Ayr Cemetery CC#4489

Stanley St., Ayr Village, North Dumfries Township, Waterloo Region, Ontario

Ayr Cemetery is run by a private company of interested shareholders and is a communty cemtery for southwestern North Dumfries, northwestern South Dumfries  and northeast Blenheim. it sits on a hillside to the east of the village with a pleasant chapel attached. it is a very well kept and dominated by the many obelisks with which the more well-off families replaced their limestone individuals markers in the 1920's and 1930's.

The cemetery was founded in 1877, an early mention being in John Wyllie's letter to his brother-in-law in March of that year which mentioned a public meeting to select a site. the public cemetery would replace the several smaller local cemeteries, including the churchyards of Stanley Street and Knox churches and a number smaller burial grounds in the nearby countryside.

One of these was a Lime Kiln Road cemetery (N. Dumfries Concession 8 Lot 30) where there is a small plaque: "Here was erected the pioneer church of this vicinity in 1834. The burying ground was closed in 1924 and marked burials removed to Ayr Cemetery" Norma Huber observes that these may be in Ranges 1 & 2 in Lots 13, 14, 15, 16 and 21 in the transcription.

The idea of the community cemetery was a current one, as the founding of this cemetery is contemporaneous with similar municipal ones to replace individuals churchyards in Waterloo and Berlin.

The records up to the early 1960's are on microfilm and available at the Kitchener Public Library; they are very informative.  (1992)

To order a CD Version of all the cemeteries of Wilmot Township follow this link

Back to the Waterloo Region Branch, OGS homepage

To directly contact the cemetery you can email: ayrcemetery@rogers.com

or use your back button to go back to last page visited