Bridgeport Free and Bridgeport Memorial Cemeteries CC#5428 & 6529

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The Bridgeport Free Cemetery and the Bridgeport Memorial Cemetery lie together near the Bridgeport Free Church and appear to be one large burying ground. The land for the original burying ground and Free Church was conveyed into the hands of three trustees on 16 November 1848 by John U. Tyson for the sum of fifteen pounds.  Mr. Tyson was a prominent member of the community at the time and instrumental in the building of the Free Church.  The first trustees were Peter Nicholas Tagge, Isaac U. Tyson and George Kraft.  Olive and Vera Schweitzer, Tweedsmuir curators for Bloomingdale, found the original memorial at the Kraft homestead and through the good offices of Idessa Zimmerman this is now in the collection of the Waterloo Historical Society.  It has been reprinted in full in the 1965 WHS annual volume.

The burying ground began to be used immediately and continues up to this day.  Eventually the plots were all sold, and the Memorial Cemetery next door was added as a modern counterpart.  The dividing line between the two takes the form of a gentle sloping hill.

The Free Church itself also still stands in good repair.  It was used for meetings by many different denominations over the years, in particular the German Baptists who met first on King Street and later moved to what is now Benton Street Church.  A Boy Scout troop also met here.


Both cemeteries and the church are now in the care of the Kitchener Parks and Recreation department.  The cemetery supervisor, Gregory Kett, was married at the Free Church a few years ago, seemingly the first marriage to take place there. The Waterloo Wellington Branch wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Gregory Kett, Garnet Richmond and the staff of the cemetery office in arranging and typing the material. Another reading of the cemetery had been done at an earlier time by Idessa Zimmerman and was consulted in the course of this transcription.

Kitchener May 1988

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