Caledon East Public Cemetery
Location:
17022 Airport Road, Caledon, Peel Region, Ontario, Canada.
Concession 6E, lot 9, Caledon Township.
GPS:
Latitude: 43.8898°N
Longitude: -79.8950°W
History:
In 1905, public meetings were held and a committee consisting of Messrs J A Donaldson, T Glassford and G W Berney was appointed to see William Brown about purchasing land and collecting money to purchase the land and to appoint a lawyer. The original three acres, more or less, were purchased from William and Mary Ann Brown on April 4 1906. This land adjoined the church and cemetery known as Brown’s Church and Cemetery. In 1910, the committee formally took over the maintenance of the Brown’s Church Burying Grounds. The agreement specified that all plot holders in Brown’s now occupied were not to be interfered with without permission from the owners and perpetual care was paid for them.
The first burial in the new Caledon East Public Cemetery was that of Margaret Ann McCartney on April 26 1906. This was before the plot-holders of the Caledon East Public Cemetery had done any of the physical labour to prepare the grounds, hauling soil, leveling, raking, graveling the roadway etc. The minutes specify that each man was to “bring his own feed” (for the horses, of course). There were at least two such “bees” mentioned in the minutes. Plots originally sold for $14 and $26, depending on whether one as buying four or eight graves. The fee for opening a grave was $8.
Bodies and tombstones were moved into this cemetery from a number of smaller nearby cemeteries. The cemetery records mention Crawford’s which was on the Second Line of Albion; Wilson’s on the corner of Third Line Albion and Twenty Sideroad; Snell’s, Sloan’s, Mitchell’s and St John’s, which were north of Highway No 9 in Adjala and Mono Townships; Caesar’s on the Third Line EHS of Caledon; St Andrew’s on the Fourth Line EHS of Caledon; and St John’s, the Roman Catholic Cemetery on the Fourth Line of Albion, north of Twenty Sideroad close to Centreville Primitive Methodist. (see editor’s notes at end of history).
Due to expanding population in the area the Cemetery Board purchased in August 1984, an additional 2.8 acres to “increase the capabilities of the cemetery’s use for many years to come”. (Quoted from the resolution passed by Caledon Council on August 13 1984).
Editor’s Note: The Wilson’s cemetery mentioned above is more likely to be St Jude’s Anglican (also called Wilson’s) on Third Line east in Caledon, while the “Third Line Cemetery” is probably the Albion Wilson’s. Caesar’s Cemetery is now in the Town of Caledon. In his book “From Strachan to Owen”, W. Perkins Bull stated “the picturesque ruins of (St John’s) Mono Mills are as nothing compared with those of the neighbouring Snell’s Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery, Mitchell’s and St Alphonsus’ Cemeteries”.
Elaine Bertrand Robinson
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