Get to Know Your Local Cemetery
Brandon Sun, June 10, 2013
David McConkey
If you would like to get in touch with your community’s heritage,
then get to know your local cemetery. To become acquainted with the
cemetery is to remember and recognize your fellow citizens, their
lives and deaths.
Manitobans have a valuable resource in the two-volume series by
Charles and Dale Brawn, Every
Stone a Story: Manitoba's Buried History. (In Canada: Every
Stone a Story
.)
The books have dozens of fascinating stories. You can discover
everyone from premiers to murderers; from visionaries who made
history to victims of the mayhem of history.
Brandonites have the Brandon
Municipal Cemetery, which dates from the earliest days of the
city.
After Brandon’s founding in 1881, funeral homes and the cemetery
itself were among the first businesses to be established. In the
early 1900s, the City of Brandon purchased the cemetery, which had
been privately owned and operated. The city also expanded the site
by buying other nearby property.
Today, the Brandon Cemetery has more than 20,000 interments.
You can get to know the cemetery better with two walking tours:
“Gossip in the Graveyard” and What
Lies Beneath.
“Gossip in the Graveyard” is a two-hour walk highlighting some of
the intriguing people buried in the cemetery. Actors from 7 Ages
Productions, under artistic director George Buri, portray these
characters at their graves. You can even chat with each of them
about their life and death.
This year’s “Gossip” is on Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23.
Sponsored by Brockie
Donovan Funeral Home, “Gossip in the Graveyard” sells out
every year. Tickets are $15 from Kelly Lumbard, 204-724-2682.
Proceeds are donated to Westman Hospice.
What
Lies Beneath is a City of Brandon self-guided walking tour of
the cemetery.
Some graves on the tour probably ring a bell as the names of city
businesses, streets and buildings. Like George Brockie, Ernest
Christie, Flora Cowan, A.E. McKenzie, and Henry Patmore.
Others – like Wilfred Bigelow or George Tackaberry – could be more
familiar to us. As a community, we could do a better job of
recognizing notable citizens from our past. One way would be to name
new streets after them.
The “What Lies Beneath” tour can be followed online.
The virtual tour has a photo of each gravesite and a summary of the
individual’s life.
You can also take the tour by walking through the cemetery. Tour
booklets are available at the cemetery office and at the Riverbank
Discovery Centre.
A suggestion I have mentioned before: put the booklet online. Then
anyone can print a copy for themselves and walk through the cemetery
whenever they like.
You can also search
for any grave on the City of Brandon’s website. This is an
excellent resource for family or historical research. Note that you
can look for someone even if you know only some of their
information. (There are some gaps in the historical record, however,
of the early years of the cemetery.)
The Brandon Cemetery could be even more inviting to visitors if we
took a leaf from the Brookside
Cemetery in Winnipeg.
At the Brookside Cemetery, fitness trails are marked throughout the
grounds. Prominent burial sites and points of interest are
identified for those strolling, jogging or bicycling along.
In addition, there are historical plaques describing especially
interesting gravesites.
One of these plaques identifies the grave of veterinarian Harry
Colebourn (1887 - 1947). While serving in the First World War,
he took an orphaned bear cub with him to the United Kingdom.
Colebourn named the bear Winnie (after Winnipeg) and donated it to
the London Zoo. Winnie the bear inspired A.A. Milne to pen the
children’s stories.
Another plaque remembers the Dugald
train disaster, which killed 31 people in 1947. Many of the
victims are buried in the Brookside Cemetery.
The Dugald accident has an eerie echo of the Brandon
train disaster, which killed 19 people in 1916. All of those
victims are buried in the Brandon Cemetery – but they are largely
forgotten today.
I will return to the Brandon Cemetery again. There are so many
stories!
I will also return to “Doors Open Brandon” on the July 20 - 21
weekend. (For information: Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee,
204-720-1432 or Heritage
Brandon.) As part of this year’s event, I will host a
leisurely four-kilometre bicycle tour of historic Brandon parks.
More From Obituary Guide:
- Writing Your Own Obituary Offers Chance for Reflection
- How to Write a Legacy Letter (Ethical Will)
- A Family History Writing Workshop
- Helping Families "Most Satisfying Work" for Funeral Celebrant
- Be Prepared: Will, Health Care Directive (Living Will), and More
Books You May Find of Interest:
Not Quite What I Was Planning:
Six-Word Memoirs

Writing an Obituary Worth Reading:
A Guide to Writing a Fulfilling Life Review

Find the Good:
Unexpected Life lessons From a Small-Town
Obituary Writer

Having the Last Say:
Capturing Your Legacy in One Small Story

Obit:
Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives
For All Time:
A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History

Thrive:
The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of
Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

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