Albion Pioneer Cemetery

The location of the Albion Pioneer Cemetery, or Lloyd Westaway Pioneer Cemetery, is an abandoned burial place that appears on an 1848 map of the area. Most likely it was associated with the Wesleyan and Methodist faiths which have had a presence in the area from at least 1792. The Methodist Register of Baptisms for the Parishes of St. Andrew, St. George in Kings County, and St. John in Queens County, dates from 1792; however, no corresponding records of deaths or burials is extant. There is some speculation that there were indigenous burials here.

In 1828, Sir James Montgomery, a land holder of more than 100,000 acres in PEI, including property in the Three Rivers area, conveyed to the Trustees of a Wesleyan Chapel, a half-acre of land in Albion, Kings County "to be appropriated for a Preaching House and Burial Ground and any other conveniences that shall be judged necessary to accommodate the same". The Trustees were named as: Samuel Sabine, Henry Sabine, James Richards, John Suckles, William Thompson, John Clarke, and Henry Young, all farmers and residents in the area near the location of this cemetery. Many of these family names appear in the Methodist Baptism records noted above and several appear in census returns for the area, listing their religion as "Bible Christian" or "Methodist".

It is unknown whether a church was built at or near the site of this cemetery, however oral tradition refers to an "old meeting hall" or "fellowship hall" once located on the corner of the Lloyd Westaway Road, later moved to Sturgeon and used as a church building.

Other cemeteries in the area include the Sturgeon United Methodist or Community Cemetery with tombstones dating from 1953, and the Sturgeon Baptist (Bible Christian) Cemetery with tombstones transcriptions dating from 1866, which perhaps superseded the Albion Pioneer Cemetery. The Albion cemetery was likely abandoned prior to 1880 as there is no notation as to its location on Meacham's 1880 Atlas.

Early Methodists in the Three Rivers area were served by travelling missionaries from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The first Methodist church building in PEI opened in Murray Harbour in 1815 under Rev. John Hick. Very likely meetings or classes were held in private homes prior to that. The Bible Christian faith had a presence in the province since the 1832 arrival of missionary Rev. Francis Metherall (1791-1875) from England who increased membership in the Three Rivers area in the 1840s. In 1884, the Bible Christians merged with the Methodist Church and in 1925, the Methodists, Congregationalists and many Presbyterian Church joined to form the United Church of Canada. It is possible with the merging of various faiths and churches over time, some cemeteries fell out of use and maintenance.

The nearby St. Andrew's Point (also known as Wightman's Point) Pioneer Cemetery in Lower Montague established in 1799 is very likely also connected with the Wesleyan Methodist presence in the Three Rivers area.

The Albion Pioneer Cemetery is the peaceful resting place for some of the province's earliest inhabitants who contributed to the settlement of the Three Rivers area of the province.

Source : Heritage Places files, Dept. of Fisheries, Tourism, Sport & Culture, Charlottetown, PE

File # : 4310-20/W17