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The Lost and The Legends
One of the largest sources of misunderstandings in our Cemeteries History all over the world is that all graves in the last couple of hundred years are known or can be located and they always have had, and still have a monument. In Chatham-Kent alone the numbers of lost burials would be almost endless! We always need to consider the following.
- Many old cemeteries have simply fallen into rivers and creeks. Often times cemeteries were placed along the "Road" and the "Road" in these early times was the River or the large Creek. Then erosion has changed things over the last century or two causing many cemeteries to be lost forever.
- Many Cemeteries were not kept up. Trees beside the stones, weathering, rodents, and all kinds of problems caused the monuments to tip and the site to become unsafe. So many of these have been removed by private land owners. Often times families in these former times had their own burial places. Small private cemeteries on their farms. And time after time these had only wooden crosses and field stones to mark the locations. And so many those are now long gone. Their locations lost forever.
- Many cemeteries were destroyed when roads were "punched through" in the sometimes not too distant past. We have been told of the thoughts of a dozer operator as he plowed through an old cemetery seeing the broken pieces of bone everywhere. But it was his job and he was ordered to do it!
- Many cemeteries were moved. Especially in the 1870 to 1890 time period many people came to realize that it was not a good idea to be burying people next to their source of water supply of wells in the towns. So most cemeteries were removed at that time from the old towns and cities. Chatham, Ridgetown, Dresden, Wallaceburg. Those moved from the towns and cities even in Chatham-Kent are so very numerous. We do need to understand though that often times the families only moved the monuments when requested so that they could leave their dead to "Rest in Peace". New burials were almost always moved as their position was known, and remains were not yet decomposed. But those interred already by a year or two or more were often left for many reasons. It is a well known fact that in Maple Leaf cemetery for instance that many grave markers that date before 1871 have no burials under them. They are simply markers that used to mark the actual graves in other locations.
- Many burials simply did not HAVE monuments placed over them. No relatives. Lack of money. Lack of incentives. Monuments removed for some reason. The reasons are endless. Even today, many burials do not have monuments.
- Many native burial spots hundreds and thousands of years old are long lost. The remains sometimes having been pulled up by the plow or the backhoe. Many of these places are known by historians. Some are known by us. But if identified too often they are disturbed by looters. So these locations mostly remain largely unidentified.
This page of our web site provides us with a place to see and to recognize those burials that are now long lost. Long forgotten. Long destroyed by Nature and the Hand of Man.
The Lost
Re Tyler Cemetery - Lot 21 Con. 12 abt 11216 Pinehurst Line. Presented with thanks to Gordon and Donna Dickson who mention the following... Alexander Tyler and Catherine Newcomb Tyler were pioneers of Harwich Township. Their burial site could not be found so wondered if they might have been buried on the farm. As well as the person on another stone there. They had a daughter Catherine born near McGergor's Creek on Sept 4 1841. Married in Feb of '60 to Thomas Woofenden of Concession 9 Harwich.
Catherine Tyler Woofenden died Nov 20 1918. Husband Thomas died July 31 1909 at age 76 years 1 month 14 days. Possibly found them in Newcomb Cemetery but writer can't verify it for sure. Other children in Tyler family were Elizabeth, Joseph, and William Earl.
The Undocumented and The Legends
Undocumented in Raleigh. We had heard of a husband & wife buried in Raleigh, near the lake. Ashes buried after cremations.
Undocumented on River Road. We have heard of two persons (? couple ?) buried in a bush along the River Road, Perhaps somewhere around the turn of the century. (Year 2,000).
We understand no known earlier burials on the property. But seemingly they wanted to be buried "on the home place" even if it had been sold. Ashes buried in one place after cremation.
A Legend on Selton Line. There are two possible burial sites found on the farm of John Skakel by dowsing. Nothing is known of them. Might they be the original settlers on the farm and their relatives back then or other neighbors? Might they be native burials? Or are these simply animals or other holes. Their size, arrangement, and orientation, make it very likely that these are human interments. If these are human graves, they have rested in peace there with no markers for more than 100 years, and so should be allowed to continue to do so.
A Legend - Under 401 at Beechwood. We have enlisted the help of several local people to try to find any information on a cemetery that was destroyed when hwy 401 was put through. No one has any recollections of such a place. IF such existed it was likely destroyed by the deep grading done for the highway, and if it still exists the highway traffic would not allow us to investigate due to high amounts of travel on it. We now consider this to be a legend. If it is not a legend, it is likely totally destroyed at least! However, if further information comes to pass on such a place we will present it here and update this information.
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