The Forgotten of Perth County: Walking Among the Unmarked Graves of St. Marys

I’ve always carried this quiet belief that no one truly wants to be forgotten. Even the humblest life holds a hope; that someone, somewhere, will remember we were here. That we mattered, that our story didn’t simply dissolve into the soil, or drift away on the winds of time. It’s that belief, that has shaped me for years, but it wasn’t until recently that it became something more than a feeling. It became a responsibility.

My journey into the unmarked graves of St.Marys began not with a dramatic discovery, but with a simple truth. While thumbing through documents, I started to see lists of names, I couldn’t ignore. Realizing that so many people lie beneath our feet with no marker, no inscription, no sign they ever lived at all. The harsh truth that once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. I believe that something should be done.

It is likely no surprise that cemeteries hold more secrets than they reveal. St. Marys has two recognized burial grounds, the current St. Marys Cemetery on Cain St., and the old cemetery on Elgin Street, tucked quietly within a neighbourhood. Surprisingly, both have large numbers of unmarked graves, hundreds in fact, this article will focus on East Ward Park or the Old Cemetery, on Elgin. I will save the unmarked graves of the new cemetery for another article, as it also deserves to be covered.

The old cemetery, established in the mid 1800s, served the early settlers, labourers, mill workers, and families who built the town from limestone and determination. Many of those early graves were marked with wooden crosses or simple fieldstones, the kind that weather and time erase without hesitation.

Well known and recorded issues with this old cemetery only added to the issues. Overcrowding, poor record taking, graves with markers never being placed. As time passed, fallen stones were relocated or removed, records burned or misplaced, memories grow faint and descendants no longer remain. In addition, the relocation of many graves from this location to the newly opened St.Marys Cemetery on Cain, along with more recording issues.

Today, not a single marker stands at the head of the deceased at the Old Cemetery, all grouped together in 2 distant corners with few of the names recognized, the others potentially lost to time, forever. And so, the gaps appear.

I began my headstone cleaning business with the basic plan to clean a few headstones and help a few in need. Little did I know if would become a complete obsession, I began to volunteer for genealogy groups, photographing stones, uploading pictures and data documented at the gravesite. Then winter came, I was no longer able to walk the rows and breath in the history. Fortunately, I was prepared, with thousands of photos to upload, excel spreadsheets to update and help from the local museum and internet.

When I found the list interred at the Old Cemetery, it moved me, but when I found the list of unmarked graves in the archives at the St. Marys Museum, I felt something shift inside me. It wasn’t just a list; it was a ledger of lives that had slipped into silence. Names that once belonged to people with laughter, grief, families, dreams, flaws, and stories.

The names listed, some familiar, some never seen before Barnett, Bodfield, Cousins, Richardson, Langford, Killoran, Oliver, Quayle, Skipper, Whalen, and more. With comments that read, plumbers’ wife, farm labourer, widow, student, wife of Peter, and more. Each line making them increasingly human, more real with every word. In another column, their ages, 53, 79, 17yrs 3 mos, 12 days, 28, stillborn, 12 hours, 88 years and more, only adding to the emotion.

Its on this list I see some families had multiple members buried in unmarked plots, entire branches missing from their family trees. Seeing those names grouped together, stripped of dates and stories, felt like standing at the window looking into a blizzard. It was impossible not to imagine the lives behind them, but no one knew they were there.

I remember sitting with the research in front on me, the paper trembling slightly in my hands, thinking: If I don’t do something with this, who will? It was then I made my first post about the old cemetery and began to upload the details to find a grave .com allowing families to connect. I then emailed a person or 2, with sadly no response.

I’m not ready to give up, but I am unsure of the towns plan for the area. Whatever they maybe, I do believe the names need to be recognized. With the knowledge I have the landscape feels different. The empty park and spaces between the stones, are not just empty anymore, they are full. Full of people who had been forgotten by time, but who didn’t deserve to be forgotten by us.

I drive past slowly, almost reverently, imagining where each unmarked grave might lie. I found myself whispering the names under my breath, as if saying them aloud could tether them back to the world. It felt like a small act, but a necessary one.

Unmarked graves are more than missing stones. They are missing stories, missing connections, missing roots and more. They leave families searching for answers that should never have been lost. It is up to the living to make sure they are remembered, honoured and respected.

If you support this cause, please let people know. Contact the Town of St.Marys and let them know that East Ward Park can be a beautiful tranquil place for all to enjoy while honouring the ones before us. Erecting a monument which lists the names of the interred, is a fitting start to breathing life into old souls. Let’s make this happen.