Crawford Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery
Location:
17584 Centreville Creek Road, west side, Caledon, Peel Region, Ontario, Canada.
Concession 2, lot 28 E1/2, Albion Township.
GPS:
Latitude: 43.9189°N
Longitude: -79.8876°W
History:
Crawford’s Wesleyan Methodist Church, also known as Stinson’s Wesleyan Methodist and Zion Wesleyan Methodist, was built, according to Perkins Bull, ca 1842, though meetings were held as early as 1845, probably in Robert Crawford’s home. According to the history of Caledon East United Church the first building was log and roughcast and situated on the southeast comer of the East half of Lot 28 Concession 2. This church appears at this location on the 1859 Tremaine map. As the land the church was on was swampy, Margaret and William Stinson gave land for a new church, located across the road on the west half of Lot 28 Concession 3 Albion Township. The church closed in 1923. (Trudy Mann, Early Churches of Albion and Caledon Townships, Peel County.)
Perkins Bull reported in the 1930s that the first burial was in 1836 and that there were then 20 graves in the cemetery. He described the cemetery as follows: “The approach to this cemetery is through an old wooden gate. … You are then obliged to follow what is evidently a rabbit path, over the remains of a bridge. There are very few logs of this bridge left, and the traveler has to be wary or else get into the swamp or marshy ground, and there sink to the knees.”
Trudy Mann states that some of the remains have been removed and reburied in Caledon East Cemetery. What is left of Crawford’s Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery is now under the care of the Town of Caledon.
Dorothy Kew
Transcription purchase:
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