The impetus for the creation of the 11-hectare (26-acre) cemetery was the need for the provision of a Protestant burying ground for Quebec City's primarily English language speaking, Protestant community, in the mid–1800s.[6][1]
The cemetery is located at the corner of Saint-Louis Road (French: chemin Saint-Louis) and côte de Sillery (formerly côte de l'Église), on 109,010 m2 (0.042 sq mi) of land overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, in the southeastern direction.[2][1]
More than 17,000 people are buried at Mount Hermon Cemetery.[7] This cemetery draws distinction as being the first garden cemetery (French: cimetière-jardin) established in Canada.[8] Mount Hermon Cemetery, and other garden cemeteries formed in North America, took inspiration from cimetière du Père-Lachaise of Paris.[8]
A memorial was dedicated to the victims of the sinking of the shipwreckedEmpress of Ireland, in 1914, and other memorials were erected at later dates on the cemetery's grounds.[2] The major loss of lives aboard the shipwrecked Empress of Ireland had significant impact upon Mount Hermon Cemetery, along with its neighboring cemetery on chemin Saint-Louis: Saint-Patrick's Cemetery, which also relocated from the city of Quebec, in 1879. Both of the cemeteries took on responsibility for a significant number of the ship's passengers whom perished aboard or at sea.
Separately, on the Mount Hermon Cemetery grounds is the Treggett Bell, which was presented in gratitude to the Treggett family, who had members from four different generations of its family serve as Mount Hermon Cemetery's Superintendents, encompassing the years 1865–2014.[7][2]
In addition, the cemetery contains sections dedicated for individuals of Greek (French: section de la communauté grecque orthodoxe), Chinese (French: section de la communauté chinoise), and Cambodian (French: lots des cambodgiens) descent.[2]
The main entrance is accessed at 1801 Saint-Louis Road, at the northern end of the cemetery. There is a pedestrian entrance located at the southwestern portion of the cemetery, accessed at the northern terminus of avenue des Voiliers, one-block east of côte de Sillery. The cemetery grounds contained both paved and gravel roads but has been entirely paved in 2023 with the exception of one dirt road at the bottom leading to the Québec Promontory.[2]
In the spring of 1847, a group of Protestant businessmen, shipbuilders, merchants, and clergy convened a public meeting to determine the possibility of buying land for a rural cemetery.[7][2] Quebec City's original Anglican cemetery, located adjacent to Saint Matthew's Church on Saint John Street (French: rue Saint-Jean) had reached its capacity and city officials requested that a new Protestant cemetery be established outside of the city limits.[7][2][9]
With aid from the lumber merchant John Gilmour, a prominent member of the local Protestant community, as well as a member of first municipal council of Sillery, the Québec Protestant Cemetery Association was formed on February 11, 1848. Its first president was George O'Kill Stuart, Jr., and its main objective was to collect the funds necessary to purchase land and establish a cemetery on it.[7][2] Other founding members included the philanthropist Jeffery Hale and the physician Dr. James Douglas, the later whom served as a member of the cemetery's first board of directors in 1848.[10][11][2]
On June 14, 1848, Christopher Ferguson, 42-years of age, who was the master of the brig Transit, died of erysipelas. He became the first person to be buried in the nascent cemetery and the first person to be recorded in the cemetery's burial register. The only other details recorded were that he was a member of the Church of England and that the officiating clergyman was the Rev. J. Cornwall.[12][13][1]
The legislation (12 Vict., chap. 191) which legally incorporated the new cemetery was adopted by the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada on May 30, 1849.[14][1] It was at that time that the new cemetery was officially given the name of Mount Hermon.
The membership of the association's first board of directors was noted for being an example of ecumenical cooperation in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic majority city and province of Quebec. Between June 1848 and December 1883, out of 6,164 burials, close to half of the decedents were members of the Anglican Church (2,991), followed by members of the Presbyterian Church (1,117), and the Methodist Church (583).[13]
Cemetery design
"Design for proposed entrance lodge and gates for the grounds of the Quebec Cemetery," Edward Staveley, September 6, 1848, Quebec City
All three of Douglass' cemeteries were designed from the philosophical perspective of the architect Sir Christopher Wren, who in the year 1711, began to argue for cemeteries to be located in pastoral settings, away from crowded and disease-plagued cities. The three David Bates Douglass designed garden cemetery landscapes all have achieved historic and cultural landmark statuses: in addition to Mount Hermon Cemetery's designation as a National Historic Site of Canada, his Green-Wood Cemetery was designated a United States National Historic Landmark in 2006, and his Albany Rural Cemetery was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[17]
Québec City architect Edward Staveley (1795–1872) designed the cemetery's Gothic Revival entrance lodge and gates in a set of plans which were signed and dated on September 6, 1848, in the city of Québec.[18][19][20] On August 24, 1849, Staveley completed a design plan for a burial vault at Mount Hermon Cemetery for the family of the Hon. Henry Black.[19][21]
At the time of its establishment, Mount Hermon was the first cemetery to be located in a rural area, outside of Québec City's legal jurisdiction, in addition to being Canada's first garden cemetery.[8] On July 10, 1859, the Roman CatholicNotre-Dame-de-Belmont Cemetery (French: cimetière Notre-Dame-de-Belmont), located in the adjacent, historic area of Sainte-Foy, was blessed and its first burial took place two days later.[22] This was the second garden cemetery to be created in a rural environment outside of the city limits of Québec.
In 2011, the Mount Hermon Cemetery Association undertook restoration work to the outside of the cemetery's entrance lodge, which contains the Superintendent's office and residence.[25][26][27] The work included the replacement of the lodge's asphalt shingle roof with a cedar shingle one and the addition of a wood staircase for a secondary entrance, as well as restorative measures performed on the cemetery's mass grave (French: charnier) for the anonymous victims from the Empress of Ireland.[27]
On November 5, 2015, the remains of 204 unknown people, originally buried at the Saint Matthew's Church graveyard on Saint John Street in Québec City, were interred at Mount Hermon Cemetery.[28][9] The skeletal remains were discovered by city archeologists while performing restoration work at the former location, during 1999–2000.[28] The 204 individuals were buried at Saint Matthew's between 1772 and 1860.[28]
A ceremony was held at Mount Hermon Cemetery on September 8, 2016, to mark the 150th anniversary of Jeffery Hale Hospital (French: Hôpital Jeffery Hale). At the ceremony, new engravings on the Hale family monument, along with a bench, were unveiled.[29]
War graves
The War Graves Photographic Project, a volunteer initiative which has recorded the graves or memorial listings of every Commonwealth service member death since World War I, has indexed the details regarding 170 servicemembers buried at Mount Hermon, including photographs of their headstones.[30][31]
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission identified 68 individuals buried at Mount Hermon Cemetery whom it determined were casualties from World Wars I and II.[32] Of those burials, 49 are of servicemembers whom were killed in active duty during the first World War; 14 from WWII, one of whom is an unidentified Canadian airman.[32] In addition, there are three American war graves, as well as one internedAustrian civilian's grave. The Commonwealth burials located in Section G are buried in Plot 1368.[32]
Section G, located in the northeastern portion of the cemetery is dedicated as "The Canadian Armed Forces Section and the Memorial to three United States Army Airmen who died in 1942" (French: section des Forces armées canadiennes et monument commémoratif de trois aviateurs américains décédes en 1942).[2]
George Benson Hall Jr. (1810–1876) – businessman involved in the Quebec lumber trade. Upon his death, the Quebec Morning Chronicle described him as "one of Quebec’s most prominent and enterprising citizens."[35]
Henry Black, CB, Q.C., LL.D. (hon.c.) (1798–1873) – lawyer, political figure, and judge in the Province of Canada. He was the judge in the Court of Vice-Admiralty for the Quebec City district for thirty-seven years (1836-1873)
Dr. James Douglas (1880–1886) – in partnership with doctors Joseph Morrin and Charles-Jacques Frémont, purchased Robert Giffard de Moncel's manor-house at Beauport, and converted it into the Beauport Asylum (French: asile de Beauport) (later Robert-Giffard Hospital (French: centre hospitalier Robert-Giffard)). Aided in the foundation of the cemetery and a member of its first board of directors, in 1848.[11][2]
^ abcdefghijklAubin, Thérèse; Michaud, Hugues (Fall 2007). "Dévoilement d'un panneau patrimonial au cimetière Mount Hermon" [Unveiling of a Heritage Plaque at Mount Hermon Cemetery] (PDF). La Charcotte : le bulletin de la Société d'histoire de Sillery (in Canadian French). Vol. 21, no. 2. Quebec, Quebec): Société d’histoire de Sillery. pp. 6–7. ISSN0843-7335. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2019-03-04.
^ abcCornellier, Manon (2011-08-15). "Comment l'exemple des cimetières-jardins interprète la mémoire funéraire québécoise" [How the Example of the Garden Cemeteries Interprets Québec's Funerary Memory]. Conserveries Mémorielles (in French) (10). Quebec, Quebec: CÉLAT, Centre de recherche Cultures – Arts – Sociétés (Centre interuniversitaire d’études sur les lettres, les arts et les traditions). ISSN1718-5556. OCLC959662214. Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
^ abLeBlond, Sylvio (2003). "Douglas, James (1800–86)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 11. University of Toronto/Université Laval (published 1982). Archived from the original on 2018-11-06. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
^Cox, Rob S.; Heslip, Philip; LaPlant, Katie D. (July 2017) [1812]. Finding aid for David Bates Douglass Papers, 1812–1873 (1,191 items). M-1390, M-2294, M-2418, M-2668, M-5038, M-6083. David Bates Douglass' papers. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 2019-03-04. Retrieved 2018-11-02. Returning to engineering and consulting work, Douglass laid out the Albany Rural Cemetery in 1845–46 and the Protestant cemetery in Quebec in 1848, both in the style of Greenwood Cemetery. In August 1848, he moved to Geneva College (now Hobart)...
^Richardson, A. J. H. (1970). "Guide to the Architecturally and Historically Most Significant Buildings in the Old City of Quebec with a Biographical Dictionary of Architects and Builders and Illustrations". Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology. 2 (3/4): 93. doi:10.2307/1493384. JSTOR1493384. ...the Gothic Revival entrance lodge to Mount Hermon Cemetery (still standing) (1848),...
^ abStaveley, Edward – (1795–1872) – (works in Quebec City unless noted). Archived from the original on 2019-03-04. Retrieved 2018-11-06. Mount Hermon Protestant Cemetery, St. Louis Road, entrance lodge and gates, 1848 (Quebec Mercury, 16 Sept. 1848, 3, t.c.; dwgs. at ANQ, Staveley Coll. 04; A.J.H. Richardson, 508, 520, illus.) burial vault for the family of Hon. Henry Black, 1849 (dwgs. at ANQ, Staveley Coll. 08).{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^"History: Cimetière Mount Hermon / Mount Hermon Cemetery". MountHermonCemetery.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-03. Retrieved 2019-03-04. Edward Bowen: Lawyer, judge and Chief Justice of the Québec Superior Court, 1849–1866. Previous owner of the cemetery land in 1830.
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