Pine Hill: Reinventing a resting place

Union Church: An Emergency Relocation

In our beautiful corner of the country, numerous cemeteries, now surrounded by vegetation that gives them a bucolic look, serve as reminders of the families of early settlers who cleared the land and buried their dead, sometimes even before the arrival of a church: Macpherson (Georgeville), Saint-James (Hatley), Miltimore (Potton), etc. These cemeteries, still visited and sometimes even brought to life by guides or geocaching enthusiasts, are now a meeting point between death and life.

From Magog, if you take the road leading to Georgeville, with its beautiful inn and its surprising churches, three places of worship located right next to each other, you will certainly pass in front of what was once the Union Church, which became the property of the Evangelical Baptist Church in 1962. Right next to it, you will see a parking lot. This is the site of Magog's oldest cemetery, in use from at least 1814 until the 1930s. It faces the Turner house (c. 1850), named after the family who donated this land for the deceased.

In 1977, the community served by the church was large, and the parking space was insufficient. For the Evangelical community, which believes that faith follows the heart and not the remains, there was no issue with paving over the cemetery. However, this caused an outcry among the large Anglophone community of the Townships. Robert Dawson, editor of the Townships Sun, went as far as writing to the Minister of Justice to request an intervention. A group of citizens, led by Kathleen Milne, a prominent woman in the community, took it upon themselves to move graves, some dating back to the early 19th century, to the Pine Hill Cemetery.

Exactly 101 years earlier, Ralph Merry V had done the same with the remains of his own loved ones.

Ralph Merry V and the Call of Duty

Ralph Merry V (1809–1887) was a very pious man. As the grandson of Magog's founder, when he realized that the Union Cemetery would quickly run out of space due to the phenomenal growth of industrial Magog, he took it upon himself to find a solution.

He then founded an organizing committee tasked with finding a location for a new burial ground. They quickly realized that the best place was Pine Hill. Elevated and surrounded by farms and wide-open spaces, it would serve as a visual landmark while also fulfilling a religious imperative: in many communities, there is strong symbolism tied to being buried on high ground, closer to God.

Thus, Pine Hill Cemetery was born in 1876. Ralph began by having the remains of his wife, Susan, who had passed away the previous year, transported there. In 1881, he transferred his grandparents, parents, and some of his siblings who had been buried at Union until then.

Imagine these processions, true solemn second funerals for the village's founding family, passing in front of what is today the Auberge du Grand Lac and the Microbrasserie des Cantons!

Ralph V finally had his own funeral in 1887 at Saint-Luke’s Church, which is now the Cherry River Distillery, co-founded by singer Marc Dupré and currently enjoying immense success. He now rests in the cemetery he helped create.