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Cataraqui Cemetery, Romanticism, Consumerism, and the Extension of Modernity in Kingston, Ontario, 1780-1900

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Cataraqui Cemetery, Romanticism, Consumerism, and the Extension of Modernity in Kingston, Ontario, 1780-1900 Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-12-2017 12:00 AM Dying to be Modern: Cataraqui Cemetery, Romanticism, Consumerism, and the Extension of Modernity in Kingston, Ontario, 1780-1900 Cayley B. Bower The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Jonathan Vance The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Cayley B. Bower 2017 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Cultural History Commons Recommended Citation Bower, Cayley B., "Dying to be Modern: Cataraqui Cemetery, Romanticism, Consumerism, and the Extension of Modernity in Kingston, Ontario, 1780-1900" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4665. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4665 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario, is one of many garden cemeteries that were constructed in the nineteenth century as a marker of modernity and civility. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the changes to interment customs, spaces, and services that occurred in cemeteries like Cataraqui were key to the creation and expression of modernity in emerging Canadian cities. Garden Cemeteries not only provided more beautiful and healthful burial spaces, they gave expression to new configurations of the human relationship with the natural world, and provided new means of communicating spirituality, and respectability. Through the application of Romanticism and the absorption of consumerism, two dominant cultural trends of the nineteenth century, the cemetery became a central site of community and personal amelioration. The application of Romantic philosophical concepts to burial space allowed the creators of the garden cemetery to both extend and provide critique of the project of modernity and by the end of the nineteenth century, the cemetery was located firmly within the network of modern consumer society. This dissertation seeks to reveal that burying the dead has always been about much more than burying the dead through an examination of the garden cemeteries of the nineteenth century as historically dynamic expressions of dominant social and cultural strands that developed over the course of the nineteenth century including Romanticism, Hygienic Reform, and consumerism. i Keywords Cemetery, Death, Burial, Modernity, Romanticism, Consumerism, Canada, Nineteenth-Century ii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Vance, for his expertise, support, and his sense of humour. I would also like to thank my second reader, Dr. Allyson May for her constructive input and her assistance throughout my time at Western. I would also like to thank Kara Brown, the graduate program advisor, who always went above and beyond for me. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the staff at the Queen’s University Archives, the Anglican Diocese of Ontario Archives, and the United Church of Canada Archives for their assistance in researching this dissertation. iii Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..i Keywords …………………………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………..…iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………iv List of Plates……………………………………………………………………………………………………vii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Modernity, Romanticism and Consumerism …………………………………………………2 Death, Funerals, and Bereavement………………………………………………………………..9 The Corpse………………………………………………………………………………………………...16 Burial Practice…………………………………………………………………………………………...19 Cemeteries………………………………………………………………………………………………...20 Chapter Summaries……………………………………………………………………………………28 Chapter 1-The Early Years………………………………………………………………………………..30 1.1 Placing the Dead…………………………………………………………………………………..31 1.2 Church of England Supremacy……………………………………………………………....35 1.3 The Presbyterian Challenge…………………………………………………………………..39 1.4 Episcopalian Rebuttals…………………………………………………………………………43 1.5 Making Space for the Presbyterians………………………………………………………48 1.6 Space at a Premium………………………………………………………………………………51 Chapter 2 – To Meet a Need Which Has Long Been Felt………………………………………53 2.1 Growth, Modernity, and the Problem of the Dead…………………………………..54 iv 2.2 The Formative Strands of Cataraqui Cemetery………………………………………58 2.3 Articulating the Picturesque………………………………………………………………….65 2.4 Refining the Picturesque……………………………………………………………………….67 2.5 Creating the Cataraqui Cemetery Company……………………………………………71 2.6 Constructing the Cataraqui Cemetery……………………………………………………75 Chapter 3 – For Such Our Cemeteries Should Be………………………………………………..80 3.1 David Nicol, Superintendent………………………………………………………………….83 3.2 Financial Limitations, 1855-1878………………………………………………………….85 3.3 A Space for All Protestants……………………………………………………………………89 3.4 Visitors and Tourists: Defining Correct Usage………………………………………..90 3.5 Keeping Up Appearances………………………………………………………………………98 3.6 Importing Management Schemes: The American Connection……………….102 3.7 The Cemetery as a Service…………………………………………………………………..109 Chapter 4 – Consuming Grief…………………………………………………………………………..120 4.1 The Middle Class, Separate Spheres, and Consumerism………………………..120 4.2 Women, Mourning, Fashion, and Fantasy…………………………………………….126 4.3 Men’s Mourning………………………………………………………………………………….134 4.4 “A Tilt at a Black Monster:” Critiques of Mourning……………………………….136 4.5 Consumerism, Mourning, and the Cemetery………………………………………...139 4.6 The Consumer-Oriented Cemetery and the Growth of Undertaking………144 4.7 Creating and Maintaining a Profession………………………………………………...147 4.8 The Association Under Fire…………………………………………………………………151 4.9 Continued Professionalization…………………………………………………………….155 v Chapter 5 – Nature Copied and Encouraged: From Cemetery to Park………………..158 5.1 Offensive Spaces…………………………………………………………………………………159 5.2 The Municipal Government and the Urban Graveyard………………………….163 5.3 What Shall be Done With the Old Burying Ground?............................................169 5.4 Legislating Frontenac Park………………………………………………………………….177 5.5 Exhumation and Panic………………………………………………………………………..180 5.6 Constructing Frontenac Park………………………………………………………………186 5.7 Park and Cemetery: Blurring Distinctions……………………………………………188 5.8 Urban Parks and Modernity………………………………………………………………..190 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………..194 Bibliography and References…………………………………………………………………………..203 Curriculum Vitae……………………………………………………………………………………………224 vi List of Plates Plate 1: A View of Cataraqui Cemetery in autumn. Photo used with permission of the Cataraqui Cemetery Company…………………………………………………………………………….............2 Plate 2: Survey Plan of the Upper Burial Ground, Kingston, ON. Queen’s University Archives………………………………………………………………………………………………………………......50 Plate 3: Rusting iron fence. Photo by the author……………………………………………....…........111 Plate 4: The Statue of Hebe in the Cataraqui Cemetery. Photo used with permission of the Cataraqui Cemetery Company............................................................................113 Plate 5: The swan fountain near the entrance of Cataraqui Cemetery. Photo used with permission of the Cataraqui Cemetery Company……………………………………………………...114 Plate 6: A monument style grave marker in Cataraqui Cemetery. Photo by the author…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….140 Plate 7: A slab style grave marker in Cataraqui Cemetery. Photo by the author………….141 Plate 8: The Upper Burial Ground before it was converted to a park. Queen’s University Archives, Chulcheth Album……………………………………………………………………………………..165 Plate 6: Children sitting in the Upper Burial Ground with the Reverend George Barclay Monument. Queen’s University Archives, Chulcheth Album………………………………………166 Plate 7: Officials surveying the Upper Burial Ground, Queen’s University Archives, Chulcheth Album…………………………………………………………………………………………………….177 Plate 8: Moving the bodies from the Upper Burial Ground. Queen’s University Archives, Chulcheth Album…………………………………………………………………………………………………….183 vii 1 Introduction Cataraqui Cemetery is only a few minutes’ drive away from Kingston’s city centre, though once inside, it feels as though it is worlds apart. Aside from the addition of modern monuments and headstones, the experience of a visit to the cemetery has changed very little. I visited Cataraqui Cemetery in October of 2015, after reading the Superintendent’s reports, and was immediately struck by how the landscape I found was exactly the one that David Nicol had set out to create over 150 years before. The space is removed from the sights and noises of nearby Kingston, and in the silence, one is free to enjoy the sound of the birds, the rustle of the wind moving through the large trees, and the scrabbling of the squirrels—some of whom may be direct descendants of the two pairs of grey squirrels that David Nicol purchased from A.W. Bessas and liberated in the cemetery in an effort to create a more natural space.1 The winding paths present a seemingly endless series of vistas featuring huge shade trees, tall, stately pines, and often-impressive monuments. If the more intrepid visitor ventures off the gravel path and across the lawn, the path almost immediately drops from view as
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