This is the second in a three-part series on family cemeteries in the Newmarket area, in which we'll investigate some of our local family cemeteries with an eye to their location, uniqueness, and history.
Here is a list of the family cemeteries in York Region I shall examine in this column. You can get a full listing of the cemeteries in Ontario from the York branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society along with a comprehensive map showing the locations of the cemeteries across York Region at york.ogs.on.ca/cemeteries.
- The Selby Burying Ground/Weddel Family Plot established in 1809, located in East Gwillimbury
- The Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery established in 1803, located in the vicinity of the former settlement, at 9423 Kennedy Rd. in Markham, just north of Unionville
- The Pegg Family Cemetery established about 1820, located on Lot 7, Concession 4, in East Gwillimbury
- The Franklin Pioneer Cemetery established around 1860 and located on Highway 48, just south of Mount Albert Sideroad on the east side in East Gwillimbury
- The Cowieson Cemetery, established around 1866 and located on the west side of Woodbine Avenue, just south of Boag Road
- The Edgeley Mennonite Burying Ground (1799) established by Mennonites from Pennsylvania and located at 7981 Jane St. in Vaughan
Let us begin with the Selby Cemetery, which is located on the west side of Leslie Street almost a kilometre north of Sharon in East Gwillimbury. The cemetery, also known as the Weddel Family Plot, was established in 1809 on land that was donated by surveyor John Weddel. In 1873, by a special deed, a small area at the northeast corner of the Selby Burying Ground was set aside as the Weddel Family Plot.
The cemetery is defined as ‘closed’ as it no longer accepts burials and is currently maintained by the Town of East Gwillimbury. It contains 312 burials, according to the records. If you wish to look at a transcription of its burials, a short history and photographs in addition to a listing of the inscriptions, the Ontario Genealogical Society (York Region) published a transcript in 1990.
There is a second Selby Pioneer Cemetery called the Selby Anglican Cemetery on Concession 4, Lot 21 in Selby, Lennox and Addington County, which contains graves of people from the Selby area, so do not confuse the two.
The Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery was originally located on the site of the Bethesda Lutheran Church, until 1910, when the church was moved to a new location. Situated in the vicinity of the former Berczy Settlement, established in 1794 by German colonist William von Moll Berczy, the cemetery was established by one of Upper Canada’s earliest Lutheran congregations, made up primarily of German settlers.
I wrote a column on the Berczy Settlement for NewmarketToday should you want more information on the settlement.
The Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the York Region area, founded by one of the region’s earliest religious communities, German Lutheran settlers, and served as the burial ground for this congregation for more than a century. The cemetery provides a valuable insight into the history and settlement of the area by early German pioneers.
The cemetery contains the graves and headstones of many prominent local families from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it is considered an important historical and cultural heritage site in the Markham area.
The Pegg Cemetery is on Lot 7, Concession 4, in East Gwillimbury. The markers are now part of a memorial on the Peppertree Golf Club, formerly the Newmarket Golf Club, on the east side of Woodbine Avenue, two-and-a-half kilometres north of Davis Drive, and it is visible from Woodbine Avenue.
There is a bronze memorial on the original site that reads: “This marks the place long known as the Pegg Burying Ground, established by Isaac Pegg who arrived in 1798 from Pennsylvania and with his sons secured from the Crown lots 7, 8, 9 and 10 in the 4th Con. E. Gwillimbury …” (From a transcription of the cemetery published by the Toronto branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.) There are a total of 35 memorials on the Peppertree property.
The Franklin Pioneer Cemetery is a small cemetery on Highway 48, just south of the Mount Albert Sideroad, on the east side. When I stopped there, it was easily accessible and seemed to be open to the public. There are few graves there and, as is the case with a number of these family cemeteries, many of the stones are not in their original locations, with the older stones all lying back to back in the centre of a large field, surrounded by four stones that appear newer and still standing, leading me to believe it is still an active burial site.
There is a dedication marker to the ‘Settlers of East Gwillimbury’ erected in 1975.
Another family cemetery located in the same general area is the Cowieson Cemetery, which was established around 1866 and is located on Lot 30, Concession 3 in East Gwillimbury, on the west side of Woodbine Avenue, just south of Boag Road. This plot has six markers that I could see and appears to have been abandoned, although it is undoubtedly a family plot.
The last family cemetery I want to look at in this second column in this series is the Edgeley Mennonite Burying Ground, also known as Smith’s/Schmitt/Vaughan Cemetery/Burying Grounds. It is located at 7981 Jane St. in Vaughan and is situated on the east side of Jane, just north of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway station.
This cemetery was established in 1799 by Pennsylvania Mennonites and features a cairn erected in 1985 on the former site of a Mennonite meeting house that was erected in 1824 and served as a place of worship for more than 100 years. There are 271 headstone records available, and the site has been indexed by the Ontario Genealogical Society, York branch.
If you are at all interested in more information on the various family cemeteries in our area, I urge you to visit some of the online sources I have provided below.
The links will provide the reader with their location documented on maps and in cemetery records, and a complete listing of the local historic cemeteries associated with the churches, communities, and early settler families throughout the municipalities that make up York Region.
These cemeteries provide important historical and genealogical information about the region’s early settler families and must be treasured.
Next weekend, I hope to return with more local family cemeteries to explore. It is my intent to spark an interest in the subject in you, the reader, so you will get out there and discover these historical gems for yourself.
It is not my intention to document each site fully as the real fun is to venture out on your own and experience these sites yourself.
Additional sources: OGS Cemeteries (email: [email protected], website: ogs.on.ca); copies of the various cemetery listings: Newmarket Public Library or buy from OGS York Region branch website; Unearthing history of York Region’s pioneer cemeteries, by Adam Martin-Robbins, Newmarket Era.
Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod, the History Hound, has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly feature about our town’s history in partnership with NewmarketToday, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.
