The Grave of Henry Waterman, Assistant Lighthouse Keeper, Fogo, NL

The churchyard at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Fogo. was in use as a burial ground from at least the 1760s and into the first half of the twentieth century.

One who lies here is Henry Waterman, assistant keeper of the Offer Wadham Island Lighthouse.  The Wadham Islands are a group of islands southeast of Fogo Island; Offer Wadham Island is the most northeasterly.

The lighthouse was built following many petitions to government, especially after the "Spring of the Wadhams" in 1852, when more than 40 ships were crushed and abandoned in the ice near Offer Wadham Island.

Unfortunately, Henry Waterman "came to an untimely end in the spring [of 1880] by falling through the ice, thus removing from service an officer who had always conducted himself worthily."

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Let sickness blast, let death devour: Died in Diptheria, Grand Bank, 1884

Recently, this stone caught my eye in the Old Methodist Cemetery in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. The stone reads:

HARRIET PATTE [broken, possibly PATTEN]

BELOVED CHILD OF

CHARLES & ELEANOR

HICKMAN

DIED

IN DIPTHERIA NOV. 16

1884

Yet these now rising from the tomb

With lustre brighter far shall shine

Revive with ever during bloom

Safe from diseases and decline.

HICKMAN

There are several markers from the 1880s in the cemetery noting that the individual interred died of diphtheria. Archivist Larry Dohey has noted, "A diphtheria epidemic raged throughout Newfoundland from 1888 -1891, medical officials identified at least 3,183 cases and it had resulted in at least 624 deaths."

The phrase "died in diptheria" is intriguing. Other markers in the cemetery use the phrase "died of" rather than "died in." Also, the spelling of diptheria (without the first "H") seems to have peaked in the 1860s, and then was surpassed and largely replaced with the current spelling of diphtheria.

Below: Uses of the words diptheria vs diphtheria, 1800-present

The "Yet these now rising from the tomb" epitaph is taken from Hymn 46 "The morning flowers display their sweets," published in "A Collection of Hymns, for the use of the people called Methodists" by the Rev. John Wesley, 1790, and is attributed to Samuel Wesley, Jr.:

THE morning flowers display their sweets,
And gay their silken leaves unfold
As careless of the noontide heats,
As fearless of the evening cold.

Nipt by the wind's unkindly blast,
Parched by the sun's directer ray,
The momentary glories waste,
The short-lived beauties die away.

So blooms the human face divine,
When youth its pride of beauty shows;
Fairer than spring the colours shine,
And sweeter than the virgin rose.

Or worn by slowly-rolling years,
Or broke by sickness in a day,
The fading glory disappears,
The short-lived beauties die away.

Yet these, new rising from the tomb,
With lustre brighter far shall shine;
Revive with ever-during bloom,
Safe from diseases and decline.

Let sickness blast, let death devour,
If heaven must recompense our pains:
Perish the grass, and fade the flower,
If firm the word of God remains.


The stone carving itself is attributed to J. McIntyre, and is most likely the work of the Standard Marble Works, a St. John's-based firm under the direction of James McIntyre, as advertised below in the Evening Telegram  of 1892-09-05. A high percentage of the monuments of the same period in the cemetery bear the maker's mark McIntyre or J. McIntyre. The stone is somewhat damaged along the top and top right, but it could have potentially been topped with a carved lamb, a common motif for the markers of children, and a motif seen on similar monuments in the cemetery.

The Mystery of Pte. William C. Norman’s memorial, Clarke's Beach

In the United Church Cemetery in Clarke’s Beach, there is an intriguing memorial to a First World War soldier, Private William C. Norman. It is a double inscription stone, with the left side etched in memory of his father, the right side bearing the inscription:

Pte. William C. Norman

Beloved son of

Robert J. & Emma J. Norman

Killed in the Great War

Greater love hath no man that this that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The Biblical quotation from John 15:13 (King James Version) is fairly standard for a military memorial, but what what caught my eye was the decorative motif at the top of the marker.

The open book and downward pointing finger motif is common enough, as is the inscription on the left open page: “Asleep in Jesus.” What is unusual is a rather rougher-carved version of the Newfoundland Regiment caribou insignia. Many of the Newfoundland Regiment markers you will see in NL graveyards, or in war cemeteries in Europe, follow a fairly standard style. The carving on Norman’s marker is different, and I was curious to find out why.

William Charles Norman of Clarke’s Beach did not show up in any of my first searches of the Regimental Records. An internet search revealed the reason why: William C. Norman had never been in the Newfoundland Regiment.

Instead, Norman, a carpenter, had been living in Toronto at the time of his enlistment.  He was 5' 6 1/2" tall with a fair complextion and blue eyes. According to his attestation papers, he had served in the Queen’s Own Rifles for 20 months previously, and was assigned to the 83rd Battalion (Queen's Own Rifles of Canada) as part of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, regimental number 669305.

He signed up January 25, 1916 and was sent overseas in May. He served in the trenches for only three weeks, when he was killed on January 6, 1917 as the result of a grenade training accident (premature burst). He is remembered on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and page 88 of the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance.

Norman was buried in the north-east section of the Bajus Churchyard, Pas de Calais, France, and is listed as serving with the 3rd Battalion Canadian Infantry (1st Central Ontario Regiment).

As far as I can tell, his is the ONLY Commonwealth War Grave in the Bajus churchyard:

• http://www.inmemories.com/Cemeteries/bajus.htm
• https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/54952/Oorlogsgraf-van-het-Gemenebest-Bajus.htm
• http://ngb.chebucto.org/Cemetery/norman-w-reg-bajus-cem.shtml

His marker in Clarke’s Beach, designed by Chislett’s Marble Works of St. John’s, was probably arranged by his mother, Emma Jane Norman, upon the death of her husband Robert James in 1927. Emma survived husband and son by a number of years, passing away February 11, 1941.

The Newfoundland Regiment carving remains a bit of a mystery. Was it inscribed by Chislett's, unaware that Private Norman had served in the Canadian Forces? Or was it added later by someone locally, perhaps by someone unfamiliar with the specific meaning of the insignia? If you know anything about this story, email me at dale@dalejarvis.ca.


May 24, 2017: UPDATE HERE!

The Tomb of John and Isabella Fergus, Mercer's Cove, Bay Roberts.

I blogged recently about a Jack ‘o Lantern which was said to haunt Big Island in Bay Roberts, and I suggested that Big Island was the same spot as Fergus Island. Local historian Mike Flynn backed me up on this, and today I found this reference to back it up:

“By 1560, Bay Roberts was used by Jersey fishermen, and Spaniards were there, too, perhaps from as early as 1588. Reports that the original name was Bay of Robbers because of the many pirates in the 1500s and 1600s have not been substantiated. Jersey fishermen referred to the area as Roberts Bay and used places later known as Beachy Cove and Big or Fergus Island.”
“History: Bay Roberts.” Decks Awash, vol. 20, no. 01 (January-February 1991) p 3-13.

The name Fergus Island comes from one John Fergus, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who opened a mercantile establishment at Bay Roberts in 1812. John Fergus, along with his daughter, Isabella, are buried nearby, at the old Wareham’s Lane Cemetery, Mercer’s Cove, Bay Roberts.

Unlike any other grave in Bay Roberts, John and his daughter Isabella share an above-ground tomb, a reminder of their relative wealth in the community in the early 19th century. A tomb is generally a burial receptacle or container where a body or bodies are stored above ground. The Fergus tomb is a pretty good example of what is known variously as a box tomb, slab tomb, box grave, or chest tomb.

You can read all about the different types of possible tombs here:

• http://agraveinterest.blogspot.ca/2011/08/mausoleums-crypts-and-tombs-oh-my.html
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tombs_by_type

The inscribed text on the Fergus tomb is very faint, and hard to read, but the stonepics.com project gives this as the text:

"Sacred to the memory of Isabella Fergus, native of Glasgow, Wife of William Donnelly, Merchant, who died 19th June 1843, aged 36 Years."

and:

"Sacred to the memory of John Fergus, Merchant, native of Glasgow, who died 15th July 1835, Aged 53 years."

L'empire de la Mort - Exploring the Catacombs of Paris

Sitting here in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the dreary depths of another snow storm, it seems hard to believe that only a few short days ago, I was walking around the neighbourhood of Monmartre, Paris, in 20°C weather. Such is the nature of international travel, but the difference makes it hard to readjust to life when you return.

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to a famous underground site, the Catacombs of Paris, on the city’s Left Bank. The catacombs started their life as quarries, where much of the limestone for building the city was excavated. From the thirteenth century onwards, underground quarries were required to supply the huge quantities of stone required to build Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and city walls. Over time, the city spread, and by the 18th century many of the city’s arrondissements were overtop previously mined territories, some of which had started to collapse, and in in April 1777, King Louis XVI established the “Quarries Inspectorate” to protect Parisian quarries.

Around the same time, many of the city’s graveyards had become full, with no available space to house the newly dead, and it was suggested that the abandoned quarries would be an ideal resting spot. In April 1786 the former Tombe-Issoire quarries were blessed and consecrated, and the work of transferring bodies to the catacombs began. Black cloth-covered wagons rattled through the streets, carrying the millions of dead from the cimetière des Innocents graveyard, the largest in Paris, to their new home, a process which took two years to complete. Following that, other graveyards were emptied out and added to the catacombs, until somewhere between six and seven million of the Parisian dead had been resettled.

Today, the catacombs and their millions of sleeping inhabitants are open to curious visitors. There are 130 steps winding steps you must descend, taking you well below the level of the Paris Metro line, to the cool 14°C interior. You start the tour in one of the old quarries, following a low narrow tunnel through the limestone foundation of the city of Paris till you reach the consecrated space of the ossuary.

A stone doorway greets you, the entry to the ossuary itself, with the inscription Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort - Stop! Here lies the Empire of Death. Passing through, one wanders through chambers lined with millions of bones, stacked neatly, and arranged at times in artistic patterns. It is an eerie place, and it can be overwhelming to be surrounded by so many of the dead. Narrow passageways lead through the bones, with dim lighting adding to the sepulchral atmosphere. No noise from the realm of the living pierces the gloom, only the faint dripping of water, and the echoes of your own footsteps on the limestone paths.

 

If you love history and have a taste for the ghoulish, the Catacombs of Paris are definitely worth the visit.

Notes for travellers visiting the Catacombs:

The entrance is from a tiny green building opposite the Denfert-Rochereau Metro station. Visitor numbers are restricted to 200 at any time, and admission may be delayed for a short time during busy periods. On the day we explored the catacombs, they opened at 10am. We had read that it was best to line up early. We arrived shortly after 9am, and there were already 30 or so people ahead of us. Within half an hour, the line behind us stretch around the corner of the block. I would highly recommend getting there early in the morning, rather than waiting and hoping to get in later in the day. We were in the first group to descend, and once down, were at times alone in the passageways, which was a definite bonus. We opted against the portable audio guide (you can download a pdf from the website) and there are English tours only on specific days, but you can easily take the basic tour on your own. Signs include English text throughout.

If you are paying by cash, have exact change ready, or be prepared to pay by credit card. The walk is not for those who are claustrophobic. Once you are down the stairs, there is nowhere to go but forward, about a 2km walk through the old quarries and the ossuary itself. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to make the trek, and then there are 83 steps up a final winding staircase to the surface. Wear sensible shoes and be prepared for the temperature. There are no toilet facilities, and no flash photography is permitted.  There is a great little gift shop with suitably ghoulish merchandise when you exit. 

• Official Catacombs of Paris website
• Catacombs of Paris wikipedia entry
• Photos of the Catacombs of Paris on Flickr.com

Photos by Dale Gilbert Jarvis are licensed under a

  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.