EBENEZER, TORONTO GORE

Although the cemetery site was not deeded to the Church until 1847, one headstone predates this gift by eleven years. 

In the very earliest pioneer times, burials on the homesteads were customary. As families moved away or the property changed hands, these gravesites often disappeared from sight and memory. Throughout Peel County, unmarked, unknown gravesites still exist and remain unknown unless, by chance, they are unearthed on a building site or excavation. 

John Smith, the stepson of James Sleightholm Sr., drowned in 1836 at the age of 21. His remains were removed from their original burial site and reinterred at Ebenezer with his brother James who died in 1843 at the age of 26. These were the first two burials recorded in Ebenezer cemetery records. (1)

(1) From "This Year Hence" by G.S. Tavender