Gravestone in Douglas Cemetery - Record Detail
Gravestone in Douglas Cemetery. - [ca. 1902].
| Part Of: | NWPL heritage collection - Photos [Description]
|
| Description Level |
Item |
| Item No. |
2459 |
| Date Range |
[ca. 1902] |
| Physical Description |
1 photograph |
| Scope & Content |
Photograph shows a gravestone at the Douglas Road Cemetery. Archie Miller, former curator of Irving House, suspects that this information may be incorrect that it may be the old Anglican Cemetery at Dufferin and Agnes. Colin Stevens of the New Westminster Museum and Archives and Valerie Hooper of the B.C. Genealogical Society agree that this would be the Dufferin Street Cemetery. They say that this is a picture of the monument of James Digby who was a member of the Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers. The members of this detachment were buried in the Dufferin Street Cemetery. Digby died on Feb. 6, 1860 in a hunting accident at age 47. This monument was moved to the Fraser Cemetery in 1908. It is the oldest headstone in the Lower Mainland.
Mr. Miller was the source for the following information about the Douglas Road Cemetery. It was surveyed in 1861-62 and used until the 1870's. It was used sporadically in the early 1900's. Use of the cemetery stopped around 1913. The cemetery sat unused until the Second World War when a military camp was put up. There was also a pauper's section of the graveyard. It was used as a burial grounds for the old pest house from the 1860's to 1913. There is some dispute about the exact location of the graveyard. Some people say it was at Tenth Avenue and Eighth Street while others place it further up the block. Some 1930's references refer to it as being in the middle of the block. |
| Subject Access |
Cemeteries |
| Geographic Location |
New Westminster (B.C.) |
| Record ID |
97798 |
| Comment on this record |
museum@newwestcity.ca |