Bank Street is a busy road, constantly taking people into the heart of the city, or out of it. The multitude of cars that drive past Analdea Boulevard on south Bank each day probably take no notice of the trio of 19th century tombstones at the busy intersection. Yet, here an abandoned graveyard contains the rested souls of Goths.

INTERSECTION OF THE DEAD

A grassy plot of land at the corner of Bank and Analdea looks quiet enough, save for the hundreds of cars that pass by it each day. Below its well cut grass are forgotten interred souls, one a 4 month old baby Goth, the others older Goths and Fentons. These are the last remaining souls of an abandoned 19th century graveyard that was moved to a new location sometime in the 1970s. Once a rural churchyard, the church building has since been demolished and its graveyard quietly removed…but not quite all of it.

In the latter part of the 1800s, a Methodist church was at the intersection that is now the gateway to the sprawling suburb of Findlay Creek, where a stretch of new homes surround a trio of old tombstones. Despite the suburban development, no houses seem to dare come close to the abandoned Goths. The old church served the outer settlements of Gloucester until sometime in the 1930s at which time the Methodist church closed.

With many of the 19th century locals being interred into the graveyard at the church, it still remained when purchased by the Women’s Institute in 1940, serving as a community centre. The community centre later moved elsewhere, and the former church was eventually demolished, yet the graveyard remained. Slowly, the graves were transferred to property near what is now the OLG Casino on Albion Road. For reasons unknown, not all the graves were moved, and three lonely tombstones remain at the Bank St. intersection.

One grave marker is that of baby Herbert, son of May Ann and Robert Goth, aged only 4 months when he was buried. The buried baby Goth has inexplicably been separated from the grave of his parents, who lie at a separate graveyard down the road in Johnston Corners.  The other marker is that of  John Goth who died in 1897 at the age of 81 and with him lies his wife Hannah Goth who joined John in 1920 at the age of 96.

A third stone nearby marks the plot of the Fenton family, with six members of that family buried there. Ages of the dead here range from 23 years to 90.

The City of Ottawa maintains the forgotten cemetery as development sprawls in all directions around the lonely graves. They seem out of place on a large tract of prime real estate surrounded by suburban homes. Perhaps the words on the Goth tombstone reveal part of the reason why they have not been disturbed…”NOT HERE HAS RISEN”

Andrew King, October 2016.

All photos unless otherwise noted by @OldManLoudWife

 

SOURCES

http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/searchmapframes.php

http://www.findlaycreek.ca

http://www.bytown.net/glou1834.htm

http://geneofun.on.ca/cems//ONCAR15264

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