Bringing dignity back to un-named graves

Jeff Green | Jun 17, 2010

In the 150 years since the back country of Frontenac County has been settled, a number of communities have come and gone, and there are many graveyards that have been forgotten.

Still others have fallen under the supervision of churches, and ultimately townships, which have tried their best to bring them back into a respectable state after decades of neglect. In addition to clearing trees, brush and other overburden and repairing fences, there is also the problem of identifying graves whose markers are gone, or which may have never been marked.

This winter, the Henderson United Church has addressed not only their own cemetery, which was established in 1918, but also the Henderson Pioneer Cemetery, which was established in 1880 and is known locally as the Gaylord Cemetery due to its location near the Gaylord homestead on the Kirk Kove Road.

The issue with these cemeteries was not maintenance, as they have been kept in good repair, but it was unmarked interments. As one of the elders from the Henderson United Church, Sheila Deline, put it, “There was nothing there to acknowledge that these people walked on the planet.”

So, a committee from the church did some genealogical research, and interviewed as many older people in the community as possible to determine the names of the people who were buried in the cemeteries but whose names do not appear on any existing markers.

For the Gaylord cemetery, they had 28 markers built. They were affixed to concrete slabs, 3 to a slab, at the front of the property. For the United Church cemetery, where the locations of all the plots are known but some grave markers were missing, 21 markers were installed at gravesites. Two new signs were also purchased and put up at each of the cemeteries.

The entire project was funded by the church community at a cost of $3,500 and sweat equity was provided by members of the committee.

The annual memorial service at the Henderson United Church Cemetery will be held on Father's Day, Sunday, June 20, at 2 p.m.