North Fredericksburgh Township, Concession 7 Lot 23

The Crown deed for the property was granted to Gaspar Bower on December 31, 1798.

Most likely a burial ground for the early settlers in Clarkesville and surrounding area.

There are no visible signs of a cemetery.

North Fredericksburgh Township, Concession 7, Lot 23

Meacham’s Atlas 1878

North Fredericksburgh Township, Concession 7, Lot 23

Google Maps 2025

Burying Ground Found Near Napanee

Its Origin is Unknown

New Owner Discovers Slabs of Limestone

July 8, 1963, Kingston Whig Standard

When Ivan Simkins bought eight acres of Lot 23 Concession 7, in North Fredericksburgh Township five years ago, he had already heard the rumor that the property contained an Indian burying ground.

The rumor, hard to pin down, was, at first, of little interest to the new owner.

The property, with frontage on the Palace road and the Napanee River, slopes gently from road to river. A point of land extending into the river perhaps accounts for the name by which the property has been known to children of the area for generations – Spook Horn.

Lot 23, North Fredericksburgh, like many other lots along the Palace Road, dates back to the earliest settlement of Loyalist days. On several of the old deeds, the property transfer was recorded: “With the exception of nine square feet for the late Frank Vanalstyne.” No mention was made however, where Frank Vanalstyne rested. In the community, it is said that Mr. Vanalstyne’s remains were exhumed and buried elsewhere.

But rumors of the Indian burying ground still remained. The new owner found [no] remains, except those of generations of neglect, until he finally reached the lower slopes of his property with his power mower. (There are now five acres cut by mower.)

He made a discovery, a bit of an unpleasant one; his power mower kept hitting stones.

Expecting to find ordinary field stone, he tried pulling one out. The stone was limestone, though there is no limestone outcrop on the property and none closer than the hill above, which at its eastern end is known as Roblin Hill.

The stone refused to budge. Digging disclosed that it extended far into the ground. It was a vertical slab of limestone, with only a few inches showing above the ground.

This experience was repeated with disheartening regularity. To save his mower Ivan Simkins drove stakes in at each stone.

When the whole area was cleared he made the discovery that the stones were in rows. There were thirty-four in all.

Meanwhile, a little above the “burying-ground,” he found more stones, field stones arranged in a plumb line as though forming the outline of a foundation. Asparagus grows at what may have been a doorstep.

What is the secret beneath the rows of limestone slabs, planted vertically, like grave markers? Certainly the limestone must have been carried from a distance, for no limestone exists in this gouged out valley.

A stone’s throw away is the bridge over Highway 401. Engineers dug down 75 feet before they found the stone required in the contract for the foundation of their bridge.

If the limestone marks graves, are they Indian graves? It is hardly likely, unless Christian Indians, for Indians did not mark the resting place of their dead in this way.

If not Indian, then are they white men’s graves, explorers’ or fur traders? Champlain is known to have explored a river in the vicinity. Was it the Napanee river? Could he, in a skirmish with Indians, have lost some men, buried them here, marking their graves so that others later chose the same burying ground?

Did fur-traders searching for rich harvest in the valley suffer loss of men from scurvy, from smallpox and bury them here?

Archeologist Digs in Old Cemetery

May 26, 1964, Kingston Whig Standard

A Palace Road couple has a mystery on its hands.

Part of the large, rolling riverside property which belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Simpkins in North Fredericksburgh Township has turned out to be an unknown cemetery.

Who is buried there? How many? How old is the cemetery? Why is there no record of a cemetery there?

These are just a few of the puzzling question which the Simpkins would like answered.

According to an eminent archaeologist, Dr. Walter Kenyon of Toronto, the cemetery may contain the remains of the first settlers who came to this area around 1786 when a man named Clark founded a mill and settlement on the Napanee River. The settlement became known as Clarksville, now the oldest and most historic section of Napanee.

Mr. Simpkins first discovered the unknown cemetery while cutting grass last summer. His mower kept running against flat stones which would not budge when he tried to pull them out.

His curiosity piqued, he dug out several stones and discovered they were two to three feet long slabs of uncut limestone. Since they were arranged in a pattern, he surmised they must have marked graves.

He dug up three of the graves and found skeletons but nothing either in the graves or on the uncarved limestone slabs to identify the remains.

Perplexed, he turned to the Lennox and Addington Historical Society for help. The society persuaded Dr. Kenyon, assistant curator of the royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, to come to Napanee and try to solve the mystery.

Dr. Kenyon began exploratory digging May 11 but by May 14, after he had dug up four graves, he, too, was mystified.

He was certain of two facts, however. The cemetery was not an Indian burial ground and it was not the long-sought Sulpician mission which was believed to have been situated in this area around 1669.

He also concluded it was not a family burial plot since he estimated it contained at least 50 or more graves. This he determined by the number of limestone slabs there.

In a recent interview, the bearded archaeologist explained that the skeletons were not those of Indians. They were white Europeans, three female and one male, possibly in their 20s when they died.

The presence of female skeletons ruled out the cemetery as the Sulpician mission burial ground, he said.

Dr. Kenyon, who said he could find no record of a cemetery at this location commented: “People keep track of their burial grounds. Why didn’t the community here keep track of this one – particularly a cemetery of this size?”

The archaeologist, who has been with the Royal Ontario Museum for the past 10 years, took the skeletons back to Toronto for further study.

In a written report on the exploratory excavating, received Thursday by Mrs. Helen Hutchison, historical society secretary, Dr. Kenyon said he had concluded the cemetery “Must have been founded shortly before 1786 when Clarke founded the first mill on the Napanee River.”

The Palace Road cemetery predates other old cemeteries in the Napanee area, he reported after taking a “cursory” tour of the burial grounds. The earliest cemetery for which records are available dates back to 1840 and it contains engraved tombstones.

“We conclude that the Palace Road cemetery is associated with the village of Clarkesville and was abandoned sometime prior to 1840,” he wrote.

A copy of Dr. Kenyon’s report has been filed with the department of public records in the government archives.

The historical society is expected to continue the investigation into earlier records predating 1864, which are kept in the Kingston registry office, in an effort to find some record of a cemetery at that location.