Tombstone Tourism: The Middlesex Centre Archives Cemetery Tour

On October 5, I attended Middlesex County Archives' Second Annual Cemetery Tour. Since I missed last year's trip, I really looked forward to the 2024 edition and this day of cemetery sightseeing did not disappoint. 

My friend and I are such keen Tombstone Tourists that we arrived absurdly early. But that was fine, since it gave us an opportunity to visit one of last year's graveyards while we awaited the start of this year's tour. 

Tiffany Cemetery

Across Gideon Road from Middlesex County Archives is Tiffany Cemetery, named after Gideon Tiffany who's buried there. (Yes, the road is named after him too.) It was Tiffany who donated land for this cemetery over 200 years ago and some burials did take place as early as 1805, like the sign says. 

Tiffany was one of those early pioneers who did some of everything. Despite being an American from New Hampshire, he went to Niagara to become King's Printer for Upper Canada in 1794. Later, in 1799, with his brother Silvester, he began publishing the Canada Constellation, Upper Canada's first independent newspaper. 

Perhaps Tiffany tired of the news business. In 1801, he purchased 2,200 acres in Delaware Township from Ebenezer Allan, taking over two sawmills owned by the latter. In the wilds of Delaware, he and his brother-in-law, Moses Brigham, produced lumber for the Detroit market. The village of Delaware was surveyed by Gideon's brother Oliver in the mid-1820s in hopes of it becoming the administrative and judicial seat of the London District. (No such luck.) For 30 years, Tiffany served in various township offices, including assessor and overseer of roads and fences. He also became a lieutenant in the 1st Middlesex Militia. Years later, he took the losing side in the 1837 Rebellion and was jailed for it ... but was tried and acquitted in 1838. 

As his gravemarker (right) states, he was born in 1774, came to Delaware in 1801, and died there aged 80 in 1854. He's buried with his wife, Ruth Tomlinson, who he married in about 1802 and who lived until 1850. The couple had five children who survived to adulthood. 

More information about this legendary pioneer can be found in this bio by another local legend, historian Dan Brock. 

Christ Church Pioneer Cemetery

At last the official tour began. The first official stop on this year's tour was back across the street, next to the Archives building. The land for this burial ground was donated by Dr. Oliver Tiffany in 1834. There was a frame church, Christ Church Anglican, on this site as early as the 1830s. Progress dictated that it should be replaced by a brick building in 1885. Alas, the era of church building is over and the age of church demolition has begun. Christ Church was demolished in 1999, leaving a large gap in the centre of the cemetery. 

The tour organizers outdid themselves in providing information. Archives volunteer Sid Prior placed signs on various graves with bios of the deceased. This had the effect of bringing the dead to life - figuratively, anyway - by letting us know who they were. No longer were they just names on a marker. 

Numerous gravemarkers are toppled over here. Rumour has it that, in another Anglican cemetery, a child was killed by a falling marker. To prevent this from happening at Christ Church, reps from the Diocese of Huron came out here and knocked over various monuments. It seems unlikely that the church itself would deliberately vandalize Christian graves to prevent accidental deaths (or lawsuits) and yet these tombstones are in worse condition than in most local cemeteries. If these were my relatives, I'd be quite annoyed. BTW, I've contacted the diocese about this but, to date, I've had no response. 

Our bus tour took us to Poplar Hill Baptist Church for lunch. Actually, we brought our own lunches but the church ladies served us tea and coffee in the church hall and opened the sanctuary for us to have a look. 

Poplar Hill Baptist Church is still active.

Close-up of painted balcony railing.

Wrought iron on pew.

Poplar Hill Cemetery

This is a biggie, the largest cemetery in the former Lobo Township, being four acres with a couple of acres in reserve. The first burial here was that of John McLellan in 1841:

But there are more Zavitz graves here than anybody else - 133 in total.* This infant is only one:

Below is a marker of "white bronze," many of which are scattered in cemeteries throughout southwestern Ontario. Actually, the markers are pure zinc, the colour is achieved by applying a chemical oxidizing agent. The result seems to be indestructible, free from corrosion, doesn't grow moss or lichen, doesn't absorb moisture and is unaffected by frost. The markers might have been made by the White Bronze Monument Company of St. Thomas, in business ca. 1883-1900 but not all markers have the maker's name. 

A "white bronze" marker is typically an obelisk, like this one with funerary urn up top.

Another interesting detail. Name plates like the one below could be removed to provide access to a hollow interior, giving rise to legends of markers being used by bootleggers to store liquor during Prohibition.**A more prosaic explanation is that the nameplates could be removed to be corrected or added to, if necessary.

Why aren't there more of these markers? Were they expensive or just too newfangled for stodgy Victorians?

Next, a couple of military men:

Asa John Patterson, son of Neil Patterson and Martha Coates, was born October 12, 1895. He enlisted in Strathroy on November 26, 1915. In A. Co. 135th Battalion. Died at Vimy Ridge April 9, 1917. Actual burial place is Nine Elms Military Cemetery north of Arras, France.

Private Leonard J. Smith, 4th Battalion CEF. Born on September 29, 1898 in Lobo Township, son of Judson Albert Smith and Loretta Ellen Quackenbush. He served in World War I but died in London at Westminster Hospitl of myocarditis, March 18, 1939, aged 40.

Interesting Sinclair family stone:

Note metal plate covering cavity on the right.

Empty. For a souvenir of the deceased? Original or added later?

By the way, our guide at Poplar Hill, Larry Griffith, informed us that Poplar Hill Cemetery saw a botched attempt at grave robbery in about 1902. The culprits were probably medical students looking for fresh cadavers. $50 was spent on ads in the London Free Press and London Advertiser newspapers offering a reward to apprehend the culprits but the reward was apparently unclaimed. How macabre.

St. John's Anglican Cemetery, Arva

Our third stop of the day was St. John's Anglican Church and Cemetery, southwest corner of Richmond Street and Medway Road. The land for the church and cemetery was donated by John Fraleigh way back when the roads were called Proof Line and Concession 7. A frame church was built in 1823 and the current church on the site in 1875. The village of Arva, by the way, was once known as St. John's, same as the church but, when a post office opened here in 1852, it was named Arva after a community in Ireland.

Interior, St. John's Anglican, Arva.

Grave of Rev. Charles Crosbie Brough, St. John's minister 1841-83. The north London neighbourhood of Broughdale was named for this family. 

A great many Shoebottoms in this cemetery, including this infant who lived 21 days.

An attractive row of Ardill graves.

Perhaps of greatest interest at Arva is a cairn moved here from another location. White Church Cemetery was located south of Fanshawe Park Road on the east side of Wonderland (formerly Concession 5 and Cameron Sideroad). In 1934, some burials were re-interred under a stone cairn built to display them. (Others burials couldn't be identified since their wooden markers had become illegible.) In the early 1990s, Fanshawe was widened and this cairn was professionally dismantled to be reassembled at Arva. 

If you're wondering how many human remains were left at Fanshawe and Wonderland, you're not alone. This is no one's fault. Some graves would not have had markers, older wooden markers had decayed, and it would be impossible to move everyone. 

Many have lived who have no memorial. 

* According to The Heritage of Lobo 1820-1990, p. 111. I'd hate to count them all myself.

** William G. Stewart, Nature Rambles, 2000, p. 56-62.

Doors Open Middlesex 2014

St. Andrew's Presbyterian, Napier

In 2014, Doors Open London and Doors Open Middlesex fall on different weekends, allowing adventurous Londoners to explore the wilds of Middlesex County and still view London attractions later in the month. Being restricted to one day of sight-seeing only, I couldn't even fit all the Middlesex locations into my schedule. But the fact that the locations were restricted to the western part of the county, mostly in the Strathroy area, made getting about a little easier.

I chose to drive all the way out to Napier and work my way back towards London. Napier is an idyllic "ghost town," filled with hustle and bustle in the nineteenth century but now a quiet reminder of the Ontario of yesteryear. In an out-of-the-way location on unpaved Napier Road, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and surrounding hamlet might be a little hard to find, perhaps explaining why I was the only visitor at the church when I arrived about 1:00. It's disconcerting when there are more volunteers than guests so I hope there were other callers at this quaint 1887 brick building. The inside is plain and simple, not surprising for a structure built by a late-1800s rural congregation, and the sense of peace and calm is palpable. Not that St. Andrew's is a closed church; a small congregation of about 30 is using it for Sunday services. The congregation was founded in 1863 in an earlier church building, making last year a 150th anniversary.

Making my way back to Strathroy, I stopped at the former Strathroy Flour Mills on Albert Street, now home to the Strathroy Brewing Co. I was a little late to join a large tour, so contented myself with a generous sample of 1812 Independence Pale Ale, named to commemorate the fighting spirit that maintained Canada's independence from the United States during the War of 1812. There were considerably more visitors at the brewery than at my first stop, suggesting either that breweries are more popular than churches in general or that Strathroy locations are easier to find than those in Napier. (I suspect both ideas might be right.)

While in town, I also stopped at Strathroy Antiques Mall, not a Doors Open location, but if you like this kind of thing, than it's the kind of thing you'll like, so I thought it was worth a visit. It's very similar to London's Memory Lane with numerous antique vendors packed under one roof. It's wonderful and convenient to have so much material culture assembled in one location but, after a while, everything turns into a nostalgic blur. I managed to escape with only a few items to add to my home's clutter of "artifacts."

Finally, I made my way to Delaware to check out the new Middlesex Centre Archives. After campaigning in Middlesex County for years to create a general Middlesex County archives, a committee of heritage-minded citizens finally decided to go ahead on a more local level in 2013. The archives acquires and preserves historical records pertaining to Middlesex Centre, the former London, Lobo, and Delaware townships. Staffed by volunteers, the archives is still operated on professional standards, and well on its way to becoming the nucleus for a future county archives.