This church and it's small remaining cemetery have a particularity morbid history, which is why I feel we needed a cache here to tell the tale.
A man named Allan Taylor had his tender to build the St. Thomas Church accepted in 1818, construction was nearly completed, but sadly just as the walls were erected, Mr. Taylor passed away. He was buried beneath the floor of his church, and his mother had her own pew placed directly over his grave so that on Sundays they could still be in church together.
Moving on through time, several fires ravaged through the church over the years, one of which brought the roof and bell tower crashing to the ground, but the walls stood strong and the church prevailed through the smoke and the ash and was rebuilt to it's former glory.
In 1989 construction began on a large addition to the North side of the church which also required the relocation of a significant amount of graves. Headstones were carefully moved, and graves were dug up. But what they found shocked everyone involved. 573 additional bodies were recovered that nobody ever knew were there. Graves with a headstone for one person had 30 bodies tossed underneath the casket. Mass graves were found that had no markers whatsoever to indicate they were even there. The skeletons were sent to McMaster University where they were studied and dated, and then they were all reburied individually in small back plots.
It's been widely questioned over the years what caused this horrific, disturbing event. Many believe it was a plague of small pox or a similar virus that swept the town, and they had no available resources or space at the time to provide everyone with their own grave and headstone, people were simply dying to quickly.
Maybe we will never know the true reason why all those bodies were found there. But at least they received the resting place they deserve after all these years.
St. Thomas has preserved many of the oldest headstones in the small cemetery they still have on sight. Additional stones may be seen imbedded into the walls of the church from the 1989 mess hall addition. Please be respectful of these people's final resting place, of the church property, as well as the neighbouring homes as there is no fence for their back yard. Thank you!!!!
Congratulations on first to find going out to curl4u!!