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More Tales
From the Graveyard
by Nancy Millar
As
I mentioned in my last column, there's not a lot of humor in Canadian
graveyards. We take death seriously and why not? It is about as
serious as serious gets, but it's nevertheless fun to come upon
an epitaph like this one from the Okotoks, AB, cemetery:
WEEP NOT FOR ME NOW
WEEP NOT FOR ME NEVER
FOR I'M GOING TO DO NOTHING
FOREVER AND EVER
That's known
in the epitaph world as the Tired Woman's epitaph and in
Okotoks, it does mark a woman.
Emily Murphy
was a magistrate, social activist, busybody, community leader
in the west in the 1910's-1930's. She was the one who got sick
of being told she wasn't a "person" and therefore couldn't
be a Senator. Eventually, she found a way through the law and
custom to challenge that understanding of the BNA Act and have
women declared "persons" back in 1929. She hoped to
be the first female named to that post, but alas, there's more
than one way to keep a good woman down. Cairine Wilson, a good
Liberal from Ontario and a thoroughly worthy candidate, got the
nod first and Emily had to admit to being "ruffled in spirit."
She never did get the call but never mind, that's another story
for another time.
The reason
I mention Emily is that she wrote books under the pen name of
Janey Canuck. In one of them, she quoted this lovely epitaph:
HERE
LIES THE BODY OF SOLOMON PEASE
'NEATH THE DAISIES AND THE TREES
PEASE IS NOT HERE, ONLY THE POD
PEASE SHELLED OUT AND WENT HOME TO GOD.
I doubt if
those words actually exist on a gravemarker anywhere but they're
fun nevertheless.
Emily Murphy
was joined by four other AB women in what is now known as the
1929 Persons Case: Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene
Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards. 70 years later, the
five of them were commemorated when a major statue was unveiled
on Calgary's Olympic Plaza, and a year later, a replica of that
statue was unveiled on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. It was the first
time that women appeared in bronze on Parliament Hill, other than
the Queens; Elizabeth and Victoria, so it was a major coup.
Part of the
impetus for those statues came from my graveyard research. I hunted
up the graves of all five women, of course, because I am interested
in them and also interested in graves. Nellie McClung is buried
in Victoria under a stone that says Loved and Remembered. Louise
McKinney's stone says simply Mother. Henrietta's contains names,
dates and a Bible verse. Irene's reveals that she got an honorary
LLB. All of them too modest for words. But Emily does not go down
that road. She's buried in the Edmonton Mausoleum and has more
words on her space than anybody else in the place. I checked.
EMILY FERGUSON MURPHY (JANEY
CANUCK)
BELOVED WIFE OF REV. ARTHUR MURPHY, MA
DAUGHTER OF ISAAC AND EMILY FERGUSON
BORN AT COOKSTOWN, ON, MARCH 14, 1868
DIED AT EDMONTON, AB, OCTOBER 26, 1933
DECORATED BY HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
A LADY OF GRACE OF THE ORDER OF
ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM IN 1914
FIRST WOMAN IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE TO BE
APPOINTED A POLICE MAGISTRATE
BEING ALSO JUDGE OF THE JUVENILE COURT FOR PROVINCE OF AB
ORIGINATOR AND LEADER OF MOVEMENT ADMITTING WOMEN TO THE SENATE
OF CANADA
AUTHOR, JURIST, CRUSADER IN SOCIAL REFORMS, GREAT CITIZEN,
"AS WHEN A STANDARD BEARER FAINTETH."
Isaiah X: 18
True to form,
Emily did not go quiet into that long night. Good for her.
Nancy
Millar's books about graveyards include Remember Me As You
Pass By, (stories from Alberta graveyards) and Once Upon A
Tomb (stories from Canadian graveyards.) Both are a combination
of history, story and travel. They are available from many
bookstores, see the Links provided, or from Deadwood Distribution,
e-mail nemillar@shaw.ca.
Her other books include Once Upon A Wedding - Canadian history
through actual weddings; The Famous Five: Emily Murphy and
the Case of the Missing Persons, and Once Upon An Outhouse.
Also available from Deadwood. |
Highgate
R.B.Bennett
Lady
MacDonald - The Mystery of Mary
A
Graveyard Tale Closer To Home
The
REAL Sam McGee
The
Titanic Cemetery
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