Nestled on the front left corner of a country property in Moorefield, Ontario, St. John's Anglican Cemetery has an interesting history and an even more interesting secret hiding in its headstones. The seemingly tiny cemetery has over ninety memorials documented on site. The headstones are arranged on a cairn, as is common with old, pioneer-aged cemetery stones, with the majority of headstones laying down flat.
The history of this cemetery is that is it actually two cemeteries that were combined into one. In 1853, two brothers, William and Joseph Medill built a Baptist church and graveyard on their farm property lot. The churchyard cemetery saw a small number of burials but as time passed it became overgrown and neglected. In 1970, only three headstones were documented as being moved to their current home at St. John's Anglican Cemetery. As far as I could find, all articles said 'headstones moved', leading me to believe that the buried individuals were not moved along with their grave markers. The fate of Medill's Baptist church cemetery appears to be that it has blended back into the countryside and is neither cared for, nor marked as cemetery. Once the headstones were moved in 1970, they were arranged together on a cairn.
The headstone of Mary McKague, wife of Joseph Medill, was one of only three headstones recorded to have moved from Medill Cemetery to St. John's location. Mary was born in 1832 and was 61 when she passed away in 1885.
The second of the three monuments moved was that of Henry and Jane Couch. This husband and wife passed away in the same year of 1900.
The third stone that was moved belongs to Henryetta Waters. Henryetta passed away too young at the age of twenty-seven. While her headstone is here, here husband lived on into his seventies and is buried at a Drayton Victoria Cemetery, not far from the location. What happened to the other who were buried at Medill Cemetery, I cannot be sure.
Thanks for reading... Happy (cemetery) Trails! 🍃🪦🦋
Research credits to:
Findagrave.com