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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.
This summer, she traveled throughout Canada. Here is her reporting
of the graveyards of Nova Scotia.
Once Upon
a Tomb - Nova Scotia
The
Titanic Cemetery and Much More!
by Nancy Millar
Nova
Scotia has so many interesting and important graveyards that it's
hard to know where to start, or in my case as I traveled through
the province, it was hard to know when to stop. Just one more,
I would beg my cousin Judy who travelled with me. Just one more,
and sure enough, there would always be one more just over the
hill or around the corner. On the prairies, we had to drive for
a while from graveyard to graveyard. Not so in the Maritimes.
I had a wonderful time.
Among other things, Nova Scotia has Canada's oldest known grave
marker. That's what it says anyhow, on a sign beside the grave
of Bathiah Douglass in the cemetery next to the fort at Annapolis
Royal. It's dated 1720. Canada wasn't even Canada then. It was
just a nuisancy piece of wilderness for England and France to
fight over, which is why Annapolis Royal existed, and why Bathiah
was there with her soldier husband. Or so it is thought.
HERE
LYES Y BODY OF BATHIAH DUGLASS,
WIFE TO SAMUEL DUGLASS
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
OCTO THE 1ST, 1720,
IN THE 37 YEAR OF HER AGE.
 The
"O" in Douglass is carved above the "U" so
that there's plenty of space for the death's head, the frightening
image of a skull with empty eye sockets and a grim grin. These
were common on grave markers in the eighteenth century, the church's
equivalent of modern advertising. Find yourself looking at Bathiah's
tombstone, the terrible visage grinning out at you, and you'd
likely get yourself to church in a hurry and make your piece with
God.
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Bathia
Douglass' grave marker – the oldest known in Canada
– in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
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If
the symbolism on Bathia's grave marker doesn't get the Biblical
message across, then you might visit the Old Burying Ground in
Halifax and check out the Adam and Eve stone. It tells the story
of death and resurrection. On one end of the Bulkeley stone is
carved Adam and Eve, looking guilty indeed as a snake winds its
way up the trunk of an apple tree. On the other end, a winged
figure with a trumpet hovers above a bony miserable looking skeleton.
Once again, the message is clear - heaven awaits those who obey
and believe.
Incidentally, the Old Burying Ground inHalifax has been designated
a national historic site and with great reason. It is an open-air
museum, a history book, a novel, and poetry. I could go on and
on, but there's more in Nova Scotia. There are the Titanic graves
in the Fairview Cemetery.
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The
Adam and Eve Stone in the Old Burying Ground in Halifax,
Nova Scotia
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It
was raining buckets in the late afternoon when I got to the Fairview
Cemetery, but it was exactly the right way to see those long rows
of small grey box markers. Each one is dated April 15, 1912; each
one represents the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic. Halifax
was the nearest major port. Many of the bodies were brought there
in the following few days and many were buried there. Everett
Edward Elliott was one, a member of the crew, aged twenty-four.
I think his mother must have written his epitaph for it so obviously
seeks a reason for this terrible loss:
EACH
MAN STOOD AT HIS POST
WHILE ALL THE WEAKER ONES WENT BY
AND SHOWED ONCE MORE TO ALL THE WORLD
HOW ENGLISHMEN SHOULD DIE
The
Titanic Section of Fairview Cemetery,
in Halifax,
Nova Scotia
As
if Halifax hadn't had enough trouble from its surrounding waters,
there was the problem with two ships that collided in the harbour
the morning of December 6, 1917. The collision of two ships wouldn't
have been the end of the world except that one of the ships was
a munitions ship, full to the gunnels with bombs and ammunition
for the war in Europe. When it hit the other ship and caught fire,
it blew up and literally bombed Halifax. More than 1600 people
died instantly, many were never identified. There's a big black
flat marker in Fairview Cemetery that says:
TO
THE MEMORY OF THE UNIDENTIFIED DEAD
VICTIMS OF THE GREAT DISASTER
DEC. 6, 1917
And now for
something a bit more cheerful. In Nova Scotia, one hears a lot
about the Hector. It was a leaky old trap of a boat that brought
Scottish immigrants to Nova Scotia in 1773, and if you were one
of the originals or a descendant of one of them, you take great
pride in the Hector. More than likely, you mention it on your
grave, as is the case with this epitaph in the Pioneer Cemetery
in New Glasgow:
HERE
LIES THE BODY OF COLIN MCKAY
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
JAN. 30, 1804, IN HIS 74TH YEAR
AND HIS SON COLIN, 1772-1850
BOTH ARRIVED PICTOU 1773
ON FIRST TRIP OF THE BRIG HECTOR
Example
of Death's Heads in Truro, Nova Scotia
While I was
in Pictou, I went to the St. James Anglican Cemetery and found
these words upon the grave of Peter D. Brodaire:
IN
HIS LAST AND BEST BEDROOM
I thought
the message was an original way of referring to his heavenly home
but to my delight, I heard another interpretation in Calgary one
day. After doing my dog-and-pony show at Glenbow Museum with slides
and stories about graveyards across Canada, a couple approached
me and asked if I had happened upon this very grave marker. Well,
yes I had, I told them.
Did I know,
they asked, that the words referred to the fact that Mr. Brodair
had moved from boarding house to boarding house in Pictou, never
satisfied with his accommodations? Always complained about his
bedroom?
"No,
I didn't know that," I said, "but I'm delighted to know
it now."
See, that
has been the fun of graveyard exploring. Little by little, I learn
more about people, our history and us. It's like exploring for
gold. You never know when a nugget is going to turn up.
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.
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