An Appreciation of Island Cemeteries 
     
     By J. Russell and Waldron H. Leard 
     
    
   
   
    
     The cemeteries of Prince Edward Island are fascinating treasures to explore. From one end of the province to the other, a 
     
     picture is carved in stone. The picture features gentle landscapes, beautiful trees, sometimes a view of the water and, of course, 
     
     handcrafted monuments offering an immediate link with our past. The memories of those who have gone on before us live in these 
     
     sanctuaries. knowing the stories of the occupants allows one to appreciate that a cemetery is not a site of finality and death, but a 
     
     continuation of life. In a way, cemeteries are a vehicle of immortality. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mark the Spot 
     
    
   
   
    
     The earliest grave markers used on the Island did not aspire to such longevity. They were usually composed of wood - 
     
     perhaps a cross made of two saplings lashed together with reeds, or an inscribed board inserted in the ground. Others were made of 
     
     native sandstone, which is easily scribed with a chisel or fling. The elements were hard on these markers. Wood rots, and the soft 
     
     sandstone melts away in the weather. Thus very few remain, although some examples survive in places like the circular cemetery on 
     
     Panmure Island and old St. Michael's among the birch trees in Launching. There are many individuals from that era, we say 
     
     incorrectly, lying in unmarked graves. The graves were originally marked in some manner, and it is the markers that have 
     
     disappeared, not the grave sites. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Considering the drawbacks to native stone, some immigrants brought more suitable stone with them. Some of the early Scots 
     
     settlers, not sure exactly where they were emigrating to, but certain their move was permanent, brought sized pieces of granite and 
     
     limestone with them. This stone might even be pre-carved but left blank, to be suitably inscribed on installation. The stone of 
     
     Thomas Carruthers, in the Kirk cemetery at Cape Traverse, is one of several that were brought over as part of the baggage. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Closer to home, quarries in Wallace, Nova Scotia offered a harder, grey-green type of sandstone. Carvers called it "freestone." 
     
     because it had no grain to contend with, and most Island cemeteries contain markers carved from this material. Still harder stone like 
     
     granite and marble tended at first to come from British quarries, mainly in Scotland and Ireland. But by the 1900s, quarries in Quebec 
     
     and Vermont began to edge British stone out of Island cemeteries. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Stone, of course, was not the only material available. At the turn of this century cast metal monuments enjoyed a brief 
     
     popularity. They were made to look like solid white marble, but a rap on the top reveals that they are hollow. Advertised as "white 
     
     iron or white bronze," they allowed various trim options to be applied to a basic design. The marker of Reverend Pius MacPhee in 
     
     Tracadie, or that of Captain Lewis Leard in Freetown are excellent examples of this type of marker.