cemetery Old Methodist

This is a very old cemetery, with only a few stones although it is “almost full”. It is situated on a short side street off Hwy 62 in Combermere and extends to the banks of the Madawaska River. There are several huge pine trees throughout the grounds, making it very picturesque. The grounds are mostly level, with few natural rises and is maintained now by the Hamlet of Combermere in a well-kept manner.

The oldest stones date back to 188A (#15) and 1886 (#1 & 10). It is now closed except for lots yet to be used (#23, 24, 26) – From Inez Boehme and G.K.

There are many more persons buried here than what the stones indicate. At one time the burial plots were marked by a wooden peg, but the town maintenance crew removed them as they interfered with the cutting of the grass. All the stones face east. – from Mrs. Fred Schweig & G.K. Oct. 10, 1996.

The McHERNESS father lost three sons in W.W. I – one in 1916 and 2 in 1918, with the mother dying in 1915 (see stone #9).

William BOEHME (tailor) #3 and John O’BRIEN #17, were two of the nine people who lost their lives with the sinking of the Mayflower on Kamaniskeg Lake on November 12, 1912. The boat, a crude, home-built tug-boat type was bringing a corpse from Barry’s Bay to Combermere for burial in Palmer Rapids, when it sank. John O’Brien did not drown with the boat but died from cold and exposure on the island to which he and three other survivors managed to drift with the rough-box which filled with air and did not sink. – Geraldine Kuehl.
(See further in Genealogical Extracts from the Eganville Leader, 1902-1913, Page 89)

This cemetery record contains a map with the location of the headstones shown. It also contains headstone inscriptions.