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of articles by local historian Paul Arculus about the cemeteries of Scugog Township. Cemeteries rovide an interesting way to find information on the events and changing demographics in the history of a community. Here in Scugog we can find evidence of tragic accidents, epidemics, scandals and even murder hidden among the tombstones. We have a variety of cemeteries, large and small scattered throughout our community and over the next few months, Paul will take us on a journey around the municipality to view many of them. The series begins this month by taking a look at the township’s largest cemetery, Prince Albert's Pine Grove Cemetery. PINE GROVE CEMETERY including the northeast of the four corners of what PART ONE i e Albert. The settlement was initially recorded on maps as Dayton’s Corners or Reach. When Queen Victo- ria married Prince Albert in 1840, the community celebrated its loyalty by renaming the community in his honour. When Abner Hurd’s wife Anna died in 1831, the family buried her on their own property in what is now the south section of the Pine Grove Cemetery. Abner then made the property avail- able for burials for others in the community. Anna’s grave, the oldest in the cemetery, is a small, low white granite monument just inside the south entrance on the right hand side. By 1845 the community of Prince Albert had grown to over 200 people, and was the largest in the region. The town- ship’s first post office was opened here in 1851. The community became a thriv- ing commercial centre with five hotels, a tannery, a school, many stores, three churches and seven grain merchants. Its importance was due to the enterprise of those grain merchants who bought, stored and sold grain and by the late 1850s Prince Albert had become, by trade volume, the second largest grain handling centre in Canada! By 1860 more than fifty buri- als had taken place on the Hurd. property. At this point, the com- munity realized the need for an official cemetery. In 1862 a committee was established with Thomas Forman as chairman. Please turn to page 41 Cemeteriesiare not merely the reminders of those who lived here before us, they are much, much more. These monuments reveal the history of our commu- nity and reflect the social, political, religious, medi- eal, economic and natural influences of the times. The largest cemetery in today’s municipality of Scugog is the Pine Grove Cemetery in Prince Albert. This is a resting place for citizens mainly from the former Reach Township There are many local cemeteries associated with the communities of Blackstock, Caesarea, Epsom, Greenbank, Nestleton, Seagrave and Utica, and several on Scugog Island. In addition, there are small plots scattered around the township but Pine Grove is the largest. These and other cem- eteries will be featured in later articles here in Focus on Scugog. A unique aspect of Pine Grove Cem- etery is the broad scope of influence that so many of this community’s citizens have had on the nation, and beyond. The earthly remains of over 8,000 souls lie here, rever- ently placed in its soil. The first white settlers in Reach Township were Reuben Crandell, his wife Catherine and their children. Reuben and Catherine lie buried about 30 metres northlof the south entrance, on the right hand'side of the drive way. The Crandells settled just west of Prince Albert in 1821 and lived/alone, isolated from civilization for almost 3 years. In 1824 they were joined by Abner Hurd and Daniel Dayton and their families: The Hurd family bought several parcels of land FOCUS - SEPTEMBER 2011 39