A Cemetery for the Catholics
The land on which St. Mark’s church sits was granted for the exclusive use of the
Anglican Church. It seems probable that it had been used for burials long before by early
settlers and possibly by the Native People. Perhaps, because of that, it was considered
unusable for purposes other than a church. Markers for those early years have been lost,
although tradition tells us that some were used to shore up the rifle pits during the War of
1812 and consequently may still lie buried in the mounds. The earliest known burials
were of Leonard Planck in 1782 and Elizabeth (Johnson) Kerr twelve years later.
For many years, however, St Mark’s was the only cemetery in town. Although it had
been set aside for the use of the Anglican Church, it served the whole community.
In September 1829 the Bishop of Upper and Lower Canada came from Montreal to St.
Mark’s on his routine biennial visit to the churches of his diocese. He conducted
confirmations on the Sunday and then the next day proceeded to Toronto. As he crossed
Lake Ontario by steamboat, he wrote a letter to the Lieutenant Governor pointing out that
the Roman Catholics of Niagara had no burial ground of their own. Even though no one
had spoken to him about this state of affairs, he requested that land be set aside for their
use.
By the tone of his letter, it is difficult to know if his concern for the Catholics was
entirely altruistic. He pointed out that Roman Catholic burial rites were being carried out
on Anglican property. Given what we know about the difficult relations between the two
communions at that time, it is likely that he considered this to be a big concern. If it was
so for the Bishop, it was probably a greater one for the Catholic Priest.
St. Vincent de Paul Parish had a resident priest as early as 1826 and its record of baptisms
began in 1827, although the church was not established and blessed until 1835.
Whatever the Bishop’s motivation, apparently the Governor listened to him, for very
soon, not only the Catholics but the Presbyterians too had burial grounds of their own.
The first interment in the cemetery of St. Vincent de Paul appears to be that of Stephen
Heenan who died in 1833 at the age of 31. That same year a child, John Meneilly, was
buried in the cemetery of St. Andrew’s.
The Baptists and Methodists gained cemeteries of their own as well. From that time on,
members of the denominations were kept separate even in death. We even find examples
of mixed marriages where the spouses of Anglicans and Presbyterians are buried
separately in the Catholic burial ground.