International Rabbit 11/29/2012

Leith Cemetery

 By Janet Iles

About two miles northeast of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, is the Leith Cemetery. It surrounds the Leith Church that was an Auld Kirk until the union of the Presbyterian Churches in Canada. In 1925, it joined the United Church of Canada. In 1969, it was closed. It was not until 1992 that a group of interested people formed the Friends of Leith Church to repair, restore and maintain the church building. The site hosts three church services a year and musical concerts. The building and churchyard are designated heritage sites. Check their website http://www.leithchurch.ca to learn more about the work that was done.

Adam Ainslie, who owned most of the land in the Leith area, donated the land for the Church and cemetery in 1864 and the following year the church was erected. Alexander Hunter, the first minister, was a dynamic, well-liked preacher, who drew great crowds.  At the morning service on opening day January 26, 1866, Hunter preached in English to a congregation of 300 and in Gaelic in the afternoon to 200. Unfortunately, he died in October1869 from a fever at the age of 47. Hunter is buried in the church yard. Several years later, the congregation had a twelve foot monument erected in his memory. The inscription reads: "Mr. Hunter was a man greatly beloved, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, and long to be remembered by his people, among whom he laboured with an affection that never wearied and that shone brightest at the close."

The best known of those buried in the churchyard is internationally known painter, Tom Thomson.

The John Thomson family came to Leith from Claremont, Ontario, in 1877 when Tom was just two months old. The family attended the Leith Church. Tom sang in the choir. Tom worked at William Kennedy’s foundry for a short time before attending the Canadian Business College in Chatham. Next, he was off to Seattle, Washington. He returned to Canada where he worked as a commercial artist in Toronto.

One hundred years ago, Tom Thomson began to visit Algonquin Park where he would spend the summers painting and sketching. In the spring of 1917, Tom returned to Mowat Lake where he stayed at the lodge at Canoe Lake. On July 8, Tom left the lodge in his canoe with his provisions. That was the last he was seen alive. His body was not found until July 16 floating in Canoe Lake.

Questions still exist today about the cause of Tom’s death. Tom was buried at the Canoe Lake Cemetery. At the request of his family, Tom’s body was shipped via train to Owen Sound or was it? There are those who believe his body remained at the Lake while others believe he was re-buried at the Leith Cemetery. Books have been written about the mystery of Tom’s death and burial. Not all agree.

The Grey County Historical Society held its July 2012 meeting at the Leith Church. Here the Society learned about the church, the Friends of Leith Church and the cemetery’s most well known resident: Tom Thomson. On the occasion of 135^th anniversary of Tom Thomson’s birth, Neil Lehto in his lecture, "Tom Thomson’s Final Resting Place: Mowat or Leith?" at the TomThomson Gallery in Owen Sound shared his research. Lehto’s conclusion is that Tom is buried at Leith. The burial records for then Knox Presbyterian Church in Owen Sound, lists Tom’s funeral.

Perhaps, it is the mystery that surrounds Tom Thomson’s death and burial location that draws people to this churchyard, to leave a penny on his monument to say, “I stopped by to say hello and to thank you for your contribution to Canadian landscape art.”