Sunnidale Union Cemetery seeks heritage designation
Clearview council has been asked to give a heritage designation to a New Lowell cemetery in order to preserve its cultural and historical significance.
The Silver Shoe Historical Society has asked Clearview council to designate Sunnidale Union Cemetery, also known as Bethel-Union Pioneer Cemetery, as a property of cultural heritage value and historical cultural interest.
Historian Janie Cooper-Wilson, executive director of the Silver Shoe Historical Society, said the designation will ensure the cemetery is not left to ruin.
The cemetery is the final resting place of the early Africans who sought freedom in Canada.
A monument was erected at the cemetery in 1997 in memory of the 25 original African settlers in Old Sunnidale Township.
Until his death in 2003, Cooper-Wilson’s father was the oldest surviving descendent of those settlers.
The society has been maintaining the cemetery for 18 years, relying mostly on donations for funding.
The cemetery has been used as a dump and tombstones have been vandalized but the society has worked to clean it up and repair headstones.
The cemetery is an extension of the Silver Shoe Burial Ground, located to the north of the present day site and is “the last vestige of the culturally unique and once vibrant community known as the Silver Shoe Settlement”.
Copper-Wilson said in her report it is perhaps the only totally interracial, multicultural, non-denominational cemetery established during the period of history when only individuals of Anglo-European heritage were permitted burial within the boundaries of Caucasian sanctified cemeteries in the province of Ontario.
“It doesn’t feel like a cemetery, said Cooper-Wilson. “You are surrounded by love.”
Executive director of the Ontario Historical Society Rob Leverty spoke in favour of the designation.
“I am not supposed to have any favourites but the work of this group has been outstanding,” said Leverty. “This is a very unique cemetery… It’s of national significance, I think.”
Council directed staff to prepare a bylaw for the purpose of consideration for designation.
