Support the Cemetery
A small burial ground with no paid staff runs on two things: the Care & Maintenance Fund, and people who turn up.
Why a historic cemetery needs help
The arithmetic of an old burial ground is unforgiving. A cemetery earns money when it sells lots. A cemetery that is mostly full, in a hamlet of a few hundred people, sells very few. Yet the grass grows at exactly the same rate as it did in 1890, and hundred-year-old marble goes on weathering whether or not anyone is paying attention.
The Care & Maintenance Fund exists precisely for this, and it is what will keep this ground mown long after the last of us. But it is a trust: only the interest may be spent, and on a fund of this size the interest covers ordinary upkeep and not much beyond it.
Everything past ordinary upkeep — resetting a toppled monument, replacing a section of fence, having a dead ash removed before it falls on the stones, transcribing the register — depends on donations and on volunteers.
What donations pay for
Monument conservation
Straightening and re-setting stones that have tilted or fallen, and repairing broken markers using conservation methods rather than the concrete-and-hope approach of the 1970s.
Grounds and trees
Mowing and trimming beyond what the fund covers, removal of hazardous limbs and dead trees, and repair of fencing and gates.
Records and research
Transcribing the paper register, photographing every stone, and publishing a searchable index so that families anywhere can find their people here.
Signage and access
A proper entrance sign — the cemetery has never had one — and improving access for visitors who cannot easily cross uneven ground.
How to give
By cheque
Make cheques payable to [TO BE CONFIRMED - exact name for cheques] and mail to:
[TO BE CONFIRMED - mailing address]Hammond, ON K0A 2A0
Please note: we are not currently able to issue charitable tax receipts. Every dollar still goes directly to the care of the cemetery, and we are grateful for it. If you need a receipt for tax purposes, please ask us first and we will tell you where matters stand.
Giving in memory
Many donations here are made in memory of someone buried in this ground, and a few are made by people whose ancestors lie here but who have never seen the place. Tell us who the gift is for and we will record it against their name in the register. If the family is still local and you would like them to know, we will tell them the gift was made, without naming an amount.
Legacies
A bequest in a will is the single most useful thing anyone can do for a cemetery like this one, because it can be directed to the Care & Maintenance Fund, where it is protected in perpetuity and generates income for as long as the cemetery exists. If you are considering it, please talk to us and to your own solicitor about the wording.
Give time instead
Money is not the only thing that helps, and for many people it is not the thing they have most of. We would be glad of:
- A morning with a mower or a trimmer during the growing season.
- Careful hands for the spring and autumn clean-ups.
- A photographer willing to work steadily through the remaining stones.
- Anyone comfortable with a spreadsheet to help transcribe the register.
- A trustee. The board always needs people. It is not onerous, and it matters.
- Local knowledge. If you know who is buried where, or whose family is whose, that knowledge is irreplaceable and it is being lost.