Old Saint Mary's Cemetery

This was fascinating.

Old St. Mary's Cemetery hosted burials between 1838 and 1963. There is a "New" St. Mary's in the vicinity and, while this cemetery is closed, it is maintained to a reasonable standard.

Was is remarkable is the effort that undertaken to preserve the headstones. They have been gathered, reassembled where necessary, and then encased in concrete to prevent further deterioration. Thus, aside from family plots, there are four large "clumps" of headstones. It is unlikely the graves themselves were moved. One family plot (as identified by gating around the plots) is directly "connected" to headstones from other families as a result of the entombment of the, well, tombs...

There are the remnants (stubs) of headstones throughout the maintained area which I assume was the span of the cemetery when it was active.

There were two "pipe" headstones, one to remember "John Joseph O'Reilly", the other is lost to history. One veteran of the CAF had a very nice crest from the Almonte Branch of the RCL on his quite unique headstone.

The Legion has also erected a commemorative plaque honouring veterans who have served and are interred here.