Pioneer Memorial Garden Cemetery

The history of this cemetery dates back nearly two hundred years, with the earliest recorded burial there being Sabine Dearborn’s in 1830. In 1847 Mr. John B. Warren donated the property to the Wesleyan Methodist Church to provide a cemetery for the congregation. The cemetery was partitioned into family plots separated by various barriers, wrought iron fences, posts connected with chains, ect.

In 1868 the Methodist Church would move to a new location and a wooden fence was added to the cemetery to keep out animals. In the early 1900s this wooden fence would be replaced with a wire fence. In 1906 the cemetery would receive its last burial, that of Barbara Hurd. Most of the grave stones date to the mid-1800s, only a few are from after 1870.

By 1945 the cemetery was suffering from neglect and the United Church assembled a committee to restore it. Headed by George Ansley, the committee would oversee the site’s transformation into a memorial garden. Many of the bodies were removed by living relatives for reburial in the Union Cemetery. The abandoned tombstones were cleaned up and integrated into the site’s cairn. The site is currently owned by the city.