. 12, 1895, 47 years.

On the same stone are no fewer than five children of Andrew and Margaret; Isabella, died Mar 27, 1842, ae 5 yrs; James, died Mar 24, 1842, 4 yrs; Lennox, died July 24, 1847, ae 5 yrs; Robina Buchan, died Aug. 27, 1851, ae 1 yr, and William, died Sept. 10, 1851, ae 3 yrs.

One would suspect that the little siblings who died within days of each other in 1842, and within two weeks in 1851, must surely have suffered some infectious disease for which nothing could be done. Christina may have been the only child to survive to adulthood. These two stones appear to have been erected about the turn of the century, when all names were recorded on them.

Although remains of an older wire fence around the cemetery can be seen, there is no sign of further stones. One family story is that there were as many as 100 burials on this site.²⁴ Because of stony outcrops surrounding this fenced cemetery, it is hard to imagine that so many burials could have been accommodated in such a restricted area.

Cemeteries of Wakefield Township

The settlement of Wakefield Township in the 1830s produced four churches: Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic.

The earliest Methodist Meeting House was on the property of Thomas Copeland in Lot 1, Range 1, bordering the Gatineau River west bank.²⁵ At a site, possibly closeby, a burial ground was established, and remains to this day, although overgrown and somewhat dilapidated.

Copeland Family Cemetery, Wakefield

This is situated in R. 1, L.4c, approximately 1.5 km south of Wakefield Village on a hardwood-covered hillside overlooking the Gatineau River, a property that was listed in the 1842 census as belonging to Thomas Copeland.

It is a small private cemetery, fenced-off by wire and shaded by one veteran white pine tree. The site, which is at the edge of a field, is slowly being reclaimed by new growth, but the tombstones are still surrounded by grasses. Two tombstones stand sideby-side, facing downriver. A flat vertical marble stone bears the inscription:

In memory of THOMAS COPLAND died Mar. 9, 1858, AE. 67 yrs. And his wife MARTHA MAXWELL died Nov. 21, 1851 AE 53 yrs.

A tall marker topped with a stone urn reads:

In Loving Memory of WILLIAM COPELAND died Mar. 9. 1884 Aged 59 yrs and his loving wife MARGARET BROWN died Aug. 7, 1901 aged 71 years.

The variation in spelling is again evident over these two generations. This could have been the stonemason at fault, or simply a change to reflect the correct pronunciation.

By the 1842 census, Thomas Copeland had been in the Province of Lower Canada for eight years (having arrived in 1834). William Maxwell had arrived in 1832 and John Maxwell, in 1830.²⁶ William and Thomas were neighbours in Wakefield. The information on the headstones gives us another clue. Thomas was 43 years of age when he arrived in 1834, Martha Maxwell, 34, and William Copeland (their son). 9 years. One would suspect that Martha, John, and William Maxwell were siblings, and that each followed the other in their immigration to this new land. This was very much a pattern. Colonization was influenced to a great extent by word-of-mouth reports; one member of a family or village made the first move and others followed suit as soon as it seemed either a safe thing to do, or that things could be arranged for their departure from their homeland. It certainly would have contributed to a happier and more stable settlement, and obviously land was readily available.

Copeland's farm was the landing site for a ferry or cable scow for many decades, possibly originating with Thomas' need to cross the river regularly to his land, as he had acquired property on both the east and west banks of the Gatineau. In fact, the scow crossing at Copeland's Landing is shown as late as 1931 on a Department of Interior topographic map²⁷, although the ferry may have ceased long before that, possibly as soon as the Gendron Bridge was completed in Wakefield in 1915.

The earliest known headstone north of Hull Township was found in the 1960s on the railway right-of-way in the vicinity of the Copeland cemetery. This stone, which had been in the possession of the Historical Society of the Gatineau for some time, has been transferred to the Wakefield Cemetery Board with the idea that they might find a place for it in one of the cemeteries which they oversee. The marker records the death of John, son of William and Mary Poole, who died Nov. 6, 1836, aged one month, 26 days. His parents were members of the Methodist congregation, and gave land for the larger church to be built in Wakefield in 1867, replacing the first Meeting House.

Hall Cemetery, Wakefield

None of the three Protestant churches within the Village of Wakefield had the space for a burial ground, as each of them - Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian - bordered the river and were extremely limited in the area of land on which they sat. Consequently, land donated by George Hall became accepted as the community cemetery. This could have been in the 1850s, as this is the period from which the earliest headstones date. George Hall had arrived in Wakefield Township in 1835 and settled on 100 acres of land in Range 1, Lot 1.²⁸

A Harvest Home Festival is recorded in early Presbyterian Church records, as being held in Hall's Grove in 1880. The admission fee of twenty-five cents was to go towards the cost of the Rupert Church²⁹ (which was constructed in 1882). Perhaps there was an area above the cemetery, amongst the tall pines, which lent itself to such an outing.

A grassy hillside bordering George Hall's farmland, possibly a little too sandy for good farming, was a favourable site for this, the earliest of Wakefield's community cemeteries. Today it is edged by massive white pines. One of these majestic trees fell during a storm in 1996, fortunately causing little damage to headstones, but posing a heavy load of work for the crew needing to clear the area.

Legends exist of aboriginal burial sites in this vicinity. A native burial under a large white birch tree is believed to be the first interment at this cemetery.³⁰

As well, a group of boulders outside of the cemetery fence at the south end are understood to represent an historic aboriginal burial site.³¹

This graveyard contains the largest number of headstones for original Protestant settlers to the Township. These include Foster Moncrieff, George Hall, William Fairbairn, Jervis Mullen, and Thomas Stevenson, all of whom were listed in the first census of 1842. It is here where the descendants of all of these and many who came in the next wave of settlement, were laid to rest. Some of these headstones have not weathered well. The granite readily available, and the thin white limestone, wear and crumble, and in some cases inadequate foundations have shifted, causing cracking and even fallen stones. The fine headstone erected to the memory of William Fairbairn and his wife Jane Wanless, was one such, and in the 1980s an entirely new stone replaced it. William Fairbairn came to this country as a stonemason, and worked on the Rideau Canal before settling in Wakefield in 1834.³² Four years later he erected the first flour mill on the falls of the Lapêche River. The original headstone read:

FAIRBAIRN
in honoured memory of the pioneer
William Fairbairn – Millwright,
and his wife Jane Wanless - nurse,
Roxburghshire, Scotland.
1790 – 1867
They builded better than they knew who builded for posterity

As in this case, many of the early headstones give a very detailed history of the birthplace of the deceased: Killeleah, Co. Down, Ireland (Thomas Stevenson), Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ireland, (Ann Pritchard), Native of County Donegal, Ireland (John Clarke).

However, apart from this, little is written to tell of the accomplishments of these remarkable people.

The Robert Earle who was memorialized in the Baldwin cemetery together with his wife Charlotte Wright (Baldwin). has a headstone in Hall Cemetery together with his first wife, Elizabeth Trowsse, who died September 17, 1871, aged 62 years.

An early headstone is that of Ruggles Church, son of Stephen and Caroline Wright, d. Jan 19, 1865. AE 8 mos and 14 days.

Census returns indicate that Dr. Stephen Wright was the first medical doctor to serve Wakefield Township from possibly the late 1850s and 1860s.³³ He was the grandson of Thomas Wright, the brother of Philemon, who was commemorated with the 1801 marker in the Old Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery.³⁴

Dr. Falls, who followed him in the practice, stayed only ten years or so³⁵, but Pioneer monument, Hall Cemetery, Wakefield. the third doctor, a local boy, is buried in Hall Cemetery as well. Nothing on the very fine tall headstone erected for Dr. Hans Stevenson tells of his having been born on one of the original farms and having returned after his training to serve his people tirelessly. The dates give the clue to his too early demise, 58 years, but only stories from the elderly tell of the carriage after carriage of mourners who followed this much beloved physician to his burial in 1911.³⁶

We can also trace something of the sadness of the life of Mary Poole, who is recorded on one monument as having been born in 1804 and died in 1876. This possibly is the mother of the little boy, John, whose headstone was unearthed near the Copeland property. If so, she would have been 32 when he died at one month and 26 days in 1836. She is recorded in Hall Cemetery with family who are possibly her grandchildren, as they were born in 1861, 1863, 1870, and 1880. Two infants died in 1863, but the other three died in April, May, and June of the same year, 1884. They were aged 23, 14, and 4 years.

In the summer of 1997, a Pioneer Memorial Committee was set up, under the leadership of Ron Stevenson, a great-great-grandson of an original settler, Thomas Stevenson. Two monuments were installed, one in Hall Cemetery, and the other in MacLaren Cemetery. The bronze plaques memorialize the pioneers from 1827 to 1881, and their descendants buried there. An extensive fund-raising effort made this possible, and a publicity campaign resulted in the gathering of some 160 descendants from across Canada for the unveiling and dedication of these memorials, on August 4, 1997.

In 1961, a Cemetery Board was set up to restore and maintain Hall and MacLaren Cemeteries in Wakefield. With representation from both Anglican and United Churches, it has the responsibility for the sale of burial plots and the maintenance of the sites. In recent years the Board has attempted to raise funds from the interested public towards these costs. Great strides have been made in beautifying Hall Cemetery. An artistic and tastefully laid out area takes advantage of many old fieldstones protruding from the sod, to highlight the difficulty of the first settlers in finding appropriate markers for the earliest burials. This area is contained within cedar fencing, with a sign explaining the project, setting this cemetery out as a true pioneer one. In addition, a flower bed with perennials and shrubs, and again a border of cedar fencing edges the entrance to the cemetery itself. A flagpole and flag were installed in 1998.

The impression one has is of a well-groomed and cared for cemetery where one can stroll and, in reading the epitaphs, gain a sense of history. Hall Cemetery remains active, and although limited in space, will continue to accommodate the needs of local residents for some years.

This large cemetery was recorded by Pat Evans, with Cyril and Kevin Payne in 1985.³⁷

Pritchard Cemetery, Alcove

The original Pritchard settlement in R 5, L 2 of Wakefield Twp³⁸ was on the west bank of the Gatineau, and can still be reached from an offshoot of Route 105, at the south end of the village of Alcove. This leads onto one of the few remaining stretches of the original Gatineau Highway. The family cemetery is situated a distance behind the fine Pritchard homestead on this road, and can be accessed from River Road. A private driveway about 50 metres on the left leads to the fenced graveyard.

An early panorama of Alcove shows this cemetery, which covers approximately 50 by 200 metres, clearly defined in an open area back from the houses bordering the river. Over the years however, the site became very overgrown, while no longer in continued use. For several decades the extended Pritchard family has met annually, and some ten or fifteen years ago a vigorous effort was made to reclaim this exceptional burial spot.

Many headstones are scattered in what is now a treed area. Tall pines form shade, while lily-of-the-valley and small native plants carpet the graveyard. All head stones denote a relationship to the Pritchard family. That of the patriarch, James, and his wife Judith reads:

JAMES PRITCHARD died June 1880, aged 96 years and 9 mos.
Native of Co. Monaghan.
JUDITH FERGUSON wife of James, died 1852, aged 64 years.
Native of Co. Monaghan.

Their grandson, Dr. James Pritchard, who practiced medicine in the community, died at the early age of 47 years in 1918, and is also buried nearby.

Pritchard-Hamilton Family Cemetery, Alcove

This burial plot of members of one family is located in R5, L 1A, about 500 metres west of Alcove village on the edge of a hardwood hillside. The property is presently owned by Dr. William Hogg.

A fenced field is edged by a hardwood bush in which lily-of-the-valley and perennial phlox grow. Three headstones sheltered here commemorate the burials of four members of the Pritchard family. The oldest, a marble obelisk, bears this inscription on its south side:

In memory of WILLIAM HAMILTON PRITCHARD.
Born 13 April 1850, Died 30 June 1868

A small scallop-topped stone is to the memory of:

ALFRED ERNEST Chamberlin, son of H.C. and S. Chamberlin
died May 29, 1886. Aged 10 months, 25 days.

while the third monument, a pair of columns topped with an ornate arch, is inscribed:

In loving memory of
THOMAS PRITCHARD
Died 7 Apr. 1906 AE 89 yrs

and

His wife ELVIRA HAMILTON
Died 15 Oct. 1899 AE 76 Yrs.
Blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord.

Thomas was the third son in the large family of James and Judith Pritchard who had arrived from Ireland in 1834. William Hamilton Pritchard, Thomas and Elvira's son, apparently drowned in the Gatineau River.³⁹ Salome Chamberlin, the mother of the baby Alfred Ernest, was a daughter of the Pritchards.⁴⁰

This seems to be an instance when, following the tragic loss of their eighteen year old son, the parents chose to have the burial on their property. and then of course the subsequent burials followed despite the fact that the Pritchard family cemetery had been established at this stage.

St. Camillus Roman Catholic Cemetery, Farrelton

The settlement of the Gatineau Valley seems in some respects to have been a transplantation of the Irish. There were, of course also Scots, English, New Englanders, and to the west, French from Lower Canada. However, of the original settlers in the Townships of Wakefield and Low, most were indeed Irish, and of those, the majority again, Catholic Irish. Understandably, they remained grouped in settlements, and whereas the Northern Irish Protestants gathered near Wakefield Village and Rupert, further north in the township the majority of the population was made up of Roman Catholics from Ireland.

In this northerly part of the township a log chapel was built on land donated in the early 1830s by Samuel Lord, a lumber merchant. It was not until 1859 that the stone church of Saint-Joseph-de-Wakefield was erected.⁴¹

The name of the church was changed to St. Camillus some time during the 1860s. This was during the pastorate of Reverend Camillus Gay.⁴² Once the railway came through in the 1890s, the name of North Wakefield dropped in favour of Farrelton, to honour the Farrell family of pioneers.

The church was replaced in subsequent years, and a large cemetery stands nearby, a mixture of old and recent headstones.

The older areas of this cemetery in time became very overgrown and neglected and, in an overly zealous effort to remedy this, some early headstones were pushed into the river with the debris.⁴³

The cemetery for St. Camillus Church now is very well tended.

The earliest burial, that of Thomas Carroll, was registered in June 8, 1857.⁴⁴ The children of Patrick Mason and Mary Plunkett are also amongst the early burials; James C. in 1858 and Josephine in 1860. Other names of original families are represented in Daly, Plunkett, Kelly, McGoey, Cahill, and Mahoney.

A headstone of note is that of Clarissa, a native of Briançon, France, the Rev. Camillus Gay's sister, who died November 23, 1873. Was she visiting, or had she come to keep house for her brother in his distant posting?

Cemeteries of Masham Township

MacLaren Cemetery, Wakefield

The MacLaren family had been established in Canada for twenty years before coming to Wakefield Township in 1844, to take advantage of the burgeoning development. They purchased the flour mill established by William Fairbairn in 1838, and procured land from the original settler, Joseph Irwin, in what was to develop into the Village of Wakefield.⁴⁵ As well, adjoining the mill on the Lapêche falls, they purchased considerable acreage, and continued to expand their enterprises, with a sawmill, woolen mill, and the construction of a large brick residence. The hillside behind the MacLaren house allowed for farming or pasture for animals, and on the edge of this hillside, against a bank of trees, they reserved a cemetery. This was mentioned in a Masham Roll Book of 1889. with a value of $100⁴⁶, although it was certainly in use long before that date. As Hall Cemetery in Wakefield Township was less than two kilometres from this site, it is possible that this was intended as a private graveyard.

The 1861 Census Return of Masham records the 1860 death from scarlet fever of two children of James MacLaren and Ann Sully, ages six and four years.⁴⁷ There is no burial plot for them evident on the hill above where they lived, but one wonders if this is indeed where they were placed.

The large obelisk which centres the plot is for David MacLaren, the patriarch. This reads:

DAVID MACLAREN, d. at Wakefield, 10 April, 1870
ae. 81 yrs -31 days
A native of Perthshire, Scotland
His wife ELIZABETH BARNET b. Perthshire, Scotland
17 Feb. 1788, d. Wakefield, Quebec, 3 Aug. 1875.

Most of the earlier headstones seem to have some connection to the MacLaren establishment, either as members of the family, or employees at the Mills; for example, John Edmond, the Scot who served as miller from 1868 to his death in 1911. In time, other residents of the area chose to acquire burial plots in this cemetery.

The grave of the late Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson is to be found in the north east section of the MacLaren Cemetery. During the time that Mr. Pearson was with the Department of External Affairs, he and friends Norman Robertson and Hume Wrong owned property nearby in the Gatineau. The three reserved adjoining plots, and are now buried with their wives in MacLaren Cemetery. Canadians from across the country come to pay homage to this man. The headstone reads:

PEARSON
Lester Bowles Pearson O.B.E.,P.C.,C.C., O.M.
Prime Minister of Canada 1963-1968
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
1967
1897 — 1972
husband of
MARYON ELSPETH MOODY

Remarkable contributions were also made by both Norman Robertson, and Hume Wrong, in the service of Canada in national and international affairs. The headstone of Norman Robertson, who died in 1968, reads:

He served his country as an officer
of the Department of External Affairs
from 1929 until his death.
Citation: Honorary Degree Cambridge University — 1948.

This cemetery contains a mix of early traditional tall stones and, since the 1960s, many handsome fieldstones. This may represent a trend towards recognising and appreciating the very rocks that make up the Precambrian Shield and the countryside which so much of the population has come to love.

A unique recent memorial has the form of a stone slab bench. It is the memorial to Arthur Brown, who was a member of the Cemetery Board at the time of his death. A lifetime resident of the Gatineau, he began, in his failing health, to construct bluebird houses. After his death, his son Jim completed the houses which are installed along the eastern fenceposts, and the bench seems to invite one to stay awhile and watch the bluebird residents which continue to return each spring.⁴⁸

A memorial plaque to the pioneers can be seen here, similar to that in Hall Cemetery.

Cedar fencing and perennial plots at the entrance of this cemetery enhance the site, and a Canadian flag flies at the gate. The cemetery was mapped and recorded in 1975.⁴⁹

Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Lascelles

The Anglican Parish was founded in 1865; this fine brick church, constructed in 1906, is the second to have stood on the site. The first clergyman, the Reverend Seaman, visited all corners of the parish on horseback during his fifteen year tenure.⁵⁰ At the north end of the churchyard are two tablets, commemorating the deaths of two daughters of John and Sarah Seaman: Charlotte Elizabeth who died at the age of one year, twelve days, in 1868, and Mary, in 1871, aged one year and one month. These monuments which now lie flat on the turf, appear to have been placed thus after having fallen from their bases.

Close by is another of the earlier headstones in this cemetery. It was erected by Robert Armstrong for his wife, Margaret Simpson, who died, aged 26, on March 20, 1872, shortly after giving birth. Their tiny daughter, Margaret, died 15 days later, on March 29.

Also in this graveyard are Colberts from County Tipperary, and Joynts and Neeleys, from County Mayo, Ireland. The contrast between the early childhood deaths and those of the very aged are evident. Samuel Thompson, who died in 1904, was into his 96th year.

This well tended site is no longer in use as a burial ground. It has been documented by Bruce Elliott.⁵¹

Union Cemetery, Rupert

This cemetery, on the north side of Chemin des Erables, between Lascelles and Rupert, was apparently established around 1900. The land possibly belonged originally to William Johnson, who settled on Lots 11 and 12, Range 7 in the Township of Masham in 1837. He gave land for the first Methodist church a little south of his home. This original building was shown in a census return of 1861.⁵² William's father-in-law George Johnstone had the adjoining lots of 13 and 14 in the same Range.

Initially all early Methodist and Presbyterian burials in this northern corner of Masham Township took place in the established burial ground at Fairbairn (Reilly) Lake.

This was the case with George J. Johnstone Senior and his wife, Polly-Ann, whose plot remained unmarked.⁵³ However a cairn was erected in the Rupert Union Cemetery in 1949 to the memory of the George Johnstone family. Similarly the second generation George Johnstone who died in 1887, was buried in the Fairbairn Lake cemetery with a monument erected later in the Union Cemetery.⁵⁴

William Johnston, who had married George J. Johnstone's daughter, has an impressive headstone placed centrally in the extensive, admirably groomed plot. His dates are 1810-1880, and Catherine, his wife, 1812-1882.

In the Rupert Union Cemetery is the headstone for Ann Irwin, the first child to be born in Wakefield Township. Joseph Irwin and Mary Pritchard's daughter Ann, 1829-1886, was the wife of James Shouldice, 1822-1895. There is a grouping of Shouldice headstones, an indication of those erected at a later date (the 1980s) to memorialize the family members who had been buried in the Old Cemetery at the lake, and whose remains were not transferred.⁵⁵

There are four traditional simple tablets marking graves of three veterans of World War I, and one of W.W.II:

A more recent tragedy, which will be difficult for future cemetery ramblers to understand, is the distressing story depicted in the headstone of the Hatch family.

HATCH
Deborah Anne Clarke
Jan. 17. 1954
Jessica Lauren Hatch
Sept.4. 1984
Andrew Hatch
Unborn
Deceased Nov. 10 1986
Family of Bruce
Forever young
Loved and free.

Residents of the area will always remember the young pregnant mother who, holding her two-year-old daughter, stepped from her car onto a fallen power line.

This very stable farming community still has land being farmed by fourth, fifth, and sixth generations, and the early headstones for Reilly, Mahon, Fairbairn, Gibson, and Johnston are representative of the farming population to this day

An active Rupert Union Cemetery Committee oversees the operation and care of this cemetery. The site is edged along the roadway with trees and hydrangea bushes.

Old Cemetery, Lake Settlement, Rupert

This is to be found on Shouldice Road about one kilometre east of Rupert.

The original settlement of what we know today as Rupert was around the lake, variably called Fairbairn, Shouldice, and more recently, Reilly's Lake. This northern part of Masham Township was referred to as "The Lake Settlement" in Masham Municipal papers of 1855.⁵⁶ Although nothing remains today of that centre of development other than the remains of the cemetery, there was a Presbyterian Church, a frame building constructed in 1861. An Orange Lodge and a school stood nearby, and of course the graveyard surrounded the Church.⁵⁷ As a confirmation of its status as the centre of the young farming community of North Masham, a motion in Council in 1855 instructed that notices of municipal matters should be posted at "the Lake Settlement" in French and English.⁵⁸

With the development of the community, growth moved to what was called "Leslie's Corners" about one kilometre west. The new Methodist Church (1874) and Presbyterian Church (1882), as well as the brick school and Orange Hall, were built around this new site, completely changing the centre of activity. The old church at the lake remained for some time before being demolished, and in time only the rather neglected cemetery remained. Once the Union Cemetery was established, the site became referred to as the "Old Cemetery". It has been called the Presbyterian, Gibson, Mitchell and, most recently, the Reilly Cemetery. Even though it adjoined the first Presbyterian Church it had been used by other denominations as well. The Gibson farm bordered the area, explaining that reference.

Members of the Mitchell family undertook to rescue the remaining headstones, and to consolidate them into a contained area. Some of these had been almost buried in the earth, others broken, but the result is perhaps a good solution for such a sadly neglected site. The names of O'Hara, Kennedy, Woods, Stothers, Riley, and of course Mitchell have been preserved: and once again, several infants are memorialized.

A plaque reads:

In memory of our ancestors Jane (Mitchell) Higgins, William Mitchell, Samuel Mitchell, from Cavan County, Ireland as well as other Gatineau Valley pioneer families who settled this area over the last 150 years, their struggles to build this land for all of us will not be forgotten.

"Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set"
Proverbs 22:28.
Dedicated July 1989 by the Mitchell family.

In 1985 members of the Shouldice family chose to move or erect new headstones at the Rupert Union Cemetery for members of that family who had been buried in the Old Cemetery. The original Shouldice farm had been on the edge of the lake, as were possibly the buildings described previously. The land where the original school stood in 1853 was part of Joseph Shouldice's property.⁵⁹ People have been buried on this site without headstones.⁶⁰ Some markers have been lost, and many interments remain unmarked. A fence still separates the original graveyard from the surrounding pasture.

There are two compilations of names from this cemetery, one refers to it as Old Cemetery, Rupert by Bruce Elliott (1973)⁶¹, and the more recent, as the Mitchell cemetery, by Deborah Toll. (1991)⁶²

Irwin Family Cemetery, Rupert

Irwin Road runs between McCrank Road and Chemin Des Erables in Rupert. The property is due east of the road before it takes a sharp turn northwest. Several generations of the Irwin family operated a farm, and a sawmill on this land. The homestead burned, but the barn remains.

In 1871, James and Elizabeth Irwin occupied 400 acres on Lots, 29, 30, 31 in Range 6.⁶³

The cemetery is on a rocky hillside to the north of the old Irwin barn. It is a small rectangular plot, 6 by 4.6 metres, surrounded by a picket fence with a gate at one corner, and somewhat overgrown, with wild roses and an apple tree in the enclosure. There is only one headstone, of black granite on a grey granite base. This is facing east and situated very close to the fence. This easterly face is inscribed in large letters, IRWIN. However, on the opposite face there is an inscription which is extremely difficult to read because of its proximity to the fence. It is inscribed:

JAMES IRWIN 1818-1902, and his wife, ELIZABETH GRAHAM 1822-1896
At rest

Family records show that both James and Elizabeth were in fact born in 1826, not as inscribed on the stone, and they died in Kazabazua.⁶⁴

Joseph Irwin died in Danford on Sept. 28, 1876, and was buried Sept. 30th; however the place of burial is not recorded. No headstone has been found in the Danford United Church (Methodist) Cemetery.⁶⁵ His wife, Mary Pritchard, died at the Irwin Settlement on March 28, 1885.⁶⁶ It is believed by family members that both Joseph and Mary are buried in the Irwin Cemetery.⁶⁷

Sainte-Cécile-de-Lapêche Cemetery, Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham

The development of the Township of Masham paralleled that of its adjoining Township. Wakefield, in the 1830s. The settlement was by French Canadians from Lower Canada, who followed a route along the lakes, Meech, Mousseau/Harrington, and Philippe, to the Lapêche River.

Here, just north of the river, close to the present junction of route 366 and the road into Lac Philippe, the first chapel was built in 1845, and at its rear, a cemetery was established from 1840. The earliest structure was replaced in 1853, by a building on the site of the present church, more in the centre of the burgeoning community of Masham. At that time eleven graves were exhumed and moved to the new area, presumably near where the present church is. In this process the remains were found of a young man, aged 22 years, by the name of Trudeau, who had drowned in the Lapêche River in 1848.⁶⁸

In 1910, another burial area was acquired. At the time, it was considered to be too remote. With the development of the community this may no longer be the case.

Chemin de la Prairie leads south from route 366 in the centre of the village of SteCécile-de-Masham to a large well tended cemetery, with headstones dating from 1910. At the rear of the Ste-Cécile-de-Lapêche Cemetery a crucifix as installed, at the foot of which were interred the remains of four priests who had died whilst serving this Parish: MM. Frémont, Fauré, Bertrand, and Benoit.⁶⁹

French-Protestant (Huguenot) Cemetery, Duclos

Located on the west side of the Masham-Duclos road via highway 366, a little more than a kilometre south of Duclos, there are remains of a cemetery which was on the site of a French-Protestant church built in 1883 and demolished in the 1930s. The whole area of the church property still remains fenced, and is surrounded by fields and housing lots. It is overgrown with lilac, spruce, and cherry saplings. Many graves have been moved but some remain, still fenced separately. The few remaining headstones read:

Records from 1883 of the First French Presbyterian Congregation of Masham, are of the ordination of Louis Giroux as Pastor and of A. F. Duclos as Elder and Clerk of the Session. These records are in the possession of the United Church in Wakefield.⁷⁰

M. Duclos had the post office originally, and perhaps thus the name of Duclos was taken as the place name. In 1998 the Huguenot cemetery was designated of historic significance by the Lapêche Municipal Council.

Cemeteries of Low Township

Holy Cross Cemetery, Fieldville

Within the same Mission as St. Camillus in Farrelton is the Church of the Holy Cross, Fieldville, with its adjacent cemetery.

A relatively recently established burial ground, it has apparently avoided the problem of headstones falling from their bases. White steps lead to a raised central crucifix which is surrounded by a field of grey stone crosses, unmarked apart from the traditional IHS, the Greek letters for the first letters of JESUS. Those headstones denoting burial sites have inscribed markers at the foot of the graves, embedded into the ground.

The names of Donovan, Field, Hayes, McCarthy, McCloskey, Brennan, Hogan, Kelly and Ducharme, are to be found. The earliest headstone appears to be à la mémoire de Théofida Ménard, 1891-1943, épouse de Henry Faubert.

Protestant Cemetery, Low

As lumbermen pushed further north, the settlement of these areas progressed, and with the cutting of the white pines around Paugan, the Township of Low opened up. Caleb Brooks from Boston had come as a young man to work for his uncle, Philemon Wright, in Hull Township. Once established, he proceeded with his wife to the new township.

The handsome white weatherboard residence which stands prominently on a hillside overlooking the village, was built originally as the home for Caleb Brooks' son, Marshall and his wife, Hannah."

Opposite "Brooks Hill" is the cemetery, which served the Protestant settlers and is now associated with the United Church in Low. Here the tall tombstone for Caleb and Ann Maria Dexter Brooks stands amongst those of many of their descendants and others. It reads:

Caleb Brooks of Boston, Mass. d. 1879 Mar. 7, 79 yrs. Ann Maria Dexter Brooks of Randolph, Vermont d. May 9, 1883, at 71 yrs.

Headstones include those of Barton, Brooks, Chamberlin, Evans, Fitzpatrick, Gibson, Gracey, Knox, Maxwell, McAfee, Morehouse, Newcommon, Orr, Ramsay, Stewart, Wilson and Wills.

When the documentation of the headstones was being done by Pat Evans in 1976', he found that Mrs. Doris Fitzpatrick of Low had commenced a listing from Burial Registers as a Centennial project. This index discloses that there were thirty-five burials without headstones.

St. Martin's Cemetery and Memorial, Martindale

The Catholic population in Low Township was without a church of its own for many years, necessitating many long trips down to St. Joseph's-de-Wakefield in the north of that adjoining township.

In time the Parish of St. Martin's was founded, and a small wooden chapel built and blessed in 1872 on land donated by Patrick Sullivan. The present church was constructed in 1892.

A cemetery stood nearby, immediately north of St. Martin's, with headstones dating from 1874. Rather curiously, this original cemetery was levelled, perhaps because of maintenance problems.

Opposite the church, on the west of the road, land was purchased from Martin O'Malley and William Farrell in 1900, and on this, a new graveyard established. At that time the cost of a grave lot was $4.00.⁷³

Because of the loss of the early headstones, a monument was constructed in 1977, to record the names from the lost graveyard. A short distance south of the church, a Celtic Cross stands above the Memorial, bearing the names of 164 of the early settlers between 1874 and 1900.

The names were recorded by Brian O'Regan in 1984.⁷⁴

The setting is striking. One cannot help feeling that this view of the rolling hills is reminiscent of the beautiful country which these pioneers left in sad circumstances, while the memorial plaque records their names for posterity, and honours them.

Cemeteries of Mont Ste Marie Township

Lac Ste Marie Cemetery

This village was relocated at the time of construction of several dams on the Gatineau River system, and the subsequent flooding of areas below and above the dam sites in 1927. A tall cross stands on an island in the centre of the lake formed by the flooding. It is sometimes thought that this represents the site of the original cemetery, but actually that is not the case. The cemetery was much closer to the existing houses.⁷⁵

The newer graveyard, dating from about 1935, is on a steep slope to the right of the hill at the entrance of the Village. Although some of the wooden crosses from the earlier burials were relocated to this site, they do not appear to have weathered the transfer.

Cemeteries of the Anglican Churches of Kazabazua, Danford, Cawood and Aylwin

St. Stephen's Anglican Cemetery, Kazabazua

Half way along the main street of Kazabazua, to the west, is St. Stephen's Anglican Church, which was built in 1892, somewhat later than the other Anglican Churches serving the area, possibly indicating a change in the distribution of the population. Consequently the headstones are dated after 1900, the earliest being 1902. Many are to members of the Anderson family.

Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Danford Lake

The first Anglican Church to serve this community was constructed in 1869 on one acre of land donated by Henry Heeney, for a place of worship and a cemetery. The present structure was completed in 1900, due to an increase in the size of the congregation.⁷⁶

The white wooden church stands handsomely with stained glass windows, belfry, and the well tended cemetery surrounding it, in a grove of tall white pines, similar to the giants which drew the settlers here in the first place.

A walk among the headstones reveals something of the tragedy of the loss of young members of a family:

Martha MILFORD,
wife of Alexander FOSTER,
D. 1901, 30 YRS.

IRWIN, Ruggles, 1872, 12 May, 4 yrs
IRWIN, William, 1872, 11 May, 6 yrs.

HENRY
Hilda, 1899, 15 yrs
Katherine, 1890, 15 yrs
Alice, 1900, 22 yrs
Luke, 1902, 66 yrs IRWIN,
Frederick, 1886, 18 yrs.

James MOLYNEUX, in memory of his beloved wife,
Deborah CARRETHERS, d. 15 Oct. 1870, 22 yrs.

St. Peter's Anglican Cemetery, Cawood

A community sprang up in Cawood, approximately 10 kilometres south of Danford, at about the same time as that settlement, and accordingly an Anglican church was built. Nothing remains of the church structure, and little of the community which supported it, but a cemetery rests as a monument to the people who made this area their home. A plaque tells the story of the development:

This area was settled in the 1850s by Irish pioneers. The first church was built in this site c. 1855. This was replaced in 1908 by a larger church which was used until 1965, it was deconsecrated by Bishop Tom Greenwood, Nov.l. 1970. It was demolished in 1974 and moved to another area for reconstruction. This plaque was dedicated, 8 July, 1979.

The names represented in this beautiful little plot are Louis Radant, 1917; Goulden, 1945; Foster, 1941; and many members of the Peck family, variously spelt Pack and Peck (and curiously often pronounced Pack regardless of the spelling). One is impressed once more with the relative youth of the deceased. Gertrude Foster, died 1931, aged 28 years; Peter Foster, died 1939, aged 32 years; Evaline, wife of George Foster, 1915. aged 39 years, and Everette Foster 1 year, 1930. Private James H. Tanner, 1893-1918, might have been a war casualty; Ann Jane Tanner died in 1889 at 9 days. Ada Gunn, wife of A. Tanner, 1930, aged 35 years. Archibald Tanner, presumably her husband, is almost an exception, having reached the age of 54 at his death in 1945. Several Peck children died in infancy and others at 23 and 31 years.

St. John in the Wilderness, Aylwin

Approximately 6 kilometres north of Kazabazua on Highway 105, turn east onto Mulligan Ferry Road, and right onto Lebeau Road. On the left is a fenced area where this early church stood. It once served a large Anglican population of some 500.

The church, built in 1864, was served originally by the Rev. Francis Codd, who ranged the remote areas from Danford, to Aylwin, and Kazabazua; and later by the Rev. J. Seaman, who was also serving the Wakefield and Lascelles communities.⁷⁷

Early pictures show this large old weathered wooden building, surrounded by stones, like a hen among her chickens. The stones now look lonely in her absence. All face east, and this cemetery seems to hold more than its share of poignancy.

In loving memory of Father and Mother, Joseph M. Cox, died at sea May 4, 1884 aged 54 yrs, Nanoy Junkin his wife, died July 2, 1919, 70 yrs, Jane 20 yrs, Thomas 30 yrs, Fannie 18 yrs, Maria 30 yrs.

In memory of Thomas Mulligan of Hincks, died Oct. 15, 1892, aged 87 years, also his wife Ellen, died Sept 23, 1881, 68 yrs. Thomas, died 1856, 9 yrs, their grandson Arnold, died Jan. 6, 1887, 2 mos.

Other children's monuments include two Wilson infants who died four years apart, each at two years and four months. As well there are two Marks and one Gainford child who were lost in their early teens

Included amongst several old wooden boards with metal plaques: Brown, baby boy, died at birth, Aug. 18, 1929.

A cairn in the centre of the graveyard, and standing on the area which had been occupied by the original church, bears the following plaque:

St. John in the Wilderness (Church of England).

This area was settled around 1854. The congregation of Aylwin was formed shortly thereafter and a church built on this site in 1864. This building was deconsecrated on Oct. 30, 1960 and moved from this site to the village of Ste Agathe, Quebec, in Nov. 1972. The present Anglican Churches in this area are daughter churches of St. John. This memorial cairn was dedicated 23 June, 1974.

The site remains well groomed.

Cemeteries of the United Churches of Kazabazua, Aylwin and Danford

There is a similarity amongst the several United Churches in these northern townships, those of Low, Kazabazua, Aylwin, and Danford. They are all very neat small white wooden structures dating from the 1860s, and all, except the one in Low, have adjoining cemeteries. At the time of Church Union in 1925, the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches joined to form the United Church of Canada. There did not appear to be any Congregationalism in the Gatineau Valley, but both Methodists and Presbyterians were numerous amongst the original settlers.

The three more northerly churches are presently closed, except for annual services. For elderly residents desirous of being buried on these sites, and whose families have established plots in the adjoining cemeteries of each church, their wishes may be followed. A United Church Minister, resident in Kazabazua, serves the community, which worships together in the United Church in Low.

Methodist Cemetery, Kazabazua (United Church)

Shortly after entering the village of Kazabazua from the south, one sees to the east of the highway, the little white tongue and groove church with pressed tin roof. This was built in 1872, to serve a Methodist congregation, although dates on headstones imply an earlier presence of clergy serving the area. The monument for the Rev. Robert Lowry, who died May 12, 1869 at the age of 36, raises the questions of whether he died accidentally at such an early age, and whether he died during his incumbency as the minister of this charge. It is understood he had a connection with the Gabie family which may have been responsible for his headstone here.⁷⁸ The fenced property extends back to a treed area, affording a beautifully secluded burial ground.

Other headstones read:

Dane JUNKIN, born Eniskillen, Ireland, 1783
died Apr. 1. 1878 aged 93,
and Jane MACCONNELL, wife Dane Junkin, born Edinburgh 1800
died No. 27, 1881, 81 yrs.

MacLaren, Mary Linda Kerr, 1912-1939
Mary Jane MARKS, wife of James MacLaren, 1895-1949

James MULLIGAN 1838-1919
Wm. John MULLIGAN, d. 1893, 20 yrs.
Kenney, Donald, 4 mos. 1918. Frederick 5 yrs, 1929.
James Irwin, born 1857, died 1948,
wife Frances Obre, born 1868, died 1948.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Cemetery, Aylwin (United Church)

Continue driving north through Kazabazua and two kilometres beyond the end of the village take the road following the river, Aylwin Village Road, through the small housing settlement of Aylwin. The neat white wooden church almost at the end of this road was built in 1871, to serve a once vigorous Presbyterian congregation.

The first incumbent of that church in Wakefield Township, the Rev. John Corbett, travelled by horseback up to Aylwin in 1856 with the Rev. Gourlay, where they conducted a service in a log building which served as a school. He described the crowded room, with the service conducted by dim candle-light. The people had come in the rain by canoe to attend the too infrequent service.⁷⁹

The fairly generous churchyard holds many headstones with names of Wilson, Orr, Stanger, Reid, Armstrong, Moodie amongst others.

The heartbreak of parents from the old country is reflected in a poem, indicating their distance from their deceased son. The monument bears the familiar weeping willow:

In memory of Samuel, son of S. and Wm. Begley.
Killed by the fall of a tree, March 1870, ae 25 yrs.

But perhaps Samuel had not come alone, as an adjoining headstone is for another Begley.

Aggie, daughter of James and Elizabeth Begley, 1881,
6 yrs, 4 mos, 7 ds.

And Aggie's parents and possibly Samuel's brother:

James A. Begley, born 1837, d. 1908
his wife Elizabeth Clyde, born 1887, died 1900

Methodist Cemetery, Danford Lake (United Church)

The third of these little white clapboard churches, on stone foundations is again well cared for, and it too is surrounded by headstones, all well tended. Built in 1869 as a Methodist church, it sat on land donated by Joseph Irwin, the original settler in 1829 of Wakefield Township.

One would gather from some of the headstones, that the site may have housed an earlier church, as they predate this present building:

MITCHELL Eliza Jane, wife of William MITCHELL
died 1867 - 16 yrs
William MITCHELL d. 1895, 78 yrs
Eliza Jane, 1857, 48 yrs
John, 1874, 27 yrs
? 1895, 17 yrs.

Cemetery of Saint-Pierre-de-Wakefield

Paroisse Saint-Pierre Cemeter

The north-south distances between missions were great and, in time, between churches. Another contributing factor in the isolation of settlers from their regular places of Worship, was the mighty Gatineau River, which created a real barrier. Consequently, although Hugh McGarry, one of the first settlers in Wakefield Township was in close proximity to the new Mission of St-Joseph-de-Wakefield at Farrelton, by having his farm on the east side of the river, he was cut off.⁸⁰ There is a possibility that he might have been buried at St-Pierre-de-Wakefield, that apparently being the closest Parish, or otherwise at Cantley, but a rudimentary search has not located a headstone for this pioneer.

This fairly large cemetery contains some older and many more recent headstones. The only McGarry memorial to be found is that of John McGarry, native of North Wakefield, Canada, died April 8, 1888, aged 52 years, the stone erected by his wife, Mary Ann Donovan.

By the dates one might surmise that John was a son of Hugh McGarry.

Other early stones are those of Hugh MacMillan, 1890; John Donovan, native of Co. Cork, who died 1891, aged 85 years, and Mary, wife of John Donovan, 1886, aged 76 years.

One interesting headstone bears no surname but its inscription is heartbreaking. Having lost two children in less than a year, they seem to presume the early demise of the other two little ones. It reads:

Hughy was born May 6, 1869, died Apr. 18, 1880
John George was born May 14, 1871. Hester was born Apr. 26, 1867, died Feb. 17, 1881.
Agnes Ann was born Oct. 2, 1879.

Cemetery Management

One wonders on what basis many of the early cemeteries were set up. There must have been some form of management from the early and mid-1800s for the acquisition and maintenance of plots. For those cemeteries surrounding or adjoining churches, it is understandable that the church body would have full responsibility. For the several community burial sites not in the above category: those of Brooks, MacLaren and Hall cemeteries, and the Protestant cemeteries of Cantley and Old Chelsea, churches in the area possibly had some management role.

There is a Cemetery Company Act in the Province of Quebec, which existed prior to 1929, and a Revision of the Statutes of Quebec took place in 1964.

This deals with burials and cemetery administration. Very specific regulations apply. For instance, no interment can take place other than in a lawfully established cemetery, and no burial, prior to 24 hours after the decease. If the death has been as a result of a specific infectious disease, the body must be transferred directly from the place of death to the cemetery.

Records must be kept, noting the day of burial and that of death; the names, surname, and occupation of the deceased; duly signed by the person performing the burial and witnessed by two relatives or friends. Judging by church records from the 1860s, this appears to have been rigidly adhered to.

The Burial Act states:

The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority shall alone have the right to appoint the place in the cemetery in which persons of such faith shall be buried, and, if the deceased, according to the canon rules and laws, in the judgment of the ordinary, may not be interred in ground consecrated by the liturgical prayers of such religion, he shall receive civil burial in ground reserved for that purpose and adjacent to the cemetery.

In the case of non-Catholic cemeteries, an incorporated body of not less than three members, is required for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and managing cemeteries.⁸¹ Most Cemetery Boards now in existence appear to date from the revision of the statutes of 1964.

Traditional Unmarked Burial Sites in the Gatineau

Some of the stories which are repeated to this day reveal incomprehensible hardship and tragedy. Nothing is known of the period of their occurrence; there were repeated outbreaks of diphtheria and "fever" as it was referred to in census returns (possibly scarlet fever). There was no treatment.

An account told by more than one senior resident of the North Masham area is of a man setting out with the bodies of several members of his family, apparently to get help in their burial. When he realised he was not going to be able to reach a cemetery, he buried them beside the track and some distance further along, fell himself and died by the roadside. There is of course no value in repeating this unauthenticated story other than to emphasize the precarious lives that people lived. The fact that the story remains gives some credence to the possibility that something of this nature occurred.⁸²

A similarly tragic tale is of several children of Catherine Daly and her husband, an O'Connor, who lived on Clark Road, on the east of the Gatineau River near Wakefield. The death of a child from diphtheria took the grieving father across the river with the small coffin for burial at Farrelton cemetery. However shortly afterwards, a second child succumbed to the disease, to be followed by the death of yet a third child. Each time he had to repeat the painful trip of crossing the river and performing the burial. He hesitated to recruit involvement by neighbours because of the dread of spreading the scourge.⁸³

People appear to have been buried in remote areas, remote from others, but close to the family who had suffered the loss. Perhaps it was the distance from an established cemetery, or the inability to pay what was necessary to convey the body to such a place that forced a local burial. At one time these may have been marked in some way, possibly with a wooden marker or field stone which has disappeared. In several instances, four and five generations have passed along the legend of the place of burial and the family name. Farmers are known to leave a section of a field unploughed, or in many cases to have enclosed the site with logs which in time decay. There may still be others. It is now difficult in some cases to detect that the site was indeed one of burial.

Township of Hull

Cascades Burial Site

Stan and Bill Cross, brothers who spent their childhood in the Cascades area, remember a fenced site on a hillside above the river, in the vicinity of the original location of the Gatineau Boom Company dock. The chain surround was taken down some time in the 1940s. Although evident in the 1950s, there is nothing identifiable today; apparently the few remaining features were bulldozed by the land-owner.⁸⁴ The origin of the plot is disputed. It has been suggested that it may have had a connection with summer residents of the area. At one time a story was repeated that the burial site was that of victims of drowning in the Cascades.

The course of the Gatineau River was treacherous for the many river-men who followed the logs downstream. There was a particularly turbulent stretch of water known as Cascades Chute.

Log jams were frequent and had to be dislodged by pole or at times by dynamite. Lives were lost here as well as elsewhere on the river. There were indeed tragedies or near tragedies at the Cascades. An early resident remembers her father being honoured for rescuing someone from the angry waters.⁸⁵

A member of the Daly family was drowned at the Cascades Chute in 1842, and was buried at Chelsea, with the record of the burial at St. Paul's Mission in Aylmer.⁸⁶

At the time of the construction of the Chelsea Dam in 1926, the water level was raised considerably resulting in the drowning of the village of Cascades.

Cross/McFadden Burial Site, Meech Creek Valley

It is possible that most farms of long standing had a home burial site. Stan Cross recalls a burial plot of two little cousins on the family farm in Meech Creek Valley.⁸⁷ This can be verified by Reby (Johnston) Dodds' genealogical listing of Margaret, the three-year old daughter of Sarah Ann Cross and Hugh McFadden, who was buried on a knoll at the home farm, possibly in the 1860s. (She was later moved to the Old Cemetery at Rupert.) There is also the listing of a child, born in 1876, who lived to only two months. This daughter of William Cross, brother of Sarah Ann, was possibly the second burial at that site.⁸⁸ The location of the gravesite was known by the family but there were no markers.

Brown, McClelland and Colonel Cantley Burial Sites, Cantley

As well as the Blackburn Cemetery with its two remaining markers, there had been another burial site in the vicinity, on property originally owned by Howard Brown. No headstones exist on this property on Prudhomme Road, but the original deed is said to have outlined the burial ground.⁸⁹ Again, the site chosen is a rocky knoll topped by the occasional huge granite boulder with gnarled ancient maple roots embedded amongst them. There are however some areas where one can imagine a burial could have taken place. This was, as with other home burials, a site which would not have been easy to plough. They seem in each case to have avoided using prime farm land for such plots.

The McClelland family is another of the earliest to have come to this part of the Township of Hull around the 1830s. Not surprisingly there is an area in the vicinity of the original McClelland settlement where it is believed that early members of this family were laid to rest.⁹⁰ This is to the north of Lauzon Road leading to the Lauzon farm which had originally been a Holmes property. This is now completely overgrown with raspberries and small shrubs.

The McClellands moved some ten years later to a site which is believed to have been where Colonel Cantley had lived. This man, for whom the community is named, was reportedly given land for his service in the 1812 War and his assistance to Colonel By in the construction of the Rideau Canal. On this land he settled with his former batman by the name of Johnston, and here he is said to have died in the 1830s, and been buried behind his original homestead - now in the vicinity of the rose garden of the present McClelland occupants.⁹¹ As the first Census was not taken until 1842, no record remains of this man as a resident in the area.

Township of Wakefield

Mullen Burial Site, Wakefield

Jervis Mullen was listed as one of the original settlers of Wakefield Township in 1842, having arrived in Lower Canada in 1812. He is commemorated with a metal marker in Hall Cemetery in Wakefield:

CPL JERVIS MULLEN 1792-1885, beloved husband of ELEANOR ADAMS
of Londonderry, Ireland. Served in Canada 99th REG. 1812-1819

His military service would have entitled him to a grant of land, although there is no evidence of this having been so. It appears that he, like other pioneers in this township, purchased his land ten or twenty years after settling on it.⁹² Mullen's Creek, a long very meandering little stream, joins the Gatineau River on the east side, at Range 7. The original Mullen log house, no trace of which remains, was situated not far from the river, some fifty metres north of the creek.⁹³

Today, the closest house is that of Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles McClinton. Mrs. McClinton's great-grandfather (Richardson) obtained the property in 1895, and from that time, the legend has been passed down of the burial of some five members of the Mullen family on a hillside nearby. The location is a cleared ridge at the inside edge of a field south-east of the McClinton barn, inside the fence at the crest of a hardwood hill.⁹⁴

The site covers approximately 5 by 3 metres, and is overgrown with very large and well-developed hawthorn. The ground is mostly flat with a few medium-sized boulders embedded at the surface. The plot is not marked in any way, nor is it identifiable as a burial site, although it has not been tilled or mown for many years, and has been respected as such for four generations.

Township of Masham

McCorkell Burial Site, Masham

This is one of the areas which has been, by tradition, respected as a family burial plot for several generations, although there are no headstones to confirm the fact.

The remote and relatively infertile property, 208 acres on R. 10, L36 and 37, was purchased by Andrew McCorkell in 1889.⁹⁵ The location is a sandy, fairly flat area in a pine forest. There are stone house foundations nearby. Access to the area is beyond a locked gate on Malone Road. The closest standing structure is the old log Malone farmhouse which has been used since 1957 as the Clubhouse for a Conservation Club with membership from the Wakefield area.

The site presumed to be the burial place covers approximately two by two metres, and is defined by recently-installed metal posts, as well as by less recent metal markers. Daylilies bloom on the plot.

By oral tradition, this has been recognized as the burial place of some unknown number of McCorkell family members.⁹⁶

Stewart Burial Site, Lascelles

The Spallin property, off Pritchard Road in Lascelles, was farmed from the early 1800s by Joe Spallin. Some of his land was purchased from a Lovitt family. The story which was passed along in the Spallin family was that the Lovitts had raised a Stewart child who died in her teens and was buried on Spallin property close to the adjoining land of the MacDonalds. The burial site was defined by logs by Robert Spallin, Joe's son, but after almost four generations, they are no longer detectable.⁹⁷

The Dodds history mentions Frances Fairbairn, daughter of the pioneers William Fairbairn and Jane Wanless, as being born in 1829 and residing in Masham Township on Lot 5 and 6, Range 6. She was married in 1850 to David Stewart with whom she had a family of sons and daughters. After David's death she married John Lovitt in 1861.⁹⁸ This could account for the story of a Stewart child in the care of the Lovitt family, and possibly dates the burial site to the late 1860s or 70s.

Prentiss Burial Site, Usher Lake

Robert Prentiss purchased 200 acres on Lots 32 and 33, R 8, in 1882, and a further 100 acres, L 31, on the same range in 1885.⁹⁹

A log home was built in a rocky secluded area. The rough terrain makes one wonder if they were able to farm adequately to survive with a young family. The road is both rocky and steep, and about half a kilometre before reaching the house, an open area in the bush leads to a fenced burial site. This is perhaps the most remote of all of the private plots so far discovered.

We puzzled at the distance of the graves from the old log house, but have since learned that a house, possibly the earlier one, burned, and this may have been in closer proximity to the plot.¹⁰⁰

A black marker was placed there by the family of Ed and Omar Prentiss in 1986.

Township of Denholm

Maxwell Burial Site

This rather remote site had remained elusive to us for more than a year.

The property apparently belonged originally to a Maxwell family and was then purchased by a Fitzpatrick, being owned most recently by Nelson Fitzpatrick.¹⁰¹ There was a story of three graves on the edge of a field on this farm to the east of the Gatineau River a little more than one kilometre south of the Paugan Dam crossing. The property had been mined for mica early in this century and tailings from the mine can be seen across the field.

The site we discovered within a cedar-fenced enclosure just outside the northwest corner of the field, the cedar logs heavily overgrown with moss.

Two tall trees are now growing within the area as well as small shrubbery. There are no markers, but there is little doubt that the enclosure has significance. This is reputed to be the burial site of three adults, possibly Maxwells.¹⁰² It is said that all three were drowned at Paugan Falls. Perhaps further research might authenticate this story.

A Word from the Headstones

Much has been written of graveyards, and different words used for burial sites. The word cemetery, now preferred euphemistically to graveyard, means literally sleeping chamber, and was first used of the catacombs of Rome, then of consecrated ground around a church, now of any graveyard.¹⁰³

There are myths, superstitions, and legends associated with graveyards and headstones. Certainly, one can almost place one's direction from a cemetery, in that the headstones generally face towards the east. This feature is very evident in the northern cemeteries, those of Danford Lake, Aylwin, and Kazabazua, where the headstones face away from the highway, and the church, and one needs to walk to the easterly extremity of the graveyard and look back to realise the impact. Even in many of the private burial sites, I found this to be the case: Irwin, Pritchard, Pritchard/Hamilton, Blackburn, and Baldwin. In the latter two instances, there is writing on several faces of each of the two monuments, but the inscription for the principal, is facing east: Graves should, of course, always be dug running east and west, so that the corpse may lie with his feet to the east and his head to the west and thereby be ready to rise when the call comes from the east on the Day of Judgment.¹⁰⁴

Exceptions to this are the headstones in Holy Trinity, Lascelles, which face north, and two graveyards in which the monuments face south, Hall, and Copeland. The two Copeland monuments face downriver, the direction from which these original settlers came. In Hall Cemetery, the placing of the stones is not only to the south, but away from the entrance gate, which seems to indicate that they were very purposefully placed thus. If they had been situated easterly facing, it would have been towards the shelter of the pineclad hill, and on entering the graveyard, one would pass in front of them, a pleasant aspect. The direction in which it (the gravel was faced or headed was important and varied greatly - Moslems toward Mecca, Christian Europeans toward the West, migrant tribes toward the homeland of their ancestors. Solomon Islanders were always buried with their feet turned inland.¹⁰⁵ Perhaps the pioneers buried in Hall, and Copeland cemeteries were facing the homeland from whence they had come.

Other traditions carry on to this day. Primitive peoples are apt to consider the grave as the home of the departed and try to make it comfortable..... To the grave today relatives bring flowers, and in some cultures food and drink (Russia and China).¹⁰⁶

The designs and decorative markings on the headstones also followed tradition: Urns, now pots for growing plants, once served as burial receptacles for bones and ashes... Willow, cypress and yew trees are thought appropriate for graveyards. The willow's pendent branches express sorrow; the upright conical cypress, hope; the yew's evergreen leaves, eternal life.¹⁰⁷ Other symbols found on older monuments are: shaking hands, perhaps denoting farewell; a hand holding an open Bible, devotion; urns and draping cloth, adorning the final resting place.

The headstones of today carry none of the above, but on occasion are decorated with leaves, flowers, or scenes intended to add to the artistic work of the gravestone carver.

One is left wondering about headstones in general. Where did they come from? Were they all executed by stonemasons in the city? At what expense?

On occasion the stonemason engraved his name at the base. We see in St. Stephen's, Old Chelsea: A.K. Mills, Ottawa, 1866 and 1872; Waterston Shields, Ottawa, 1873; F. Wright, Wellington Street, Ottawa, 1880; R. Brown, Ottawa, 1884; J.P. Laurin, Ottawa, 1913.

In Rupert Union Cemetery marble headstones are signed by J. Essex, Ottawa; J.L. Bates, and Bates Bros. L'Orignal; and a red granite stone is from R. Brown, Ottawa.

To this day it seems a complex and costly venture and one can readily believe that many graves must have remained unmarked because of the inability to finance such an undertaking.

Occasionally one sees a marker which has obviously been cast in cement by an amateur. The little wooden marker in Aylwin (St. John in the Wilderness) appears lovingly and sadly prepared by family. An equally pathetic wooden plaque in StePierre-de-Wakefield Cemetery lists four children's birth dates as well as the demise of two of them, and rather anticipates that the other two may not survive childhood.

Of interest too is the observation that a monument may not be mounted until well after the death of several family members. The Blackburn monuments fit into this category. Even though the first death is that of a son in 1851, with Andrew Blackburn Snr. dying in 1855, the final date on this monument is 1899. The well planned inscriptions give one the impression that the family monument was not erected until after this 1899 date.

This applies also to the second stone in this same cemetery. The four little children who died in the 1840s and 50s were not commemorated until their parents had died, the mother, in 1886, and the father, 1890.

In enumerations of census returns of the day, the man of the family was the one person of note. His place of origin was noted, but not always that of his wife.

Similarly, even when a wife predeceased her husband, the monument usually portrayed the husband, as head of the house, at the top of the inscription.

There were exceptions however. In the Huguenot cemetery in Duclos, a stone records the life and death of Margaret Muckle as the wife of Patrick Burke, but his story is not told. He may of course have been a Catholic and been buried accordingly in a cemetery of his own faith.

A name appearing on more than one headstone points to the fact that a stone is the story of that person's life. In Baldwin cemetery, Charlotte Wright's monument is just that. Her life includes her second and third husbands; her first husband's name however is not recorded. Similarly, part of Robert Earle's story is told in the Baldwin cemetery and again in Hall Cemetery with that of Elizabeth Trowsse with whom he had travelled from England and had a family. It is fitting that he should be shown here as well.

We now know of cases where a headstone is not necessarily a record of the burial site of the person or persons memorialized, such as in the Baldwin and Rupert Union Cemeteries.

In the Gatineau Valley, markers honour men, women and children; the heroic, the statesmanlike and the obscure. A Queen's Scarf recipient is honoured in the Pioneer Cemetery in Chelsea; a Prime Minister of Canada in Wakefield's MacLaren Cemetery, and three little girls in the most remote site near Usher Lake, unmarked for one hundred years until distant relatives honoured them with a plaque. But all too little is said on the monuments.

We are glad to see the pioneers' recognition of the counties and countries of their origin.

In Ste. Elisabeth Cemetery in Cantley, it is interesting to note that at least five natives of County Mayo, Ireland are listed on separate stones, giving the impression that they may have come together or at least around the same period, and possibly knew each other.

There is a marked conservatism in most Gatineau Valley graveyards. In many Catholic cemeteries, a prayer for the souls of the departed are offered in the words, Rest in Peace.

An exception to this is perhaps amongst the earlier stones in St. Stephen's Cemetery, Old Chelsea. One gathers that the Irish immigrants brought with them their love of lilting verse.

Many early stones in that graveyard bear variations of the following lines which are to found on a headstone of 1874, and another, of 1891:

Good Christians all as you pass by
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you will be,
Prepare for death and pray for me

Also in 1874:

When you kneel to the Lord on High
I request your prayers for me
Now in the cold cold grave I lie
Though once in life like thee
Be wise, repent and serve the Lord
Through His most precious Son
And you will reap a just reward
When the Sands of Life are run.

Occasionally we learn something of the cause of death. In St. Stephen's we read that:

Thomas Sheehan
Drowned in the Gatineau River
Aug. 3, 1865
Ae 50 yrs.
A native of Co. Limerick, Ireland
May his soul rest in peace. Amen.

The sad death of a young father who no doubt was working on the river drives, is told in the following epitaph:

In Memory of
Michael Carroll
drowned in the Madawaska
15 June 1877. ae 27 yrs.
May his soul rest in peace. Amen
Erected by his wife, Catherine.
A cruel water that did not spare
A father kind, a husband dear
Took him away, left us behind
A world to try and friends to find.

Two monuments, from 1872 and 1879 read:

Then rest thou dear departed one
Lifes weary battles all are o'er
And speeding comes the blissful day
When we shall meet to part no more

The death of a young man who died at 25 years of age, in 1865, has as his epitaph:

Weep not for me my friends so dear
I am not dead but sleeping here
Short was my stay long my rest
To take me home God thought was best

A second, who died at the same age, in 1895, reads:

Parents good night my work is done
I go to rest with the setting sun
But not to wake with the morning light
So dearest Parents a long good night.

Still in this same cemetery, St. Stephen's, there is a headstone to a young mother:

Sacred to the memory
of Catherine Sheahan
beloved wife of
Aust. B. Corrigan
died
Feb. 24th 1875 Aged 25 years & 10 mos.
Requiescat in pace Amen
Good bye, good bye, Dear Husband,
Entrusted to your care
Is left our infant child until
In Heaven I meet you there

Further along the row is a headstone to Austin Corrigan who died at 81 years in 1906; his wife Mary Rice, who died in 1853 at 29 years, and another wife Catherine Walsh, who died at 79 years in 1914. Is it possible that this was the same husband who had been bereft of a wife in 1875 also?

It is interesting to find that the above verses appear in this cemetery in the period between the 1860s and 1890s. After that date, as with many trends, there appears to be a move away from this expression of one's grief.

The monument for Asa Meech in the Protestant Burial Ground in Old Chelsea, reflects something of the sadness which his long life had encompassed. He married three times, losing his first two wives at an early age. His second wife, a sister of the first Mrs. Asa Meech, was swept to her death with three of her young children as they crossed Brewery Creek.¹⁰⁸ In all, he had twenty-one children, but only eleven of them reached adulthood. His epitaph, which reads like the verse of a hymn, is:

I would not live always
I ask not to stay
Where storm after storm
rises dark o'er the way

On many headstones a Biblical passage conveys the belief in life everlasting. In most instances the verse is printed in its entirety, as is found on the monolith to the memory of patriarch David MacLaren in MacLaren Cemetery, Wakefield:

Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth:
Yea saith the Spirit that they may
rest from their labours:
and their works do follow them.
Rev.XIV:13.

However the memorial to Elizabeth Barnet his wife, challenges us to find what St. Paul had to say to the disciples in Thessalonica in 1 Thess. IV-14:

"For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with him."

In 1868 the epitaph to little 9 year-old Jane Townsend reads:

I want to be an angel
and with the angels stand
A crown upon my forehead
A harp within my hand.
There, right before my Saviour
so glorious and so bright
I'd make the sweetest music
and praise him day and night

On so many children's graves there is reference to the little ones being accepted as angels, or of having been chosen by the Saviour.

Weep not dear parents, disturb not my rest
My Saviour has called me. He loved me best.

In more recent times the biblical passages are missing.

In Hall Cemetery, Wakefield, Cpl. Jervis Mullen demands that we find out more of the 99th Canadian Regiment in which he served one hundred and eighty years ago. In fact he apparently embarked for Canada from Ireland in 1812 with His Majesty's 100th Regiment of Foot, serving at the Battle of Queenston Heights that year, at Fort George in 1813, then Fort Niagara, the Battle of Stony Creek, Lundy's Lane, Beaver Dam, Chippewa, and finally after the demobilizing of the 100th Regiment, he transferred to the 99th Regiment and was stationed in Bytown where he worked with them on the building of the Rideau Canal.¹⁰⁹

There is a uniformity in the military tablets, headed generally by a maple leaf, on occasion including a cross, but there is the option for a verse and these include:

or the simple: Lest we forget

All of these appear in Rupert Union Cemetery, not necessarily on the graves of war-time casualties, but perhaps related to the time spent by these men in the service of their country.

We wonder at the circumstances of the death of Joseph Cox at sea in 1884 (Aylwin Anglican Cemetery), and why the four children he had with Nanoy Junkin all died at 30 years or less.

For the most part, we have to learn the stories behind the monuments from the dates, implying accidental or untimely deaths from untreatable diseases and difficult childbirth.

One can but picture the desolation of the Rev. John Seaman and his wife Sarah at the loss of their year-old daughter in 1868, but they were to face the same tragedy three years later when a second little girl died at the same tender age.

And what terrible medical difficulty arose when Margaret Simpson died at age 26 after giving birth to her namesake Margaret, who survived for only two weeks? All these are found in Holy Trinity, Lascelles.

Women must have approached the birth of a child with some trepidation. Dr. Harold Geggie wrote and spoke of the difficulties of treating people in remote places, prior to the advent of sulpha drugs and antibiotics.

God gave me sixteen children, He knew I couldn't look after them; He took eight, I have eight in the cemetery. — "infantile digestive upsets." I done the best I could. He wasn't very sick 'til today: I watched him choke. - "diphtheria." There's no feeling too bad for a pregnant woman. Doctors can't help you 'til the last day. "There was practically no pre-natal care, so we had toxaemias of pregnancy."¹¹⁰

In contrast to the fragile lives of childbearing women, and the children they produced, we sometimes see very elderly and probably tough old men who lived for up to 96 years. (Holy Trinity, Lascelles.) Mary Shouldice (Stevenson), died at 100 years, and shares the headstone with her brother, Dr. Hans Stevenson and his wife, who died at not much more than half her age. 57. (Hall Cemetery.)

There is something of an understatement in most headstone inscriptions.

In MacLaren Cemetery, the D.S.O., M.C., following the name of Lt. Col. Duncan Eberts Macintyre are all that hint of the Colonel's contribution as a Vimy Ridge hero.

Pierre Berton refers to him as: a Saskatchewan store-keeper (who] became, in effect, the managing director of a brigade of three thousand men, the brigadier's right-hand man, every detail from rations to signals at his fingertips.¹¹¹ The same author's stories of the young Macintyre's skill, ingenuity and courage make compelling reading.

In the Protestant Burial Ground in Old Chelsea a few simple words are what remind us of the outstanding legacy of Graham Spry .

His monument reads:

GRAHAM SPRY
M.A. Oxon, C.C., LL.D., FRCS.
d. 1983
Social Activist, Public Servant and Advocate
of National Broadcasting Service of Canada.

For Harold Geggie, who came to serve the community the day after he graduated from medicine in 1911 until his death fifty-five years later, a comment by a patient speaks volumes: He came when we needed him. And his own words pay tribute to his wife's contribution to his years of devotion: Without her 'twere not possible.

Similarly, the love and loss of family and friends is expressed in these simple epitaphs to be seen in MacLaren Cemetery:

No man is indispensable, some are irreplaceable.
------
He was a man who saw the joy in each day's rising sun.
He opened his heart to everyone and turned his back on none.
------
Family is forever.
------
Love and remembrance last forever.
------
But o for the touch of a vanished hand
And the sound of a voice that is still.
Tennyson.

Fear no more the heat of the sun
Nor the furious winter's rage
Thou thy worldly task hast done
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages
Golden lads and girls all must
as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Cymberline, Shakespeare.
------
And his name is not graven only in stone
over his native earth, but lives on, woven
into the stuff of other men's lives.
------

The Rev. William Lloyd served the United Church in the Wakefield/Cascades charges from 1943-50 and is now buried in MacLaren Cemetery in Wakefield. His headstone reads:

One of God's gentlemen.
And duty done – to rest

It also faces east, as do those surrounding it. However, it was believed that: ...When you bury a parson you always bury him "re-incumbent" the opposite way to everybody else, with his feet to the west so that when he rises he faces his flock...¹¹²

In the remote little graveyard of what was the Presbyterian Cemetery in Aylwin, the most powerful and moving tribute is a father's cry of anguish from across an ocean and down one hundred and twentyfive years, for the young man, Samuel Begley, killed by the fall of a tree at age 25:

Alas, alas, my son, my son, Moon of 8. 10
I saw him sail to the strangers' land
When nought remained for me
But the tearful eye and a heartfelt sigh
And I gaze on the dark blue sea
But now he lies in the strangers' land
Cold cold as they could be and a green green grave
And a broken heart for me.
W. Begley.

Afterword

My search for our pioneers has lead me to the realization that up to fifty years after the initial settlement, burials were taking place on the home farms – many of them unmarked other than being enclosed within a cedar log area.

So long as family members remained on the farm, the location of the plot was known and respected. Even after the property changed hands the new owner was informed of the significance of the site.

Even after the establishment of cemeteries — consecrated areas — burials still took place in home plots without being identified with a marker.

There is the impression that the expense and difficulty in obtaining a headstone may have been a very real deterrent in having graves marked. Before the days of widows' pensions and child support, the death of the man of the family brought considerable hardship. A grave marker could have been beyond the ability for many families to supply.

Many headstones were not erected until at least the head of the household, the man, had died. In the majority of cases, only after that time was the story of the remainder of the family told, and the death recorded of the wife and infant children, many of whom had pre-deceased their husband and father.

There is also some inaccuracy in dates on headstones. Understandably, if the memorial was not installed until after the death of both parents, the remaining members of the family may have been vague as to the actual birthdates of their parents. In some cases these can be verified elsewhere, such as in the case of the Irwin family.

To gain a more accurate knowledge of the plots that each cemetery contains, it would be necessary to document the stones as well as to research the early Church records of burial as was done with the Low Protestant Cemetery.

I have the sense that the site of the Old Rupert Cemetery at Fairbairn Lake contains numerous unmarked plots to this day. The only ones we are aware of are those identified by families from records they have of ancestors buried at the very old graveyard. 113 One family has made a great contribution in consolidating the retrievable headstones. It would seem fitting to re-fence the entire site of the original burial plot and install a plaque to the significance of that particular area.

The very elderly amongst us remain a rich source of historical fact and it is never too late to record what stories they have to tell. The Gatineau Valley is probably rich in undiscovered history.

There is still time to preserve and restore some of the historic burial sites, and to mark those which have no distinguishing features, while the stories remain alive. There is a certain dignity which our heritage demands. Our future will be richer if we respect our past.

1. O'Gallagher, Marianna, 1984.
2. Mahoney, Ernie, May 26, 1993.
3. Legros, Hector, 1966.
4. Evans, P.M.O., 1985.
5. Meech, Marion, 1981.
6. N.A.C., C729.
7. Swalwell, A., Survey Township Wakefield, 1847.
8. Walton, Lillian, 1978.
9. Evans, P.M.O., 1985.
10. — 1979.
11. N.A.C., Census return Hull Township. 1842.
12. Evans, P.M.O., 1979.
13. — 1982.
14. Ibid.
15. N.A.C., Hull Township Census Return, 1842.
16. Evans, P.M.O., The Wrights, 1975.
17. Hammond, Jim, pers. com. 1997.
18. Cross, Bill, pers. com. 1996.
19. Evans, P.M.O., with Horan, Patrick J., 1977, reprinted 1982.
20. Evans, P.M.O. #77-11, 1977.
21. Gourlay, Rev. J.L., A.M., 1896.
22. Geggie, N. & S., 1976.
23. Blackburn, Gary. pers. com.
24. Ibid.
25. N.A.C. Wakefield Township Census return, 1842.
26. Ibid.
27. Canada, Dept. of Interior Topographical Survey of Canada, 1931.
28. N.A.C. Wakefield Township census return, 1842.
29. Geggie, N. & S., 1976.
30. Reid, Norma Hall, Footnote to History, 1982
31. Sully, Martha, pers. com. 1998.
32. Dodds, Reby, 1970.
33. N.A.C., Census returns, Wakefield Township, 1851, 1861.
34. Evans, P.M.O. 1975.
35. N.A.C. Census return, Wakefield Township 1871.
36. Geggie, H.J.G., pers. com.
37. Evans, P.M.O. with Payne Cyril and Kevin, 1985.
38. N.A.C. Census return, Wakefield Township, 1842.
39. Evans, P.M.O., 1967.
40. Ibid.
41. Anniversary Year 1850-1965, St. Camillus Church, Farrellton, Holy Cross Church, Fieldville. 1965.
42. Ibid.
43. Daly, Ray, pers. com.
44. Anniversary Year 1850-1965. St. Camillus Church, Farrellton, Holy Cross Church, Fieldville. 1965.
45. Geggie, N. & S., 1974, 1980.
46. Ibid.
47. N.A.C. Census return Masham Town ship. 1861.
48. Brown Shirley A., pers. com. 1998.
49. Evans, P.M.O., 1975.
50. Geggie, N. & S., 1974, 1980.
51. Elliott, Bruce, Publ. # 73-10, 1973.
52. N.A.C. Census Returns Masham Township. 1842-1861.
53. Dodds, Reby, 1970.
54. Ibid. 55. Mahon, Horace, pers. com. 1998.
55. N.A.C. Masham Municipal Papers, 1855.
56. Geggie, N. & S., 1976.
57. N.A.C. Masham Municipal Papers, 1855.
58. Geggie, N. & S., 1974, 1980.
59. Dodds, Reby, 1970.
60. Elliott, Bruce, # 73-10, 1973.
61. Toll, Deborah, C.475, 1991.
62. N.A.C. Masham Township Census Return, 1871.
63. Irwin Clifford, pers. comm. 1989.
64. Aylwin Pastoral Charge Register, 1865-1892.
65. Masham Methodist Church Register, 1885.
66. Irwin, Clifford, pers. comm. 1989.
67. Legros, Hector, 1966. 69. Ibid.
68. Geggie, N. & S., 1976.
69. Hale, Grete and Reg., 1990.
70. Evans, P.M.O., C-380, 1976.
71. Brownrigg-Barrow, Joan, 1995.
72. Evans, P.M.O., C-380, 1976.
73. Brownrigg-Barrow, Joan, 1995.
74. O'Regan, Brian, 1984.
75. Paroisse Saint-Nom-de-Marie, Lac Sainte-Marie, 1881-1981. 1981.
76. Heeney, Henry C., 1995.
77. Ibid.
78. Tory. Evelyn, pers. comm. 1997.
79. Gourlay, Rev. J.L., A.M., 1896.
80. N.A.C. Census return, Wakefield Township. 1842.
81. N.A.Q. Revised Statues, Civil Code, K110, 93, 1964.
82. Reilly, Edith; Rita Stevens, pers. com. 1997.
83. Daly, Ray, pers. com. 1997.
84. Cross, Stan and Bill, pers. com., 1997, 1998.
85. Gordon, Molly, pers. com. 1998.
86. Daly, Ray, pers. com. 1997.
87. Cross, Stan, 1998.
88. Dodds, Reby. 1970.
89. Prudhomme, Denis, pers. com. 1998.
90. McClelland, Bob, pers. com. 1998.
91. Ibid.
92. N.A.C. Land Grants, Province of Quebec, 1793-1890. Finding aid, 876.
93. McClinton, Ruggles, pers. com. 1996.
94. McClinton, Mrs. Ruggles, pers. com. 1996.
95. N.A.C. Finding aid 876.
96. Craig, Doug; Sonny Nesbitt, pers. com. 1997.
97. Spallin, Mrs. Lloyd, pers. com. 1997/8.
98. Dodds, Reby. 1970.
99. N.A.C. #876.
100. Ryan Dennis, pers. com. 1996.
101. Fitzpatrick Lloyd, pers. com. 1997
102. Ibid.
103. Leach, Maria, ed., 1949.
104. Waring. Philippa, compil. 1978.
105. Leach, Maria, ed., 1949.
106. Ibid.
107. Ibid.
108. Hope, Ethel Penman, n.d.
109. Dodds, Reby, 1970.
110. Geggie, H.J.G., M.D. 1987.
111. Berton, Pierre, 1986.
112. Blythe, Ronald, 1969.
113. Dodds, Reby. 1970.

Annex "a"

Reference Works, Church Histories, Cemetery Records

Alcove:

Evans, P.M.O., The Pritchards and Related Families, 1967.

Geggie, Norma and Stuart, Unto the Hills, H.S.G., 1976.

Wilson, Lois. The Alcove United Church, 1889- 1989, 1989.

Aylwin:
see Danford Lake

Cantley:

Evans, P.M.O., St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Cemetery, (with Horan, Patrick J.) Cantley. Quebec.

Publ. # 77-7, O.B., O.G.S. 1977 reprinted 1982.

------- Protestant Cemetery. Cantley. Que. #77-11, O.B., O.G.S., 1977.

Philips, R.A.J., The History of Cantley, The Municipality of Cantley, 1989.

Cawood:
see Danford Lake

Chelsea:

Evans, P.M.O., 1891 Cemetery Old Chelsea,Que., Publ. #85-3.

------ Pioneer Cemetery, Chelsea, Que.. Publ. #82- 13, Ottawa Branch, O.G.S. 1982.

------ St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Cemetery. Old Chelsea, Que., Publ. #80-5,Ott.Br. O.G.S. 1979.

Hope, Ethel Penman, Early Settlement of Meech Lake, n.d. p.11.

Danford Lake:

Heeney, Henry C., Up to the North Wood land, 1876-1996. Alexa J. Pritchard. 1995.

United Church of Canada Record books, Aylwin Pastoral Charge, 1865-1892. Masham Methodist Church Register, 1885.

Duclos:

Geggie, Norma and Stuart, Unto the Hills, H.S.G., 1976.

East Aldfield:

Un Jumelage de Cent Ans - 100 Years Together, 1895-1995, The Parishes of St.-François d'Aldfield, Lac-des-loups, Que. and Ste-Sophie d'Aldfield, East Aldfield, Que., 1995.

Farrellton:

Anniversary Year 1850-1965, St. Camillus Church, Farrellton, Holy Cross Church, Fieldville. Church publication.

Fieldville:
see Farrellton

Kazabazua:
see Danford

Lac des Loups:
see East Aldfield

Lac Ste Marie:

Paroisse Saint-Nom-de-Marie, Lac Sainte Marie, 1881-1981. Parish of Ste-Nomde-Marie, 1981.

Lascelles:

Elliott, Bruce, Two Cemeteries of Masham Township. Quebec

>Lascelles Anglican - Old Cemetery, Rupert. Publ. # 73-10. Ottawa Branch, O.G.S.

Low:

Evans, P.M.O., United Church Cemetery. Low. Que., C-380. (O.G.S.)1976.

Hale, Grete and Reg. “Brooks Hill- Low, Que., Canada-built 1859, "Up The Gatineau", H.S.G. Vol. 16, p.2. 1990.

Martindale:

Brownrigg-Barrow Joan, Notes on the early days of the Parish of Martindale, H.S.G.,U.T.G. Vol.21, p.30.

O'Regan, Brian, Irish Pioneers Honored. C.224, Ott.Br. O.G.S. 1984.

Masham:

Legros, Hector, Histoire de Lapêche et Masham, 1966.

Rupert:

Dodds, Reby. Who's Which?. Self publ. 1970.

Elliott, Bruce, Two Cemeteries of Masham Township. Québec.

------ Lascelles Anglican - Old Cemetery, Rupert. Publ. # 73-10, Ottawa Branch, O.G.S.

Toll, Deborah, The Mitchell Cemetery. Rupert, C.475, Ott. Br. O.G.S., 1991.

Old Chelsea:
see Chelsea

Wakefield:

Evans, P.M.O, Hall's Cemetery, Highway 105 at Wakefield, Que., Lapêche. Publ. #85-1, O.B., O.G.S., 1985.

------ MacLaren's Cemetery. Wakefield, Quebec. Publ. #75-5, Ott. Branch, O.G.S. 1985.

Geggie, N. & S. Unto the Hills, H.S.G., 1976.

Other Sources

Berton, Pierre, Vimy, McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1986.

Blythe, Ronald, Akenfield, Portrait of an English Village, The Penguin Press, London, 1969, pp.286.

Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, ed. Maria Leach, Funk and Wagnall's Standard, Funk & Wagnalls Co. New York, 1949, p.464.

The Dictionary of Omens & Superstitions, compiled by Philippa Waring, Mitchell, B. London, 1978., p. 110.

Geggie, H.J.G., M.D., The Extra Mile, Medicine in Rural Quebec, 1885-1965, edited and selfpublished by Norma and Stuart Geggie, 1987.

Gourlay. Rev. J.L., A.M., History of the Ottawa Valley, Ottawa, 1896. pp.288.

O'Gallagher, Marianna, Grosse lle. Gateway to Canada, 1832-1937, Carraig Books, Quebec, 1984, pp.185.

Up The Gatineau!, H.S.G., Vols. 7. 8, 16, 21.

Index

A
aboriginal burial sites
Adams, Eleanor
Alexander, Bertha
Anderson family
Anglican Church
    Greermount
Armstrong
Armstrong, Margaret
Armstrong, Robert
Aylwin
B
Baldwin, Frederick
Baldwin, James
Baldwin, William
Barnet, Elizabeth
Barton
Barton, Norman 0.
Barton, W. Orval
Beechworth, Australia
Begley
    Aggie
      James A.
    James and Elizabeth
    S. and Wm.
    Samuel 43,
Belanger, M. Ovide
Benoit
Bertrand
Blackburn     Andrew
    Andrew Senior
    Christina
    David
    Isabella
    James
    John
    Lennox
    Robina Buchan
    William
Boon
Bourget, Monseigneur
Brennan
Brooks
    Ann Maria (Dexter)
    Caleb
    Hannah
    Marshall
Brown
Brown, Arthur
Brown, Howard
Brown, J. and F.A.
Burke
Burke, Patrick
C
Cahill
Cameron, D.
Cantley. Colonel
Carrethers, Deborah
38 Carrol, Michael
Carroll, Michael
Carroll, Thomas
Cascades Chute
Cashman
Chamberlin
    Alfred Ernest
    H.C. and S.
    Salome
Childs
Church family
Church, Ruggles
Clarke, John
Clyde, Elizabeth
Codd, Rev. Francis
Colberts
Copeland, Thomas
Copland, Thomas
Corbett, Rev. John
Corrigan, Austin
Cox
    Fannie
    Jane
    Joseph
    Joseph M.
    Maria
    Thomas
Cross
    Isaac
    Mary
    Sarah Ann
    Sarah Earle
    William
D
Dailey, Thomas
Daly
Daly, Catherine
Daly family (also Daley. Dailey, Daily)
    Catharine (as Dailey)
    David (as Daily)
    Mary (as Daly)
    Michael
    Richard
    Richard (as Daile
    Richard (as Daley)
    Thomas (as Dailey)
Davis, Catherine
Department of National Defence
Daly
    Daly, Catherine
    Daly family (also Daley. Dailey, Daily)
    Catharine (as Dailey)
    David (as Daily)
    Mary (as Daly)
    Michael
    Richard
    Richard (as Dailey)
    Richard (as Daley)
    Thomas (as Dailey)
Davis, Catherine
Department of National Defence
Donovan
    John
    Mary
    Mary Ann
Ducharme
Duclos, A.F.
E
Earle, Robert
Easy
Edmond, John
Evans
F
Fairbairn
    Frances
    William
Farmer. Allan S.
Faubert, Henry
Fauré
Ferguson, Judith
Field
First Nations
Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick, Nelson
Fleming
Foley
Foster
    Alexander
    Evaline
    Everette
    George
    Gertrude
    Peter
Frémont
G
Gabie
Gainford
Gay, Clarissa
Gay, Reverend Camillus
Geggie, Harold
Gibson
Giroux
    Amedee
    Harry
    Joseph
    Louis
Goulden
Gourlay, Rev.
Gracey
Graham, Elizabeth
Grosse Isle
Gunn, Ada
H
Hall, George
Hamilton, Elvira
Hammond, Mabel
Hatch
    Andrew
    Bruce
    Deborah Anne (Clarke)
J    essica Lauren
Hayes
Heeney, Henry
Heney
    Alice
    Frederick
    Hilda
    Katherine
    Luke
Higgins, Jane (Mitchell)
Hogan
Holmes
Hudson
Hyde family
I
Irwin
    Ann
    James
    James and Elizabet
    Joseph
    Ruggles
    William

J
Johnson, Rev. Thomas Robert
Johnson, William
Johnston
Johnston, Ulric E.
Johnstone, Catherine
Johnstone, George
Johnstone, George J. Senior
Johnstone, Polly-Ann
Joynts
Junkin, Dane
Junkin, Nanoy
K
Kearney
Keeler, Catherine
Kelly
Kennedy
Kenney, Donald
Kenney, Frederick
Kirk
Knox
L
Larche, Emeline
Lennox, Isabella
Lloyd, Rev. William
Lonergan, Barbara
Lord, Samuel
Lovitt
Lovitt, John
Lowry, Rev. Robert
Lynott
M
MacConnell, Jane
Macintyre, Lt. Col. Duncan Eberts
Mackenzie, Gregory A.
MacLaren
    David
    James
    Mary Linda Kerr
MacMillan, Hugh
Mahon
Mahoney
Maloney
Marks
Marks, Mary Jane
Mason, James C.
Mason, Josephine
Mason, Patrick
Matchett, James
Maxwell
Maxwell, John
Maxwell, Martha
Maxwell, William
McAfee
McCarthy
McClelland
McClelland family
McClelland, James
McClinton, Ruggles
McCloskey
McCorkell, Andrew
McCorkell, L/Cpl. Harvey J.
McFadden, Hugh
McFadden, Margaret
McGarry, Hugh
McGarry, John
McGoey
McMullin, Hugh
Meech. Asa
Meech, Rev. Asa
Ménard, Théofida
Meredith, Cecil
Milford, Martha
Millks
Mitchell
    Eliza Jane
    John
    Samuel
    William
Molyneux, James
Moncrieff, Foster
Moodie
Moody, Maryon Elspeth
Moose Factory Island
Morehouse
Muckle, Margaret
Mullen, Cpl. Jervis
Mullen, Jervis
Mulligan
    Arnold
    Ellen
    James
    Thomas
    Wm. John
N
Neeleys
Newcommon
O
Obre, Frances
O'Bryne, Peter
O'Connor
O'Hara
Orr 34,
P
Patterson
Pearson, Prime Minister Lester B.
Peck (also as Pack)
Pioneer Memorial Committee
Plunkett
Plunkett, Mary
Pollack, Margaret
Poole
    John
    Mary
    William
Prentiss. Ed
Prentiss, Omar
Prentiss, Robert
Pritchard
    Ann
    Dr. James
    James
    James and Judith
    Mary
    Thomas
    William Hamilton
Q
Queen Victoria
Queen's Scarf of Honour
Quyon River
R
Radant, Louis
Ragged Chute
Ramsay
Reid 6,
Reilly
Rice, Mary
Richardson
Riley
Robertson, Norman
Rupert Union Cemetery Committee
S
Saint-Joseph-de-Wakefield
Seaman
    Charlotte Elizabeth
    John and Sarah
    Mary
    Rev. John
    Sarah
Sheahan, Catherine
Sheahan, Thomas
Sheehan, Thomas
Sheffield
Shields
Shouldice family
Shouldice, James
Shouldice, Mary (Stevenson)
Sifton, Crisstiana
Simpson, Margaret
Sincennes, Angèle
Spallin, Joe
Spallin, Robert
Spry, Graham
Stanger
Stevenson, Dr. Hans
Stevenson. Ron
Stevenson, Thomas
Stewart
Stewart, David
Stothers
Sully, Ann
Sully. Robert
T
Tanner, A.
Tanner, Ann Jane
Tanner, Archibald
Tanner, James H.
Tempeny
The Lake Settlement
Thompson, Richard
Thompson, Samuel
Townsend, Jane
Trowsse, Elizabeth
Trudeau
W
Wakefield Cemetery Board
Walsh, Catherine
Wanless, Jane
Welsh, Mary
Wills
Wilson
Woods
Wright
    Caroline
    Charlotte
    Dr. Stephen
    Thomas
Wrong. Hume

 

Back cover