This is a PRIVATE website owned by John Skakel. Contact us HERE
Cemeteries Office Staff have asked that users NOT contact them with questions directly.



Gibson Cemetery. Les standing over graves. Photograph taken from the road.
Caution, absolutely NO grave markers, and NO signs of any kind to mark cemetery location. No upkeep. So essentially cemetery is lost.


Gibson Cemetery (abandoned)
Lot 8 Con. 13 Gore of Camden
approx. 29985 Oakdale Road



Monument found on ditch bank behind Gibson Cemetery.
Coordinates today of it's present position at least are 42.61304 82.03594

Unfortunately most history of this cemetery has been lost with time. The Gibson graves are, located where there was an orchard/garden. We have been told by a number of individuals that the monuments were taken from here and that some at least still probably sit on the bank of the river a short distance away. As many as could be found were hauled up onto the river bank many years ago. It is likely some still sit on the river bottom. It is has been said that the monuments were removed one Halloween as a stunt. Another story says that some of the monuments were used as supports under a barn and the rest were thrown out on the bank. We have not see any barn to fit this description. However, the fact that the one base located on the bank probably weighs at least 200 pounds plus a monument of similar weight, it makes the Halloween story EXTREMELY unlikely!

This location is overgrown and it has not been cleared for decades. It has been offered for sale in the past, but it is unknown if it is wished to be sold today.

Locals DO know this as a cemetery. More than one local person has mentioned it as indeed being such.

Additional Information as of Fall 2013. Today Les Mancel and I (John Skakel) visited the river bank. We did find one part stone and an extremely heavy base piled on top of another. Note the photograph of the one monument that we did find and read the text on. We could NOT find other monuments though it is possible that the largest of these monuments could be sitting on top of as many as two or three other monuments. Note that the one large monument is lying face down. Thus we could not read the print on it. And the fact that there was a base of at least 100kgs sitting on top of it and rather wedged in by dirt and roots meant that we could not slide it off of the top of the large stone. Thus, we could not overturn that stone to read any text on the reverse side of it, or see if there are any others piled under neath of it. We could return to this. However, without a lot more help and/or power lift equipment that is very hard to get into a private field, it is very unlikely that we will try to do further here.

(Please see the Photograph below as well.)

The following are other monuments that were documented earlier by Kent Branch of OGS. For further information and more detailed text please contact them. So far we have not found these monuments mentioned. They may now be covered with cement, eroded into the river, or buried, or it is possible that they were in a slightly different area than we searched.

1. Hatta JONES died Oct. 4, 1884 aged 4 years 6 mos. Daughter of Stephen & Margaret JONES
2. Emma E. daughter of James & Rebecca KELLY. Died Nov. 13. 1878 aged 7 years 9 mos & 20 d's
3. (broken marker) M. S

4. (top) In memory of James G. GIBSON (Lower) died Apr. 12, 1867 aged 70 yrs (4 or 2?) m's & 3 ds
also of his wife Elizabeth, died June 6, 1871 aged 78 yr's 1 mo & 16 d's
5. (broken) William BUTLER who died Sept. 13, 1848 aged 52 yrs &11 m's (broken here)
6. (broken marker) M. A. (M?)

Note: These stones were located in a
pile partly buried on the bank
of the Sydenham River. In
addition to those listed here,
several bases (with no inscriptions)
were found. It is said that these
stones existed in a cemetery on
this same lot close to the concession
road, and it is not known at what
point in time they were removed and
placed on the river bank.

See Photograph of the "Orchard" location as it exists today. Les is standing over what is likely the old graves area.


Photograph of extremely heavy base sitting on top of the large old upside down monument.
Unfortunately due to very thick tree cover shadows could not be avoided in this case.