Mike Loader

Walter was shot to death in 1902 by a pop bottler in a dispute over the amount owed for returned bottles. The white shooter was acquitted of his murder.

...Reason moved to a farm in Grantham (St. Catharines). After the American Civil War, Reason and Rebecca’s sons Walter and Moses moved to the United States to take part in Reconstruction and taught in Freedmen’s Bureau schoolhouses in Louisiana...

Reason and Rebecca Williams’ daughter Henrietta didn’t survive the day and they buried her in Toronto’s Potter’s Field in 1836. Her marker and remains were moved to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. Reason was an African American blacksmith who’d come to Toronto from New Jersey in 1825. About 1852...

Jane is buried in Niagara Falls with her husband. The pond was drained in 1936. Illustration 1890.

On July 24, 1892, Jane Lowrie Doran became the first person to die on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. She was being treated in the nearby Deer Park Sanatorium on Heath Street when she left the building while it was still dark, crossed into the cemetery, and drowned in the pond.

His wives and children were reinterred in 1875 to Mount Pleasant Cemetery when Potter’s Field was closed and the marker for his daughter Mary, who died at 16 from Hysteric Passion, has been preserved.

In Toronto, John operated a provision store and later the Scottish Arms Inn and a confectionary. He buried his two wives and three children in Potter’s Field. He died in 1864 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Toronto Necropolis.

John Bannerman was born c.1786 in Kildonan in the Scottish Highlands. He served in the Army and was wounded in the Battle of Toulouse in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. He was discharged in 1815, married, and immigrated to Toronto a few years later.

The accident is referred to as the Woodbridge crash because in 1970 the location was closer to Woodbridge, and Brampton hadn’t grown to encompass the crash site.

The captain was one of Canada’s most experienced pilots, Peter Hamilton, who had flown bombing raids over Germany during WW2. He had been shot down in 1944 and held as a POW. About half of those on board are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

On this day in 1970, all 109 people on board Air Canada flight 621 from Montreal to Toronto died when it crashed in a field in what is now Brampton. The Douglas Super DC-8 was half full because it was to to pick up passengers in Toronto before continuing to Los Angeles. #onthisday #thisdayinhistory

Alexander Rogers mausoleum stained glass window depicting Jesus helping Peter while walking on water in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:31) Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow

He declined a Senate appointment and Knighthood, died in 1918, and is buried in the Necropolis. Photo 1933, courtesy Toronto Public Library.

Ross is remembered as the editor of The Globe and founder of the Toronto Evening Telegram and for being taken prisoner by Louis Riel, serving as a member of parliament, publishing the Landmarks of Toronto books, and supporting the Hospital for Sick Children.

John Ross Robertson donated the large Freemasons lot in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The monument was dedicated in front of 2,600 onlookers on June 24, 1893, the feast of St. John the Baptist who is important in the Masonic Rite. #todayinhistory #onthisday

Finn had fought the Germans in 1940 in Norway where he and his brother had stolen a German floatplane while its pilots went ashore. The Sam McBride was almost new at the time of the accident and still ferries passengers today to the Toronto Islands. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

Today in 1941, instructor Finn Kjos and student Tron Harsvik took off from Toronto harbour in a Northrop N-3PB Nomad floatplane like this one and clipped the rigging of the ferry Sam McBride, killing the Norwegian military pilots. #todayinhistory

This circle between plots F and G was filled in sometime between 1993 and 1998

The circle’s paths have been filled and the trees have grown but this 1891 photo helps us imagine how impressive it would have appeared to early visitors. Photo from the Toronto General Burying Grounds Historical Sketch and Rules and Regulations, 1891.

William Fitch died in 1885 at the Battle of Batôche and his funeral procession was a mile long. His monument by F.B. Gullett & Sons includes a life-sized bronze bust and was at the centre of a circle in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

1913 ad for the Strath Gowan development on property south of Lawrence Park owned at one time by Jesse Ketchum and last farmed by Nicholas Garland, with a 1911 photo. Ad from The Globe, 17 Apr 1913, and photo courtesy Toronto Public Library.

In 1849 at age 20, Harvey Prentice Dwight became Toronto's only telegraph operator. He rose to president of the Great North Western Telegraph Company and connected Canada with tens of thousands of miles of wire. Harvey was the father of Canadian telegraphy and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

The Mausoleum and Crematorium in Mount Pleasant Cemetery opened in 1920 and is home to 17 stunning stained glass windows, as well as the final resting place of WWI flying ace Billy Barker and Titanic survivor Mary Fortune. #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow

I bought this postcard to scan for a forthcoming book and you're welcome to use my scan for any purpose. I will donate the postcard to the Toronto Reference Library when I'm done.

The leaf-covered Pergola & Art Room for the comfort of female shoppers at the W.A. Murray & Company store (17-31 King Street East), postcard 1906.

James was released a year later but the Canadian government didn’t apologize for the internment of over 600 Italians until 2021. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. #onthisday #onthisdayinhistory Photo 1930 from City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 20662

On this day in 1940, James Franceschini was arrested and interned as a threat to Canada because he’d been born in Italy. He had arrived in Toronto as a penniless teenager, worked in construction, and became Canada’s largest road contractor.

Inscription: SACRED to the memory of AMELIA Wife of Miles Wilkinson who departed this life April 3rd, 1847, Aged 40 years. Affliction sore long time I bore, Physicians were in vain. Till God was pleased to give me ease, And free me from my pain.

Amelia Wilkinson was born in England and married to a saddler named Miles. She died in Toronto in 1847 at age 40 and was buried in Toronto's Potter’s Field. Her remains and marker were moved to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. The cemetery does a great job of maintaining this rare intact slab.

Photo of Number 5 Company, the Merchant Rifles, made up of shopkeepers and clerks, courtesy QOR Museum. #onthisday #onthisdayinhistory