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	History of the Empress Cemetery

July 8, 2025 was the 110 anniversary of the Cemetery

By the beginning of the 1900s, health officials and the educated public had a few decades to get used to the idea that some diseases were infectious.  The Russian Flu pandemic in the early 1890s drove that point home to everyone, and health officials were trying to get people to break from the tradition of burying their loved ones close to home.

For that reason, the people of Empress looked for a location away from Empress for a cemetery.  It had to be land that had not been homesteaded yet, fairly flat, and easily accessible by wagon.  They chose the general area, which happened to be across the border in Saskatchewan, and the Village of Empress requested the Dominion government to grant them 10 acres in that area for a cemetery.

The Federal government granted the 10 acres to The Village of Empress on July 8, 1915.  Because it was granted for cemetery purposes, it was, has always been exempt from property taxes.  It is located in the Rural Municipality of Deer Forks, but the RM has never had anything to do with the cemetery.  Eventually the RM took on the maintenance of a road to it.

The first official use of the cemetery was in March 1916, but a survey wasn't done until June 1917.  The survey designated each plot to be 10 feet square, which is space for two graves.  In the beginning, no one recorded where in the plot people were buried, but around 1958, they started saying whether a grave was on the north or south side of the plot.  Then they went back in the cemetery register and tried to specify that for past burials if they could.  A few years later later someone decided to number these north & south sub-plots 1 & 2 in a systematic way, but whether a sub-plot was 1 or 2 depended on whether the plot numbers were increasing going to the north, or increasing going to the south.  For example, 15-3-1 is on the south side of plot 15-3, but the next grave to the west of that is sub-plot 2 of 15-48.  When they started using sub-plot numbers, they didn't put 1 or 2, but 1S, 1N, or 2S, 2N.  Clearly they knew that there was potential for confusion.

The confusion as been there ever since, as evidenced by the 2000 directory in which one third of the subplot numbers are wrong.

My new map & directory uses the 1 & 2 sub-plot labeling, but corrected those errors as well as others.

1914-Jun-10     It has been decided. Canada Department of the Interior letter to The Village of Empress: With further reference to the application of the Village of Empress for a grant of land for cemetery purposes ... it has been decided to permit the village authorities to select for this purpose 10 acres ...
1914-Nov-18     Government Approval. At The Government House At Ottawa: ... His Royal Highness in Council, ... is pleased to set apart and appropriate for cemetery purposes ten acres of land comprised in the south-east corner of Legal Subdivision 1 of Section 4, Township 23, Range 29, West of the Third Meridian, and to authorize a grant thereof to the Village of Empress, in the Province of Alberta, for said purposes.
1915-Jul-08     Land Grant. Canada Department of the Interior letter to The Village of Empress, dated 1915-Jul-14: I beg to inform you that patent for S.E. ¼ of L.S. 1 of Section 4 in Township 23 Range 29 West of the 3rd Meridian, bearing the date the 8th July, 1915, has been issued in the name of the Village of Empress of the Province of Alberta, and that it has been forwarded to the Registrar of the Land Registration ...
1916-Mar-03 to 05     First recorded burial Cemetery Register: Date of Order: March 5, 1916 Plot: 2-10-1 Name: Vera Juanita Clark Sex: Female Single: Yes Occupation: Child Where Born: Empress Where Died: Empress Date of Death: March 3, 1916 Name of Physician: Dr. Chauder
1917-Apr-19     Get quotations to survey the cemetery. Empress Express Newspaper:      Council Doings      Meeting Monday, April 16, 1917.      Secretery Henderson was instructed to get quotations for surveying of cemetery and taking of road levels.
1917-Jun-14     Surveyor is doing his thing. Empress Express Newspaper:      Local and Personal      Mr. B. F. Mitchel, surveyor, of Edmonton, is here, and is engaged in surveying out the cemetery.
1917-Jun-21     Survey complete, plots for sale. Empress Express Newspaper:      Local and Personal      The surveying of the cemetery is now completed, and persons who wish to purchase plots can now do so.
1917-Jul-19     Tendering the fence build. Empress Express Newspaper:      TENDERS      ---      Sealed Tenders will be received by the Undersigned at the Municipal Office until noon of Saturday, the 28th day of July, A.D. 1917, for the building of a fence around the Village Cemetery, with eight foot posts and page wire.      Material will be furnished on ground.      Specifications can be had on request.      R. M. Henderson,         Secretery-Tresurer.
1917-Aug-02     Fence build awarded. Empress Express Newspaper:      Wm. E. McKay has been awarded the contract for fencing the Village cemetery. Price to be paid for work only is $35.  The fence will be built of Page wire and eight foot cedar posts.
1918-May-02     William Elshaw applied for homestead entry for SE-4-23-29-W3 (the remainder of the quarter-section where the cemetery is). Department of Interior, Canada. This was found to be in error, because the land had already been reserved in connection with the Soldier Settlement Scheme. Entry was cancelled in June, 1918.
1918-Jul-17     James Wilson Hamilton, applied for homestead entry for SE-4-23-29-W3 (the remainder of the quarter-section where the cemetery is). Department of Interior, Canada. Hamilton was a veteran of World War 1. 1919-Mar-15: Hamilton had received a total of $3460.10 from The Soldier Settlement Board of Canada upon the security of that quarter section and another (SW-21-22-1-W4). 1930-Mar: Hamilton was found in default of what he owed and his land forfeited to The Soldier Settlement Board of Canada, who received grants for his land.
1922-Jan-12     George A. Shannon homesteaded SW-3-23-29-W3 (east, right next to where the cemetery is). Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, Homestead Grant Registers, 1872-1930. 1929-Jan-30: Granted the patent to that land.