Elizabeth Shepherd
ID # 8507, (1839-)
| Father | Duncan Shepherd (1802-1886) |
| Mother | Margaret McLean (-1848) |
| Baptism | Elizabeth Shepherd was baptized on 22 September 1839 at Galt, Gore District, Upper Canada. |
| Note | Elizabeth Shepherd's name appears in the 1839 list of baptisms as recorded for First Church. We do not know if Elizabeth was one of the Shepherd-McLean daughters, who, per Duncan's obituary, survived and went to Michigan, or died in childhood. If the latter, Elizabeth would then have likely been buried in the old First Church cemetery which overlooks downtown Cambridge (Galt) from the height of the moraine. When the cemetery was razed, this was first known as High Park, but in recent years was renamed Centennial Park. Alexander Buchanan (1830-1917, and who appears in this tree) lived next door to the park. He had erected a monument to commemorate the fact that the park had once been a cemetery. In the early 1950s, being in poor condition, the statue was removed and an illumiated pool installed; in later years this was removed and the cupola of the old Gore Insurance builging that was once a fixture at Main and Ainslie Streets in downtown Galt, was placed there. The point of this is that there were at least three construction projects in the park proper and, as a result, human remains were sometimes found. When the statue was removed and the pool installed, a friend of your researcher's family came home to lunch one day. He resided on Spruce Street, which ran along the east side of the park. A neighbour's lad was playing in the driveway and when asked what he was playing with was told it was an armbone. The man took a good look at the object and believed that it was indeed an armbone. There was a 'dig' in the mid 1880s and many remains and old stones were removed to Mountview, many of which may be seen to this day. Indeed, where the stones might have crumbled, the cemetery office does have a record in their burial cards. It is safe to say, however, that not all remains were moved and it does appear that this was the situation regarding the mother and children of Duncan's first marriage. Norma Huber of the Waterloo branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society did much work transcribing Cambridge cemeteries, including those of old Galt. She tells that in the 1950s when Alexander Buchanan's house was torn down and construction begun for what became an apartment building, old gravestones were found, perhaps in part on the Buchanan property, but also extending into what had been old cemetery property, and these were hauled away for construction rubble. First Church's death records did not begin until the mid 1850s and so we are at a loss for information regarding earlier (probable) burials. |
| Last Edited | 2 Mar 2021 |