The Windermere Cemetery
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THE WINDERMERE CEMETERY Researched and compiled by Alex Weller* The Windermere Cemetery is located on traditional unceded land of the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc (Shuswap) peoples. * Special research thanks to Montanna Mills, who volunteered her time to visit BC Archives in person to track down death certificates not yet online. CONTENTS Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------ii A Brief History of the Windermere Cemetery -------------------------iii Frequently Asked Questions -----------------------------------------------v Cemetery Maps ----------------------------------------------------------------vii Plot List --------------------------------------------------------------------------1 Index -----------------------------------------------------------------------------27 First Printing, November 2017 © Alex Weller, 2017 Do you have more information aBout anyone listed here? Help us make this list more complete! For corrections, or for more information, contact: The Windermere Valley Museum and Archives 222 6th Ave, Invermere BC 250-342-9769 [email protected] Print copies of this document can Be accessed at: The Invermere District Office The Invermere PuBlic LiBrary The Windermere Valley Museum and Archives i Introduction According to legend, the Windermere District Cemetery first saw use in 1886 with a douBle funeral. James Mahon Rogers was killed when a wagon of lumber fell on him, and on his way home after digging the grave, Robert Thornberry was thrown from his horse and suffered a broken neck. Sixty-three year old James Mahon Rogers did indeed die from a wagon falling on him, and two days later thirty-two year old Robert ThornBerry fell from his horse and was picked up dead. The date given to the incident is seven years off - it occurred in 1893, not 1886 - and we only have legend to confirm that theirs were the first Burials at the Windermere District Cemetery, and that the two men were buried together. Furthermore, the exact location of their Burial may not Be as precise as the records seem to indicate. Plot numbers at the cemetery were only introduced in the 1920s, so the plot listing for Rogers and Thornberry (E-11) was assigned about thirty years after they were actually buried. In many ways, the first Burial at the cemetery illustrates many of the proBlems faced By those wanting to know more aBout the cemetery and the people Buried there. Record keeping was sporadic and often incomplete. Finding correct names is often difficult, the map located at the district office is incomplete, and there are many names listed under the heading “Unknown Location”. This project came around as an effort to reduce some of the confusion, at least as much as it is possiBle to do so. This revised map and plot listing for the Windermere Cemetery is the result of aBout five years of off and on work. It relies strongly on a combination of records held at the Invermere District Office, the Windermere Valley Museum and Archives, and death certificates accessed on the BC Archives’ genealogy website. There was also a lot of time spent on the ground at the cemetery developing a plot map Based on the locations of actual graves. As the data for this map still doesn’t come from a formal survey, there are still some inaccuracies, But it is slightly more thorough than the previous map. The confusion of the Windermere Cemetery is likely to never Be fully resolved, But it is my hope that this project will answer some questions, raise others, and generally be of use to the community. The majority of information compiled in the plot list comes from death certificates availaBle through BC Archives. Most certificates can Be accessed for free online, either on the BC Archives Genealogy weBsite: (http://search-collections.royalBcmuseum.Bc.ca/Genealogy), or through Family Search (https://www.familysearch.org/search). Digital copies of all of the death certificates used for this project are also availaBle at the Windermere Valley Museum and Archives in Invermere BC. The plot list includes formal causes of death. Some of these are Bluntly worded, and may require caution By some readers. Alex Weller November, 2017 ii A Brief History of the Windermere Cemetery The Windermere District Cemetery is located on a 5.5 acre piece of land donated by R.L.T. GalBraith, who at the time owned the entire Windermere townsite. It is on a picturesque spit of land jutting into and overlooking Windermere Lake. The land was surveyed on June 12th 1900 By T.H. Taylor, and again on August 23, 1911 By J.T. Laidlaw on the authority of the Provincial Government. The map prepared shows the boundary fence of the cemetery containing 4.39 acres, and includes 1.04 acres for Roman Catholics to the south, 1.78 acres in the middle for Protestant Burials, and 1.57 acres to the north for Other Denominations (this later Became known as the Legion section). There is no evidence that individual plots were ever surveyed. The cemetery was managed from the Windermere Townsite Office until 1911, when all assets in Windermere, including the cemetery, were sold to the Windermere Orchards Company. Management changed again in the 1920s, however the exact nature of this transition is difficult to determine. There is some indication that the Invermere Contracting Company managed the cemetery from 1919 or 1923, But what is known for sure is that in 1924, the Windermere District Cemetery Company was formed to maintain the cemetery. It is possiBle that the Cemetery Company was formed as a suBsidiary of the Invermere Contracting Company. The Cemetery Company sold shares at $10.00 each, which entitled the shareholder to a plot. The Invermere Contracting Company took over management completely in 1954, and in April 1972, the property was transferred to the Corporation of the Village of Invermere. Today it remains under the care of the Invermere District Office, and has Been officially declared a historical site under the Heritage Conservation Act. There has long Been some confusion at the cemetery regarding Burial locations, to the extent that the cemetery has Been closed to new Burials except for those families with plots purchased before 1954. Graves were being dug in supposedly unused ground that wasn’t so unused after all. There are a number of reasons for the confusion. 1. There are no written records made of Burials in the cemetery Before 1911, and Before 1912, the death certificates issued By the province of British Columbia did not require the place of disposition (Burial) to Be recorded. As a result, although it is very likely that people who died in the district before 1912 are buried in the Windermere cemetery, unless there is a headstone it is impossiBle to confirm. Of the approximately forty-five Burials Before 1912, we do not have confirmation (or know the location) of seventeen of them. 2. The practice of numbering plots only Began in 1924, meaning that any Burials Before then without a headstone were completely untracked at their time of actual burial (see above). Burials in the Catholic section are particularly challenging. Names were recorded under a generic “Catholic Section”, without a plot listing, and unless there was a headstone, today their locations are unknown. We do not know the locations of any Catholic burials before 1935. iii 3. As numbering plots didn’t start until 1924, ground without headstones in 1924 might have Been presumed to Be empty, and these plots may have Been sold again. 4. A plot map wasn’t prepared until 1979, and even then it was based on the shares sold, not on any survey of the cemetery itself. As a result, the map does not record “empty space” Between individual plot listings where further Burials are likely. There are also names recorded for this plot map with no corresponding headstone or death certificate indicating an actual death. It is possible that shares were sold and never used. 5. Although there were some people who regularly acted as undertakers of the cemetery, the person who dug the grave may have also Been friends or family members of the deceased. These people would have little to no idea of where a particular numbered plot was located, the result of which is that the location of plots was never recorded and could have been recorded incorrectly. 6. Cemetery rules state that the responsiBility of erecting and maintaining a headstone lies with family and friends. Those who died without family in the area, those with friends or family who didn’t have funds for a proper marker, or those without friends or family in the area to maintain their grave over time, all may have eventually found themselves in an unmarked grave. Wooden markers in particular are quick to fall down and rot, and in many cases the only sign of burial is sunken ground. iv Frequently Asked Questions 1. My relative is listed as being buried in the cemetery, but there is nothing written in the “plot listing” space beside his/her name. Is there any way to determine where exactly in the cemetery they are buried? Short answer: No. Since 1912, the province of British Columbia has required the place of disposition (burial) to be listed on death certificates, but the exact plot listing is the responsiBility of the organization that runs the cemetery itself. If that organization did not make note of the exact plot of Burial, then we do not have it. That Being said, educated guesses may Be made Based on what year the person you are looking for was Buried. There is a tendency in the cemetery for disposition in certain areas based on the year. For example, if Burial occurred in the 1950s or 1960s, there is a very strong likelihood that Burial was in rows H or I (although the exact location is more difficult to determine).