Photos taken at St Paul's Cemetery, near Sprucedale, Ontario
Taken by Murray Mandley, 2002

Murray Mandley writes: On a recent visit to Ontario we drove through the Sprucedale area. The attached photos are of headstones located in St. Paul’s Cemetery, near Sprucedale, Ontario and seem to record most of two generations. Parry Sound
and Muskoka Districts, on the edge of the Precambrian Canadian Shield, are lands of rocks, trees, thin soil, infinite number of lakes, extremely cold winters, short growing season and very hot summers. For agriculturists it is quite inhospitable. It is most beautiful in the fall as the attached picture attests.

Within 50 Km are the settlements of Whitehall and Whitestone. Time did not permit investigating these hamlets, where it is reported that Lydia took up land. There is information that she lived in both but they are in different Townships. As we did investigate titles in that which contains Whitehall and Sprucedale, finding records for James but none for Lydia, it is likely that Whitestone is the correct location of her homestead.

St Paul's Cemetery, Sprucedale, Ontario

Grave of James and Mary Summerwill

Grave of John, Cassie and Leslie Summerwill

Grave of Gertrude Dey (nee Summerwill)

Grave of Fred H. Summerwill