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From: "Janet Jones" <>
Subject: North Kent Leader article
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 19:21:12 -0400


From the North Kent Leader dated 12-Apr-2006

Restoring abandoned cemeteries

By John Phair

Local News - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 @ 08:00



Essex County Historical Cemetery Preservation Society president Ken Turner
enjoys learning about Ontario's past while preserving historic cemeteries.



Photo: John Phair

Ken Turner is a man with a passion for local history, along with an abiding
respect for the many pioneers who, during this country's infancy, took on
the daunting task of carving homes, farms and communities out of the
inhospitable swamp and backwoods of, what is now, South-western, Ontario.

And that passion has led him to a engrossing hobby.

To some it may seem a morbid past time, but like most historians and
geneologists, Turner also has a penchant for snooping around in old grave
yards in search of the stories and insight they have to offer on the early
days of Ontario's settlement.

Turner is president of the Essex County Historical Cemetery Preservation
Society, a group of about 30 active volunteers which searches out and
restores abandoned and neglected cemeteries within Essex County.

Over the past several years, the group has been responsible for recovering a
number of historically significant pioneer burial sites within Essex County,
many of which had literally disappeared from the landscape more than 50
years ago.

Turner was guest speaker at the Essex County Agriculture Hall of Fame
induction ceremony, held last week at the Harrow Fairgrounds and shared some
photo slides and information on some his group's more fascinating
discoveries.

"Many don't realize it but Essex County is the oldest, continuously settled
area west of Montreal and you would be amazed at what lies underneath the
soil of this county," said Turner.

He noted that many early grave sites were on the corner of farms, on the
edge of wood lots or in cemeteries connected with churches that may have
long since been disbanded.

Consequently, in cases where families and churches may have moved on, grave
sites of early pioneer families are often left neglected and have often been
reclaimed by nature.

All too often, he said, they are overgrown with weeds and bushes and the
tombstones have often been submerged in the earth.

In some cases, the land above them has been cropped for many years and
sometimes even houses or other buildings have unwittingly been constructed
on top of them.

Turner said he finds it "highly disturbing" to find grave sites that are in
neglected and deteriorated state.

"First of all no one's grave should look like that, and secondly, many of
these people were pioneers of this county," said Turner.

"People will say who cares about these old cemeteries, the people are dead,
it's a waste of land . . I've heard all the excuses."

Turner argues there are a number of very important things about pioneer
burial sites.

"They don't take up a lot of real estate and they are significant because
we can trace the early patterns of settlement by the locations of these
sites," he said, adding they are often all that's left of an early
community.

"In some cases we would never have known these people walked this land had
we not found these sites."

Turner said often a new site will be discovered when an "old-timer" recalls
a cemetery being at a certain location when he or she was a child.

As an example, he relayed how a field on the edge of Kingsville was slated
to be developed into a subdivision and his group had gained the knowledge
that an early burial ground had once been located there.

Consequently, an archeological survey was conducted on the property and
within a few days revealed a pioneer burial ground with many of the
tombstones still present but submerged beneath the earth.

"The fascinating thing about this site was that it contained the burial
sites of about 30 persons and two were veterans of the War of 1812 and two
were Essex County militiamen that served in the Rebellion of 1836-37," he
said, adding there was also a very significant lady buried there in the
person of Margaret Brown Stuart, who is recorded as being the first
non-native women to cross the Allegany Mountains of Pennsylvania.

"And all this was lying in our backyards just outside of Kingsville," he
said.

"Unfortunately, it had disappeared from the landscape for over 50 years . .
. when you can identify them and put a name to them it's very rewarding."

Turner said adding to the importance of finding old burial grounds is the
information that the headstones reveal.

"Before Confederation in 1867 there was no law to suggest you had to
register births, deaths, or marriages and most of that information was kept
by local churches or maybe in family bibles and now of course many of those
churches have become defunct and the family bibles lost," he said.

"So much of the information we have prior to Confederation is on these old
grave stones . . .I like to say these grave stones are original documents
with original information written on them."

He added that from information gleaned from old tombstones, they know there
was a cholera epidemic in Essex County during the 1930s.

"We know there was an epidemic that killed a lot of people and we know that
from reading the grave stones."

Turner said many of the early grave stones are very ornate and reveal the
work of craftsmen.

"Some of these grave stones are literally works of art . . . they represent
an artistic style of a bygone era, you could argue that many of these old
burial grounds are literally art museums," he said.

Turner also noted that Essex County also has a number of burial sites of
Blacks who came through the area during the 1800s fleeing slavery in the
United States.

In addition, Essex is also home to many First Nations burial grounds, many
of which date back 800 to 1,000 years.



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