Description of Historic Place

The Allanburg Village Cemetery is one of two very early cemeteries in the old village of Allanburg, now within the City of Thorold. In 1844, the Township Wardens purchased a one-quarter acre parcel of land as a cemetery, seeing that burials had already occurred there.

The cemetery is recognized for its heritage significance by the City of Thorold By-law 88-2002.

Heritage Value

The Allanburg Village Cemetery is associated with the original Dutch Settlers and the subsequent United Empire Loyalists who came from New York State to establish roots in the area. It is located on land granted by the Crown in 1797 to John Vanderburg Sr., who emigrated with his family from the Mohawk Valley, New York in 1784. Harmonious Vanderburg inherited the property in 1825 and sold a one-quarter acre parcel of land, being used as a burying ground, to the Township Wardens in 1844.

The Village was originally known as New Holland because of the early Dutch immigrants. Later it was named Allanburg by Samuel Keefer when he formally laid out a new settlement. The new name was in honour of William Allan, a banker and vice-president of the Welland Canal Company. Keefer's father, George, emigrated from New Jersey in 1792 when his lands were confiscated by the US Congress. George was to become the Welland Canal Company's first president and it was in Allanburg that he turned the sod for the very first canal.

Many of the earliest settlers of the Allanburg area are buried in this cemetery. The first recorded burial is that of Noah Davis who died in 1813, though his gravestone has not been found. The oldest marker in the cemetery with a readable inscription is for Mary Chrysler, who died in 1815. The last known burial was that of Mary Ann Radcliffe, who died in December 1876.

Source: Heritage File - Allanburg Village Cemetery; By-law 88-2002.

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements that reflect the heritage value of the Allanburg Village Cemetery include the:
- remnants of markers and markers in the cemetery that reflect a part of the history of Dutch settlement in the Allanburg area when it was known as New Holland
- location in one of the earliest settlements in the area
- markers of several founding and prominent citizens of Allanburg