Mount Royal Cemetery
Encyclopedia
Opened in 1852, Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165-acre (668 000 m²) terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...

 in the borough of Outremont
Outremont (borough)
Outremont is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada...

, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The burial ground shares the mountain with the much larger adjacent Roman Catholic cemetery -- Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Mount Royal Cemetery is now bordered on the southeast by Mount Royal Park, on the west by Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery and on the north by two Jewish cemeteries.

Mount Royal Cemetery is in operation and even the old portion of the cemetery still has some burial sites available.

History and description

In the middle of the 1800's, the cemeteries located downtown needed space desperately. Concerned with epidemics and public health issues, these cemeteries had to be developed elsewhere.The Protestant community of Montreal purchased, in 1851, a section of Mount Royal that belonged to Dr. Michael McCulloch
Michael McCulloch
Michael McCulloch was a physician and political figure in Canada East. He represented Terrebonne in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1841 to 1844....

.

The Mount Royal Cemetery, one of the first rural cemeteries in North America, was incorporated in 1847 under an Act of the Provincial Parliament of Canada. Following the trend of the American rural cemetery movement, the purpose of choosing land on the mountain was to use the natural surroundings to combine horticulture
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

 and commemoration in perpetuity. The original landscaping plan laid out the site in a series of terraces which followed the natural curves of the mountain. It was consecrated June 8, 1854 by the Anglican Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 Francis Fulford
Francis Fulford (bishop)
Francis Fulford, DD was an Anglo-Catholic bishop of Montreal.-Early years:Fulford, second son of Baldwin Fulford of Fulford Magna, Devonshire, by Anna Maria, eldest daughter of William Adams, M.P. for Totnes, was born at Sidmouth 3 June 1803, and baptised at Dunsford, 14 October 1804...

, after the first burial of Reverend William Squire, a Methodist Minister, on October 19th, 1852.

Administered by 21 Trustees elected as representatives of the six founding denominations, it is open to persons of all faiths and races. There are areas for war veterans, sailors, and various benevolent organizations that purchased lots subsidized by The Mount Royal Cemetery Company. The St. Andrew's Society, one such organization, buried 15 Scottish casualties who were aboard the steamboat "Montreal" when she caught fire and sank near Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

 in 1857.

In 1862, ten years after the opening of Mount Royal Cemetery, the entrance gates were built in the early English Gothic style of architecture.

Mount Royal Cemetery contains more than 162,000 interments and is the final resting place for a number of notable Canadians. It includes a veterans section with several soldiers who were awarded the British Empire's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

. In 1901 the Mount Royal Cemetery Company established the first crematorium in Canada.

Historically used by members of the English-speaking
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 community and those of Protestant faiths, the cemetery is now non-sectarian and open to all. Several small Jewish cemeteries are also located in or nearby Mount Royal Cemetery: Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery, Spanish and Portuguese-Shearith Israel and Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom (Westmount, Quebec)
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom (Westmount, Quebec)
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Westmount is a Reform synagogue in Westmount, Quebec. It is the oldest “Liberal” or“Reform” synagogue in Canada, incorporated on March 30, 1883 Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Westmount is a Reform synagogue in Westmount, Quebec. It is the oldest “Liberal” or“Reform”...

 http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/northamerica/quebec.html.

The cemetery was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1999 as an example of "Exceptional 19th-century cemetery design and aesthetics." A plaque indicating the cemetery's historic status was erected in 2002.

Mount Royal Crematory

The first crematory
Crematory
A crematory is a machine in which cremation takes place. Crematories are usually found in funeral homes, cemeteries, or in stand-alone facilities. A facility which houses the actual cremator units is referred to as a crematorium.-History:Prior to the Industrial Revolution, any cremation which took...

 in Canada was built by Sir Andrew Taylor (Architect)
Andrew Taylor (architect)
Sir Andrew Thomas Taylor J.P., R.C.A., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. was a British architect and Conservative Party municipal councillor. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and practised architecture in Scotland and London before immigrating to Montreal, Quebec, in 1883, where he designed many of the...

 in 1901 on the eastern side of the Mount Royal Cemetery property with funds donated by Sir William Christopher Macdonald
William Christopher Macdonald
Sir William Christopher Macdonald was a Scots-Quebecer tobacco manufacturer and major education philanthropist in Canada.-Early life and career:...

, a well-known tobacco tycoon and great philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

. This building is the oldest of its kind in the country and it remained the only crematorium in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 until 1975. The first cremation took place on April 18, 1902.
Built with Montreal limestone, the original building had a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

, a room for the cremation chambers, a large winter storage vault and a conservatory filled with exotic plants. In the 1950’s, for maintenance reasons, the conservatory was demolished but the original chapel, on the left of the building, is still intact with a beautiful hand made mosaic floor.

Notable interments

A few of the prominent people interred in the cemetery are:
  • Sir John Abbott (1821-1893), Prime Minister of Canada
  • Hugh Allan
    Hugh Allan
    Sir Hugh Allan, KCMG was a Scottish-born Canadian shipping magnate, railway promoter, financier and capitalist...

     (1810-1882), financier and shipping magnate
  • H. Montagu Allan
    H. Montagu Allan
    Sir Hugh Andrew Montague Allan, CVO was a Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur ice hockey supremacy in Canada.-Early life:...

     (1860-1951), businessman, Hockey Hall of Fame member
  • Richard Bladworth Angus (1831-1922), banker
  • Robert Mitchell Ballantyne (1859-1929), businessman
  • William Thomas Benson
    William Thomas Benson
    William Thomas Benson was born at Kendal, England and, after some years in business in England, immigrated to Canada in 1858....

     (1824-1885), businessman, politician
  • Frank Calder
    Frank Calder
    -External links:*...

     (1877-1943), National Hockey League executive
  • George Caverhill (1858-1937), businessman
  • Sir Arthur Currie (1875-1933), First World War military commander, educator
  • J. William Dawson (1820-1899), scientist, educator
  • George Mercer Dawson
    George Mercer Dawson
    Dr. George Mercer Dawson F.R.S., C.M.G., was a Canadian scientist and surveyor. He was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the eldest son of Sir John William Dawson, Principal of McGill University and his wife, Lady Margaret Dawson...

     (1849-1901), scientist
  • Joseph Doutre (1825-1886), lawyer, writer, major adversary of Quebec Catholicism
    Catholicism
    Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

  • William Dow
    William Dow
    William Dow emigrated to Canada from Scotland in about 1818. A trained brewer, he took employment with James Dunn's brewery in Montreal and quickly became a partner. His younger brother, Andrew, who had also trained as a brewer, joined him, and on the death of Dunn, the company became known as...

     (1800-1868), brewer and businessman
  • George Alexander Drummond
    George Alexander Drummond
    Sir George Alexander Drummond, KCMG, CVO was a Scottish-Canadian businessman and senator.Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, he arrived in Canada in 1854 to work at Redpath Sugar. He married John Redpath's daughter, becoming a co-director of the family business with Peter Redpath, John's son...

     (1829-1910), entrepreneur
  • Edith Maude Eaton
    Edith Maude Eaton
    Sui Sin Far was an author known for her writing about Chinese people in North America and the Chinese American experience...

     (1865-1914), author, a.k.a. "Sui Sin Far"
  • Charles Edward Frosst
    Charles Frosst
    Charles Edward Frosst was a Canadian businessman who founded the pharmaceutical company Charles E. Frosst & Co. in 1899 which was acquired by Merck & Co. in 1965 to become Merck Frosst Canada Inc....

     (1867-1948), pharmaceuticals manufacturer
  • Sir Alexander Galt (1817-1893), businessman, statesman, Father Of Confederation
  • Horatio Gates
    Horatio Gates (businessman)
    Horatio Gates was a Canadian businessman, office holder, justice of the peace, and politician. He was the third president of the Bank of Montreal.-References:...

     (1777-1834), businessman, statesman
  • Andrew Frederick Gault (1833-1903), merchant, industrialist, and philanthropist
  • Samuel Gerrard
    Samuel Gerrard
    Samuel Gerrard was a Canadian fur trader, businessman, militia officer, justice of the peace, politician, and seigneur. He was the second president of the Bank of Montreal.-References:...

     (1767-1857), businessman
  • Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan
    Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan
    Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan , was a Canadian newspaper publisher.-Biography:Born in Athelstan , Huntingdon County, Quebec, Graham was the son of Robert Walker Graham, a Scottish land owner, and his wife, Marion, daughter of Colonel Thomas McLeay Gardner.He was educated at the Huntingdon...

     (1848-1938), newspaper publisher
  • Charles Melville Hays
    Charles Melville Hays
    Charles Melville Hays was an American railway executive of the Grand Trunk Railway. He died at sea on the RMS Titanic.-Early years:...

     (1856-1912), Grand Trunk Railway
    Grand Trunk Railway
    The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

     executive and Titanic victim
  • Charles Heavysege
    Charles Heavysege
    Charles Heavysege was a Canadian poet and dramatist. "He was one of the first serious poets to emerge in Canada, and his play Saul was hailed on its appearance as the greatest verse drama in English since the time of Shakespeare." -Life and Writing:Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England,...

     (1816-1876), author, poet
  • Alexander Henderson (1831-1913), merchant and photographer
  • Herbert Samuel Holt
    Herbert Samuel Holt
    Sir Herbert Samuel Holt was an Irish-born Canadian civil engineer who became a businessman, banker, and corporate director....

     (1856-1941), financier
  • Charles Rudolph Hosmer (1851-1927), miller
  • C. D. Howe
    C. D. Howe
    Clarence Decatur Howe, PC , generally known as C. D. Howe, was a powerful Canadian Cabinet minister of the Liberal Party. Howe served in the governments of Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent continuously from 1935 to 1957...

     (1886-1960), American-born politician and engineer
  • Anna Leonowens
    Anna Leonowens
    Anna Leonowens was an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design...

     (1834-1915), Governess at the Court of Siam, founder of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
  • William C. Macdonald (1831-1917), tobacco manufacturer, philanthropist
  • Dugald Lorn MacDougall (1811-1885), stockbroker, investor
  • Allan McCarthy
    Allan McCarthy
    Allen McCarthy was a Canadian musician born in Montreal, Quebec who became part of the group Men Without Hats....

     (1957-1995), musician, Men Without Hats
    Men Without Hats
    Men Without Hats is a Canadian New Wave group from Montreal, Quebec. Their music was characterized by the distinctive baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing...

  • John Wilson McConnell
    John Wilson McConnell
    John Wilson McConnell was a Canadian businessman, newspaper publisher, humanitarian, and the most significant philanthropist in the history of the province of Quebec, Canada.-Early life:...

     (1877-1963), publisher, philanthropist
  • David Ross McCord
    David Ross McCord
    David Ross McCord was a Canadian lawyer and philanthropic founder of the McCord Museum in Montreal, Canada....

     (1844-1930), lawyer, philanthropic founder of the McCord Museum
    McCord Museum
    The McCord Museum is a public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion, and appreciation of Canadian history...

  • William King McCord (1803-1858), jurist, philanthropist
  • Peter McGill
    Peter McGill
    Peter McGill was a Scots-Quebecer businessman who served as the second mayor of Montreal, Canada East from 1840 to 1842.- Biography :...

     (1789-1860), businessman, municipal politician
  • Duncan McIntyre (1834-1894), businessman
  • Hugh Mackay (1832-1890), businessman
  • Robert Mackay
    Robert Mackay
    Robert Mackay was a Canadian businessman and statesman.An 1855 emigrant to Montreal, Canada from his birthplace in Caithness, Scotland, Robert Mackay got his start working at the Henry Morgan & Company department store. He then went to work for Mackay Brothers wholesalers, owned by his uncles...

     (1840-1916), businessman, statesman
  • Robert Meighen (1837-1911), businessman
  • Charles Meredith (1854-1928), President of the Montreal Stock Exchange
  • Frederick Edmund Meredith
    Frederick Edmund Meredith
    Frederick Edmund Meredith K.C., D.C.L. was a Canadian lawyer and businessman, the 8th Chancellor of Bishop's University, Lennoxville; honorary President of the Montreal Victorias for three of their Stanley Cup championships in the late 1890s, and Chief Counsel to the CPR at the inquest into the...

     (1862-1941), Chancellor of Bishop's University
  • Sir Vincent Meredith
    Vincent Meredith
    Sir Vincent Meredith, 1st and last Baronet of Montreal , was a Canadian banker and philanthropist; President of the Bank of Montreal, the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts...

     (1850-1929), 1st Baronet of Montreal, President of the Bank of Montreal
  • William Campbell James Meredith
    William Campbell James Meredith
    William Campbell James Meredith Q.C., D.C.L., often known as W. C. J. Meredith, was a Canadian attorney and Dean of Law at McGill University. He was born in Montreal, Quebec the son of Frederick Edmund Meredith and Anne Madeline VanKoughnet Meredith...

     (1904-1960), Dean of Law at McGill University
  • Shadrach Minkins
    Shadrach Minkins
    Shadrach Minkins was an African American fugitive slave. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, he escaped from slavery in 1850 to settle in Boston, Massachusetts, where he became a waiter...

     (1815?-1875), American-born fugitive slave rescued from federal custody in Boston in 1851.
  • Hartland Molson
    Hartland Molson
    Hartland de Montarville Molson, was an Anglo-Quebecer statesman, Canadian Senator and a member of the prominent Molson family of brewers.-Education:...

     (1907-2002), brewing magnate, World War II fighter pilot, statesman
  • John Molson
    John Molson
    John Molson was an English-speaking Quebecer who was a major brewer and entrepreneur in Canada, starting the Molson Brewing Company.-Birth and early life:...

     (1763-1836), brewing tycoon
  • Howie Morenz
    Howie Morenz
    Howard William Morenz was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played centre for three National Hockey League teams: the Montreal Canadiens , the Chicago Black Hawks, and the New York Rangers...

     (1902-1937), Hall of Fame ice hockey player
  • Henry Morgan
    Henry Morgan (merchant)
    Henry Morgan was a Scots-Quebecer department store pioneer in Canada who founded Henry Morgan & Company....

     (1819-1893), opened first department store in Canada
  • Arthur Deane Nesbitt
    Arthur Deane Nesbitt
    Arthur Deane Nesbitt OBE, DFC, CdeG was a Canadian businessman and a decorated pilot and Wing Commander in World War II.- Early Life :...

     (1910-1978), decorated soldier of World War II, stockbroker
  • Arthur J. Nesbitt
    Arthur James Nesbitt
    Arthur James Nesbitt was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who was a cofounder of Nesbitt, Thomson and Company stockbrokerage and the Power Corporation of Canada....

     (1880-1954), cofounder of Nesbitt Thomson & Co.
    Nesbitt, Thomson and Company
    Nesbitt Thomson and Company is a former Canadian stock brokerage firm founded in 1912 by Arthur J. Nesbitt and Peter A. T. Thomson. The company was headquartered on St. James Street in Montreal, Quebec and its success helped make the area the financial centre of Canada.In 1987, Nesbitt Thomson was...

     and Power Corporation of Canada
    Power Corporation of Canada
    Power Corporation of Canada is a Canadian company with assets in North America and Europe in a number of industries. These industries include media, pulp and paper, and financial services....

  • J. Aird Nesbitt
    J. Aird Nesbitt
    James Aird Nesbitt was a Canadian department store owner. Born in Westmount, Quebec, he was the first of the two sons of the prominent stock broker, Arthur J. Nesbitt...

     (1907-1985), owner/operator of Ogilvy's
    Ogilvy (Montreal)
    La Maison Ogilvy, commonly known as Ogilvy's , is a prominent department store in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where its store at 1307 Saint Catherine Street West is a retail landmark...

     department store in Montreal
  • Alexander Walker Ogilvie
    Alexander Walker Ogilvie
    Alexander Walker Ogilvie was a Canadian politician.Born in Côte-Saint-Michel, Lower Canada which is on the island of Montreal, the son of Alexander Ogilvie and Helen Watson, he owned a mill named A.W. Ogilvie & Company.In 1867, he was acclaimed to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for the riding...

     (1829-1902), miller, statesman
  • William Watson Ogilvie (1835-1900) miller
  • Frank L. Packard
    Frank L. Packard
    Frank Lucius Packard was a Canadian novelist. He was born in Montreal, Quebec and as a young man went to work as a civil engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway...

     (1877-1942), mystery writer
  • Ward Chipman Pitfield  1892-1939 World War I officer, Founder: Pitfield, McKay & Ross Investment Dealers
  • John Redpath
    John Redpath
    John Redpath was a Scots-Quebecer businessman and philanthropist who helped pioneer the industrial movement that made Montreal, Quebec the largest and most prosperous city in Canada....

     (1796-1869), contractor, built the first sugar refinery in Canada
  • Robert Reford (1831-1913), entrepreneur and philanthropist
  • Robert Wilson Reford
    Robert Wilson Reford
    Robert Wilson Reford was a Canadian photographer, businessman and art collector.Reford was born in Montreal. The eldest son of Robert Wilson Reford and Katherine Drummond, he was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto and Lincoln College, Sorel. His father was the founder of the Robert Reford...

     (1867-1951), shipping executive, artist, photographer
  • Mordecai Richler
    Mordecai Richler
    Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

     (1931-2001), author
  • James Ross (1848-1913), railway engineer, businessman, philanthropist
  • Philip Simpson Ross (1827-1907), founder of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Quebec
  • Anne Savage (1896-1971), painter and art teacher
  • F. R. Scott
    F. R. Scott
    Francis Reginald Scott, CC commonly known as Frank Scott or F.R. Scott, was a Canadian poet, intellectual and constitutional expert. He helped found the first Canadian social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and its successor, the New Democratic Party...

     (1899-1985), scholar
  • Denis Stairs
    Denis Stairs
    Denis Stairs B.Eng. OBE was a Canadian engineer and businessman. He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of George Stairs, a founding partner and President of Royal Securities Corporation...

     (1889-1980), Chairman, Montreal Engineering Co.
  • George Washington Stephens
    George Washington Stephens (senior)
    George Washington Stephens was a Canadian businessman, lawyer, and politician.Born in Swanton, Vermont, the son of Harrison Stephens and Sarah Jackson, his father was a wealthy Montreal merchant who was from Vermont and Stephens was born there when his mother was visiting...

     (1832-1904), businessman, lawyer, politician, philanthropist
  • Harrison Stephens (1801-1881), American-born merchant
  • David Thompson
    David Thompson (explorer)
    David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer"...

     (1770-1857), surveyor and explorer
  • David Torrance (1805-1876), merchant, banker
  • John Torrance (1786-1870), merchant, shipper
  • Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead(Unknown-1954), the man who sucker punched Harry Houdini who died of the injury.
  • William Watson (c.1795-1867), miller, businessman, politician
  • Thomas Workman
    Thomas Workman (politician)
    Thomas Workman was a Quebec businessman and political figure. He represented Montreal Centre in the 1st Canadian Parliament and Montreal West from 1875 to 1878 as a Liberal member....

     (1813-1889), businessman, politician, philanthropist
  • William Workman
    William Workman
    William Workman was an Irish-born Canadian businessman and municipal politician.- Biography :Workman migrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1829....

     (1807-1878), businessman and municipal politician
  • John Young, (1811-1878), entrepreneur, statesman
  • Walter P. Zeller
    Walter P. Zeller
    Walter Philip Zeller was a Canadian businessman and founder of discount retail chain Zellers.Zeller was born in Waterloo County, near the city of Kitchener, Ontario. His great-grandfather settled in Breslau, Ontario after arriving from Germany. Prior to founding the store, Zeller moved to the US...

     (1890-1957), founder of Zellers
    Zellers
    Zellers Inc. is Canada's second-largest chain of mass merchandise discount stores, with locations in communities across Canada. A subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company , it has 273 locations across the country....

    .

External links

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