Description of Historic Place

The Old Pioneer Cemetery Extension is set well off the road and has no sign along the roadside to identify it. The cemetery is very secluded with large trees overshadowing the graves and the road leading into the cemetery overgrown. It is set back from the road with unkempt fields with large trees on three sides and the Grand Harbour Brook on the southern side. From the back of the cemetery the original Old Pioneer Cemetery is visible across the brook.

Heritage Value

The Old Pioneer Cemetery Extension is designated a Local Historic Place for being the overflow for the first cemetery for the first church established on Grand Manan Island, St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The graves date from February 4, 1866 for Ingraham McDaniel to Lillis Ingalls in 1984. Due to this cemetery’s location along a brook, some graves had to be removed in the 1960’s and placed in Maple Grove Cemetery as they were in danger of being washed into the brook.

Source: Grand Manan Archives - Local Historic Places files

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Old Pioneer Cemetery Extension include:
- very secluded surroundings;
- large trees overshadowing the graves and the road leading into the cemetery being overgrown;
- some of the family plots having iron metal fenced plots with a gate and locks;
- monuments as well as traditional headstones made of granite and marble;
- largest monument in the central area of the cemetery with a unique low metal bar railing fence surrounding the plot.