It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Tucked away on a quiet, forested hillside just off Limberlost Road is a cemetery unlike any other you’re likely to encounter.
If you follow the short, meandering path beyond the simple wooden arch at the entrance, you’ll encounter a handful of monuments marking the graves of former residents who lived in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
A sign at the start of the path begins: “Here lie some of the stout-hearted pioneers of the community who carved their homes and their lands from the forest.” The youngest, Thomas Alvin Hart, who died Sept. 15, 1886, was just three years old, while others lived into their 70s and 80s. Only a few memorials remain, and it’s unknown if there are others buried here whose markers have been lost to time.
IN MEMORY
OF
ANDREW
HART
DIED Nov 8 1895
… 44 Yrs
ALSO
THOMAS ALVIN (Hart)
DIED SEPT. 15, 1886
AGED 3 Yrs. 5 Mos.
We loved them in life
Let us not forget them in death
(This stone leans against the memorial
for S.A. Ada Hart, who died aged 22)
An unnamed Indigenous person is among those interred at Mizpah, “with a blanket for a shroud” according to the notice at the cemetery’s entrance.
The settler community was established in 1885. It was originally known as Nelson’s Appointment, and was renamed Mizpah when a church was built in the area. By 1910, almost all of the families who had lived there had left.
Remains of the Nelson family’s settlement can still be seen today at the nearby Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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Bess Coleman says
Very interesting, l’d like to go there.
SandyMcLennan says
Didn’t know. Thanks for telling.
PETER SMITH says
I had forgotten about this cemetery. My Mom, Dad, Brother and I had visited it several times when we still owned the cottage on Toad Lake from ’67 to the mid ’90’s. Memories lost in time, but thanks for this reminder of those days.
Queenie Finley says
Very interesting, I enjoy reading about the people who opened this part of Canada up……..Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us.
Barbara Whyton says
My parents bought crown land past Mizpah in 1958. We would stop to visit and pay our respects to those who were hear before us. We still go by Mizpah to this day.
I enjoy your Wayback Wednesday articles.
Keep them coming.