03/13/2023
Mr. Cook was appointed secretary-treasurer and he duly recorded the place of that historic meeting to have been "Messrs, Meikle & Bro. store."
Records show that the very first plot of the new cemetery was sold to a Catherine A. Reddick, widow, on the 4th of November, 1890.
The original trustees and their successors exercised, from time to time, the option to acquire additional land from Charles Casselman and later from his son, Ernest Casselman, at the price agreed upon, so that by 1921 total holdings were over 3 acres. Apparently there had been an extension of the 20-year limit stated in the option agreement.
A further substantial purchase of land was made on the 6th of November, 1939, when William J. Myers sold 3.28 acres to the trustees for $1,200 and, in a very generous gesture, added for one dollar a thirty-foot-wide strip of land from which the present lovely driveway was cut. In the 3.28 acres was included a stone vault, which still is in good repair. The 1939 purchase, together with some other small acquisitions, brought the cemetery holdings to its present total of 7.181 acres. These are recorded as Blocks A to K on an official plan (20 feet to the inch), which sets out details of the individual plots and the fairly substantial area yet to be graded.
The impressive gateway at the cemetery entrance, together with provision for its perpetual care, was presented by the Meikle family as a memorial to Mr. John H. Meikle, Sr., who died in 1911. Although Mount Pleasant has almost from the start been fairly self-sufficient, its trustees have acknowledged with gratitude the many gifts and bequests received down through the years.
The early records make quite startling reading in light of today's inflated costs. The following items certainly suggest that the saying "sound as a dollar" rang more true at the turn of the centry than it does in the year nineteen hundred and eighty:
- In their meeting of November 10th, 1890, the board agreed that the price to be paid for "the digging and covering of each grace and removing of all stones which may incur in digging said graves" should be $1.75.
- When the second one-half acre was added a few years later, the grading of the land to make it suitable for sub-dividing into plots cost $25.
- For the princely sum of $10, a man was given the job of enclosing the added half acre, entailing "the digging of 82 post holes 3 feet deep, placing posts, facing each post on one side, putting on 5 strands of wire, putting 6 inch board on top, 5 inch board on side cemetery."
Photo by Ken Lange
