St. Clement's Roman Catholic Cemetery
265 Speedsville Rd., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
The current cemetery for St. Clement's Roman Catholic
Church in Cambridge (formerly Preston) is on the Speedsville Road, formerly
part of Waterloo Township in Waterloo County.
The parish of St. Clement in Preston dates from about l847. Previously,
Roman Catholics in that part of Waterloo Township worshipped with travelling
priests at the inn in Centreville. Priests from Dundas, Guelph and St.
Agatha served the area. In mid- century, a small stone church was built
at Duke and Dolph Streets, where it had a small churchyard surrounding
it. From l85l, the Jesuits from Guelph had charge of the church, until
l889 when St. Patrick's in Galt became a parish of its own, with dependent
missions at St. Clement's and St. Mary's in Hespeler. Only in l905 did
St. Clement's have a resident priest, and shortly afterwards consideration was
given to enlarging the church.
A new church was built, dedicated in l922 after years of services being held
only in its basement. This is the church which we know today. At
about the time of the move from the old stone church to the basement of the new
building, a new cemetery was opened on Speedsville road to replace the old
churchyard. At that time, the stones for the old graves were moved to the
new site, although the graves themselves were not moved. No cemetery
records for this churchyard are known to exist. St. Clement's Church
records would possibly tell more about the burials in the churchyard, and date
back to l847, but are not accessible for family research.
The old land was used as tennis courts for many years, until it was sold for a
townhouse development. During construction in l989, the forgotten graves
were discovered and building halted while they were moved to the new
site. About l30 bodies were found and moved.
The new cemetery is well kept by authorities; transcription was started in the
northwest corner, where the stones from the old cemetery are located. Special
thanks should be offered to Mrs.M.Kutney and Mr.S.Zalischuk of St. Mary's
Ukrainian Catholic Church for their assistance in transcribing the Ukrainian
and Polish stones in this cemetery.
February l990.