Description of Historic Place

The Heartz Field Cemetery is a small plot enclosed by a wood post and wire fence in a field overlooking the North River, in the community of Milton Station, Prince Edward Island. A family cemetery with perhaps 17 interments, a memorial marker with a bronze plaque was placed by family descendants in the 1970s.

Heritage Value

The Heartz Field Cemetery is valued for its historical association with the Heartz family, early Loyalist settlers in the area.

The family cemetery is located on what was the farm of John Jacob Heartz (1735-1810). Heartz, originally from Holland was a Loyalist from New York who came to PEI in 1786 possibly by way of Shelburne, Nova Scotia with his wife, Dorothea Rhene and 4 children. The couple had two more children, born in PEI as per St. Paul's Anglican Church records. Heartz, a stone mason and farmer, settled on Lot 32, on land granted by Governor Walter Patterson, and built a large house sometime between 1788 and 1809. Upon his death, Heartz left 100 acres, a house, barns, stables, out buildings and farming stock to his son George who in turn passed the homestead onto his brother Martin. Martin is interred in this cemetery while his wife Ann (Dawson), with whom he had 10 children, was interred in the Heartz family vault in nearby Sherwood Cemetery. John Jacob Heartz's son, Samuel Edward, who died in 1813 at age 13 is also buried in the field plot. A sandstone marker and plaque was erected in the cemetery by family descendant, Ruth Heartz MacKenzie, daughter of former Lieutenant Governor Frank Heartz. The stone is thought to be a foundation stone from the original Heartz home.

Known interments at the cemetery are John Jacob Heartz (1735-1810) and Martin Heartz (1766-1860). Other possible interments at the cemetery include Dorothea (Rhene) Heartz buried sometime prior to 1798, Dorothea Heartz and Wilhelmina Heartz. The earliest known burials date from 1810 but it is possible there could be 17 burials here, dating from possibly as early as 1788 when the family settled on the Island.

The Heartz family were prominent in Charlottetown as bankers, merchants, and politicians. Martin Heartz's fifth child, Richard Jacob Heartz "The Baron" (1816-1908) was a prominent merchant in Charlottetown. His residence and offices were constructed in 1859 on Great George Street and exist as one of the most historic streetscapes in Canada, significant for its association with the 1864 Charlottetown Conference. Richard Heartz was a city councillor for over sixteen years as well as a director of the Bank of Prince Edward Island. Richard's grandson Frank Heartz (1871-1955) was Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island from 1924-1930. Frank Heartz built Heartz Hall in 1920 in East Royalty and named it for his father, businessman and farmer, Benjamin Heartz.

The cemetery is the resting place and tangible reminder of one of the earliest Loyalist families who settled in the province, a family whose many contributions enhanced the social and economic history of PEI.

Source: Heritage Places files, File #: 4310-20/H7, Province of PEI, Charlottetown, PE

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the cemetery is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- the small undisturbed plot surrounded by a field overlooking the North River containing the resting place of several members of the Loyalist Heartz family that settled in the area in the late 1780s
- the rectangular sandstone marker, possibly a foundation stone of the former Heartz Home, with a bronze plaque inscribed with the names and death dates of the Heartz family "Jacob Heartz 1735-1810, Martin Heartz 1766-1860 and others of the Heartz family"