Área de identidad
Código de referencia
Título
Fecha(s)
- 1888-1977 (Creación)
Nivel de descripción
Colección
Volumen y soporte
7 volumes
Área de contexto
Nombre del productor
Historia administrativa
The history of the cemetery can be traced back to Monday, February 6th, 1888, when a meeting was held in Deseronto’s Town Hall to discuss the establishment of a Cemetery Company under the terms of the Cemeteries Act. It was agreed that the Deseronto Cemetery Company should be formed, with a capital of $4,500. Within a week a prospectus had been issued and shares were being sold at $100 each.
The Tribune, Deseronto’s newspaper of the day, reported the outcome of the meeting in the following way:
The prospect of the early opening of a cemetery in this vicinity is everywhere hailed with satisfaction. The people of Deseronto and neighbourhood have in the past been compelled to bury their dead here, there and everywhere, a state of affairs in no way creditable to their public spirit. We are glad to know that so many are taking shares in the company.
The Tribune, February 10th, 1888
The original committee of the Cemetery Company included Dr John Newton, the local physician, Amos A. Richardson, a merchant (later MPP for Hastings East), and Thomas H. Nasmith, cashier for the Rathbun Company.
Forty acres of land to the east of Deseronto were purchased by the Rathbuns for the cemetery in April 1888 and A. J. Hopkins, a landscape architect from Oswego, New York, was hired to design a layout for the site in early May of the same year. The choice of an Oswego landscape architect reflected the industrial interests of the Rathbuns in that town and the fact that there were no landscape architects in Canada at that time.
“Before long, it would be a ‘pleasure’ for anyone to be buried in the Cemetery”, reported The Tribune, on April 6th. By the summer of 1888 the cemetery was in use.
A portion of the cemetery was sold to the Roman Catholic church in 1895, creating a separate Catholic section on the east side of the site.
Institución archivística
Historia archivística
Three items (2008.07/1-3) transferred to the Deseronto Archives from Deseronto Town Hall in April 2008.
Origen del ingreso o transferencia
Transferred to Community Archives in September 2016.
Área de contenido y estructura
Alcance y contenido
Deseronto Cemetery Company out-letter book (some entries too faint to read), 1888-1898
‘The Cemetery Lot Book’ List of cemetery lot numbers (1-900) and the price per lot, [1888]
Deseronto Cemetery Company ledger. Includes names of stock-holders, lists of expenses and lots sold (by date), 1888-1907
Deseronto Cemetery Company ledger, including plot-owners’ names and some addresses. Front board detached (has printed schedule of fees attached to it from 1 June 1930), 1928-1954
(2008.07/1) Deseronto Cemetery Company journal of receipts and expenses from 1 June 1928 to 27 Feb 1950
(2008.07/2) Deseronto Cemetery receipts and disbursements from 1 Jan 1950 to 5 Feb 1960
(2008.07/3) Deseronto Cemetery receipts and expenditure, 24 Jan 1966 to 4 July 1977