IS IT HILLSIDE OR DAWDY CEMETERY?

ISSUE NOT LAID TO REST YET.

By Greg Dunlop

Tribune Staff Writer

[Welland Tribune, 30 July 1986]

PELHAM-A report from the Pelham Historical Society has been unable to lay the Hillside/Dawdy Burying Ground question to rest.

Last autumn the society agreed to a request from the Pelham town council to research the history of the Canboro Road cemetery. Council had been approached by a descendent of the Dawdy clan who claimed the Hillside Cemetery had been renamed in contravention of a 60-year old agreement and that the graveyard’s original name should be restored.

Council members decided they didn’t have enough information to base any decisions on so they asked the Historical Society to investigate the matter and try to clear up a few questions. The society’s report was ready last week and President Mary Lamb presented it to council.

.Lamb said even after all their work there were still some grey areas.

“I’m surprised we haven’t been able to find more information. It’s hard to believe there isn’t someone in town who remembers where, when and why the name was changed.”

The society circulated requests for anyone with information to come forward, but even with the public input the facts were difficult to nail down for certain.

“The cemetery’s board’s records are critical but they’re not around. No one seems to know what happened to them.”

So far the society is only able to peg the name change as happening sometime in 1933. Lamb said she went through old Welland Tribune clippings to see when the graveyard was first referred to under the Hillside name.

“I went through the death notices for all of 1933 and they referred to the Dawdy Burying Ground but the first death notice I found for that area in 1934 called it the Hillside Cemetery with Dawdy written in brackets.”

She said it was unusual the change was never reported in the newspapers of the time because they use to publish much less critical information. Anything of any significance was published back then, according to Lamb.

The society never did find an agreement between the town and the cemetery trustees where the town agreed not to change the cemetery’s name after they took it over in 1926. The graveyard had been known as Dawdy’s Burial Ground from the early 1800’s until 1933.

Lamb told council the society had done all it could, and unless someone else came forward with more information there was nothing more to add.

Mayor Bergenstein thanked Lamb and the Historical Society for their efforts.

Council decided to give Tony Whelan, the man who brought up the whole issue, a chance to study and comment on the report before making any decisions.

They requested Whelan to prepare his comments and information in written form and to present it at the next meeting of council, August 18.