Once Upon A Tomb: Stories From Canadian Graveyards

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Nancy Millar is known as Canada's Cheerful Tombstone Tourist. She's traveled all over the country exploring graveyards and talking to people, the result of which is Once Upon A Tomb, a history of Canada from the back end, as it were. It's history as she found it in graveyards.

Once Upon a Tomb - Newfoundland

by Nancy Millar

I had tons of fun in Newfoundland, which sounds like a bit of a contradiction considering I was exploring graveyards, but the people were so friendly, the graveyards so unique and lovely, and the province itself like a different country. It was grand.

The first story I found wasn't so grand, however, but it seems that every part of Canada has its share of shame over the treatment of its natives. In Newfoundland, it's the Beothuks, those who lived on the island before the Europeans discovered it. One awful spring day in the 1600s, when a British ship put into St. John's, they were met by natives who were whooping and hollering. So the sailors shot them. When in doubt, shoot. And that's when the Beothuks melted into the interior of the island and became hunted animals. Literally, they were hunted and killed as sport. By the 1800s, three women who were captured and brought to St. John's were the last of their people. Two of the women died soon after capture but one, given the name Nancy, lived another six years. She didn't have the language to tell about her people but she could draw, and those drawings remain as the only first-hand record of the Beothuks.

Poor Nancy. When she died, she was buried in the very old Anglican cemetery, but a new road was built and she was lost again. So there's a cairn beside a main road in St. John's that says:

THIS MONUMENT MARKS THE SITE
OF THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN
DURING THE PERIOD 1859-1963
NEAR THIS SPOT IS THE BURYING PLACE
OF NANCY SHANAWDITHIT
VERY PROBABLY THE LAST OF THE BEOTHICS
WHO DIED ON JUNE 6, 1829

Other stories on Newfoundland grave markers involve the sea, of course. In the Old Anglican cemetery in St. John's is Thomas C. Robinson, "Lost at Sea." Near him is George Rowles, "Killed By Falling From the Cliff at Bacculieu Island." There's George Roberts in the Brigus cemetery "Who Was Lost in a Storm at the Ice Fields, 1869." You don't see stories like that in prairie graveyards.

Nor do you see stories of pirates who capture princesses and live happily ever after. I had read that a certain Princess Sheila was buried in Bristol's Hope and the story was too good to resist. So I landed up there on a Sunday morning. Couldn't find Sheila anywhere. Couldn't find anyone out and about either, so I stopped at a house and prepared to knock on their door. Judy, who was traveling with me, was horrified. "You can't just go up and ask perfect strangers," she protested. But how else was I to find the princess? And, wouldn't you know, in true Newfoundland style, the man who answered the door said simply, "Sure, I'll take you there." See what I mean about friendly people?

She's not buried in much grandeur, I have to say. In fact, her actual grave marker has apparently been carted off to a museum, but her husband's is still there in a patch of lawn behind a local senior's lodge. But never mind, the story is still a Hollywood one if ever I heard one. Seems that Peter Easton was a British pirate on the high seas who nipped into Newfoundland every now and then to pick up supplies and a few extra pirates. Did you know that some of Canada's history involves pirates? Isn't that choice? Anyway, one of the extras recruited by Easton was John Pike who eventually went out on his own. On one of his raids on the high seas, he captured an Irish princess named Sheila Na Geira, she of dark eyes and fiery temperament. Do you see why Hollywood belongs here? Anyway, she won his heart and convinced him to go straight. So they lived happily ever after in the Bristol Hope/Carbonear area.

We're hearing a great deal about Trinity, Newfoundland these days, what with the movie Shipping

News and the television series, Random Passage. Both were shot in and around Trinity, we are told. Well, I too shot pictures in Trinity, but these were photographs taken in the graveyard around St. Paul's Anglican, up on a hillside overlooking the town and bay. A great spot and a great graveyard full of stories. For one, Dr. John Clinch is buried there:

JOHN CLINCH, 1749-1819
BORN IN ENGLAND
THIS MEDICAL AND MISSIONARY PIONEER
CAME TO NEWFOUNDLAND IN 1775
AND LATER SETTLED IN TRINITY (1783) WHERE HE DIED
HE IS NOTED FOR INTRODUCING THE JENNER VACCINE
TO BRITISH NORTH AMERICA (1800)
AND FOR COMPILING A GLOSSARY
OF BEOTHUK TERMS.

As it happened, John Clinch trained in England with Edward Jenner who eventually developed the smallpox vaccine. Thus, when smallpox began its deadly rounds in the Trinity area, Clinch remembered his old friend's work and ordered some of the vaccine from England. From Newfoundland, the knowledge of vaccination spread to other parts of North America. A first for Newfoundland. As well, his grave marker reveals one other Canadian who tried to respect and preserve native life.

And speaking of Canadian, those who lived in Newfoundland were not Canadian until 1949. That's when their premier, Joey Smallwood, led the province into Confederation. That's why it says on his grave in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in St. John's:

JOSEPH ROBERTS SMALLWOOD
1900-1991
FATHER OF CONFERDERATION

Two other stories that stood out in Newfoundland graveyards concern the word caribou. First, the caribou is the symbol of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment; the only regiment to receive the title "Royal" after World War I. Anyone who was part of that heroic bunch has the right to be marked with the caribou symbol in the graveyards, and they do so proudly. Secondly, a Canadian ferry named the SS Caribou, was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1942, killing all 136 people aboard, civilian and service people alike. Can you believe it? The ferry was en route from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The war had crept into our own backyard, which is why we saw, again and again, in the graveyards, a reference to the sinking of the Caribou.

Mind you, we didn't see any actual caribou in Newfoundland. Those we saw in the Yukon, which I'll cover next month. The final installment in this cross-Canada graveyard tour!

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@telusplanet.net. 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 or link with www.nancymillar.com.

This story, with permission from the author, Nancy Millar, was supplied to us by Canadian Funeral News, a magazine dedicated to the advancement of funeral service in Canada and is published 12 times per year by OT Communications. Suite 1025, 101-6th Ave. SW Calgary, AB, T2P 3P4 Tel: 403-264-3270 Fax: 403-264-3276