Originally Published in Heritage Happenings, November 2005
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Part of the interest and great charm that cemetery markers possess comes from what is actually to be found on the stone itself. Originally only of interest to genealogists searching for elusive ancestors, cemeteries today provide a wide range of professionals with resources that are slowly being recognized as an important component of Canadian social history.

Of greatest interest are the thousands of markers that were erected before 1880. Most of these contain inscriptions and motifs through which the early citizens of the town and countryside expressed their views and acknowledgment on the inevitability of death and their faith in the immortality of the soul – it is how they chose to say and portray this that has resulted in a renewed interest in cemeteries.

The most popular inscriptions were four line verses, with alternate lines rhyming. Most of these were of a standard form, sometimes slightly altered to reflect the person commemorated, and repeated over and over again on stones across the city. It appears that these verses were part of the oral tradition, passed by word of mouth from generation to generation and originating in “the old country.” Popular from the middle of the nineteenth century, they remained in vogue until the slab marker lost its popularity. Two of the most popular verses or epitaphs are these from St. Thomas Roman Catholic Cemetery, Waterdown.

Monuments to young children and babies are to be found in virtually every cemetery, for the threat of death was part of pioneer life. For women of any age, childbirth was difficult, dangerous and frequently claimed the life of both mother and child. Even common diseases, such as whooping cough carried off complete households of children, so epitaphs are often par of children’s markers.

“Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not”

While this epitaph was popular for a young woman’s gravestone.

“She died as she lived trusting in God”

Almost every monument has some small quote with religious overtones as part of the inscription: “He giveth his beloved sleep”, “Awaiting the Resurrection”, “Safely anchored in the harbours of eternal rest” and “Of your charity pray for the soul.”

For all the charm of the epitaphs, they are rarely informative about the deceased life or death. Often the statement of death is stark, perhaps meant to engender pity at the age of the victim or the destruction it brought to a family. In Grace Church, Waterdown, this inscription needs no explanation, “Cause of Death Killed by the explosion of a Boiler. Wm. Attridge 9 February 1871”, or this for William Lyons in Grove Cemetery, Dundas, “Died by drowning Wm. Lyons aged 19 years.”

The inscriptions that have been engraved on twentieth century monuments, seem to lath the originality of those produced a century earlier. The craftsmanship found on marble slabs was replaced by the brevity of machine-produced inscriptions for granite tombstones, monument upon monument with brief epitaphs such as “Fondly remembered”, “In loving memory”, “Loving Husband”, “Beloved Wife” seem polite, almost emotionless when compared to those chosen by the previous generation.

© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2005, 2024.