Last weekend Brent and I traveled just outside Cookstown to visit an old cemetery from the 1800s. He had been there before, and thought it would be a great place to explore and take a few photos. It was really a beautiful forgotten place:

Some of the stones were interesting and gave a very valuable insight into the people that first settled this land. There was a grim reminder of Diphtheria, which claimed six children in an outbreak in the early 1900s. Another monument was for a woman that lost her life on “The Asia”, a ship that sank in a hurricane on Lake Huron in 1882. 122 of the 124 passengers lost their lives. The shipwreck was never found. Some monuments had rather unusual quotes on them as well, like this one:

The writing reads “Not Dead But Gone Before”. Quite an odd thing to say, and the only thing that jokingly came to mind was a vampire.  I researched the quote and found that is was from an ancient Greek comedian that lived 450 – 388 B.C.: “Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod.”. Brent translated this to be “You’re next, don’t be too smug”. Very interesting to find!

It is amazing what you can learn about the history around you from those that came before – even if they can no longer tell their stories.