Columbia Primitive Methodist Cemetery
Also known as: Coventry Old Methodist Cemetery
Location:
9938 Columbia Way, Caledon, Peel Region, Ontario, Canada.
(Accessible only through private property.)
Concession 8, lot 11 E-1/2, Albion Township.
GPS:
Latitude: 43.9053°N
Longitude: -79.7310°W
History:
The hamlet, Columbia, was also known as Coventry, after Coventry in England. The name Columbia may have been given to it by Thomas Swinarton who had visited Columbia, California, during the gold rush years and assigned this name to the village on his return to Peel.
The Columbia Primitive Methodist Church, also known as Bowes Primitive Methodist Church, Swinarton (or Swinnerton) Primitive Methodist Church and Coventry Primitive Methodist Church, was established in a frame building in the fall of 1856. (Trudy Mann, Early Churches of Albion and Caledon Townships, Peel County), though early church meetings probably took place in the home of George Bowes.
The cemetery appears to have existed at the same time, the earliest burial being recorded as taking place in 1833, according to Perkins Bull who, in the 1930s, described the cemetery as “a wilderness … right in the village of Coventry. The fence surrounding is broken down, and an apple tree in full bloom is in the middle of the cemetery. Pigs seem to make it a ‘happy hunting ground’ …” He further reported there had been no burials there for 25 years.
The Caledon Citizen reported in January 13, 1999 — “Columbia, later Coventry, was a small village on Cold Creek in the 19th century. The church was taken from this site many years ago and the front portion of the site severed for residential use. To reach the cemetery and the cairn, there is an easement along the west of the adjoining property.”
Dorothy Kew
Transcription purchase:
Transcriptions of this cemetery are available for digital download from the OGS website – click here to order via credit card.