Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum cemetery tours bring 200 years of local history to life

Local history will be shared and celebrated this fall as the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum is offering guided cemetery tours that trace the community’s roots back two centuries.

Since 2019, the museum has been offering 90-minute walking tours of the United Cemeteries, which consists of St. Fillian’s, Maple Wood, and Pine Grove. The tours invite Carleton Place residents and tourists alike to learn local history by hearing the stories of those who were here before them.

For museum curator and manager Jennifer Irwin, the tours are about more than a simple history lesson. “I’m a cemetery lover from way back and decided leading people through the cemetery would be a great way to share our community’s history in a very tangible way,” Irwin told Lanarkist. “Standing over someone’s grave and hearing about their life brings them back to us.”

The first guided walk was held in 2015 at the St. James Anglican Cemetery, with larger tours of United Cemeteries beginning several years later. This year’s edition carries special meaning for the museum, as it marks the 200th anniversary of the site.

“St. Fillans Cemetery, formerly known as Cram’s, is situated on part of the original land grant given to John Cram in 1819,” Irwin explained. “He donated a portion of his land in 1824 for use as a public cemetery. The earliest graves here date to the 1820s, and belong to our community’s first settlers.”

Irwin said the museum selects a handful of stories to feature on each tour, choosing based on “an interesting or unique memorial stone, a fascinating life story, or perhaps a tragic death.” Research is drawn from historical documents and files stored in the museum that include diaries, newspaper clippings and funeral notices.

“Cemeteries really are rich repositories of local heritage, silently narrating stories of the past,” Irwin shared. “They record the names and dates of those that are gone, illustrate design styles through time, show divisions of society (by religion or social status), and record times of war or disease. Cemeteries enable us to time travel, connecting with ancestors and historical figures who shaped the contours of our current landscape.”

According to organizers, tickets must be booked in advance. Tickets are $20 and available in-person at the museum or by e-transfer to cpbmuseum@outlook.com.