Through history’s eyes
}} Inactive cemeteries offer some of the
most peaceful and intriguing places to travel to on an afternoon outing
IAN McKECHNIE Writer-at-large
Blakely Farm Cemetery. Note that the Blakely sign was spelled with one e, the gravestone with two e’s in the surname. Photo: Ian McKechnie.
I got lost as I was looking for it — the Blakely Farm cemetery, that is. When I ought to have gone due south on Old Mill Road in the former Ops Township, I instead made a left turn and ended up cycling through some of the most spectacular scenery in this part of Kawartha Lakes. Much of the rural infrastructure I pass — barns, farmhouses, split-rail fences — has scarcely changed in the last century or so. Nor have the views across the countryside, which members of the Blakely family no doubt enjoyed as they toiled in their fields many years before Canadian Confederation. After finding my way back to Old Mill Road, I shift into low gear to climb the hills to reach my destination. I take a sip of water and make my way gingerly through the long grass in the ditch at the side of the road. Behind a page-wire fence is an assortment of marble headstones, all canted over at awkward angles and
glistening in the late afternoon sun. I trudge over to the metal gate and undo the chain that keeps it well secured. Once inside, I step respectfully over and around these ancient memorials, their inscriptions in many cases still amazingly readable: MARGARET Wife of John Blakeley Died April 15, 1858 Aged 73 Years Twisting, rusting pieces of metal stick out of the ground in various places, some barely supporting the half a dozen or so markers in this burying ground that dates to 1856.
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