.44,

me on) ELM AVENUE deiflRY (1899)

There is no spot in Prince Edward Island of so much interest as the old burying grOund in Charlottetown. We cannot tell who was the first person buried here, or when the ground was set apart as a cemetery. In the year l789 John and Terence Webster had a grant of Common Lot 24, of which this land would form a part if not reserved. we pre- sume the present enclosure was not fenced when first used as a burial ground, from the fact that part of a human skeleton was found in 1899 about 100 feet outside the pre- sent fence. Strange to say, a grant of the ground for buru ial purposes was given by Hon. George Wright, administrator, to the Episcopal Church, thirty-seven years after interment was recorded on the first stone.

Taking a walk over the grounds, the oldest inscrip- tion we find is as follows: ”Sacred to tie Memory of Isa! belle, Wife of George Bell, Sg't. of the let Grenadiers. Died dug. 11, l 79, aged 24 yrs." The Company of the let Regiment to which George Bell belonged, was no doubt locat- ed in the old barracks on King Street. Twenty-one years before this, Charlottetown was laid off, principally on naper. The streets parallel with the river were all 80 ft. wide. Hillsborough and Rochford Squares were laid off in town lots, whilst the blocks on which Connolly's Block on Queen Street and mr. Alley's residence on Prince Street (now Red Cross House) are lecated were set start for squares. The old streets were made narrower, and the squares changed tc their present sites, by Governor Patterson.

it the time of Mrs. Bell, dykes, blueberry swamps and patches of woods were to be seen in what is now the centre of the City. To the north of Queen Square - evident- ly intended for suburban residences from the size of the blocks - the streets were not all exteuiei to their present limit, while about forty houses, principaily log structures, marked the progress Chsrlsttetcwn had made.

Zhe grave of Mrs. Bell is about the centre of the burying ground. The stone, unlike any hero, is similar to thousands erected in the rev dncleni Status during the 1700's.

it the head of the c~mat “v “tents a single slab