Abandoned Ontario cemetery with graves of Black settlers to get new life after campaign by local advocates

An abandoned cemetery southeast of Hamilton, Ont., which is the final resting place for Black settlers, including the niece of a famed anti-slavery icon — will soon be getting a new life thanks to some local volunteers and county councillors.

The Street-Barnes Cemetery, tucked away in a copse of trees in the middle of a field, was used by people who had escaped slavery in the United States. No one's been buried there since the 1940s and the 500-square-metre site is now littered with overturned tombstones, unkempt brush, dead trees and tangles of old fence wire. 

Sylvia Weaver, a local historian and author, says at least a dozen people are buried in the cemetery, which is near Canfield in Haldimand County — including Carrie Barnes, whose renowned aunt Harriet Tubman helped slaves escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad in the 1800s.

Aileen Duncan, from nearby Hamilton, is a descendant of the Street family, after whom the cemetery is named.

"That was a thrill for me to look and see there's my great-great-grandparents' names there," she said.

"This just absolutely left me speechless."

Only eight grave markers are still visible. But Duncan says it's important that everyone be able to visit the site, not just those whose relatives are buried there.

"This isn't just for my family or the other descendants ... It's Canadian history."

But, right now, the site is not accessible to the public.

Duncan, who uses a walker, needs to get permission before she can visit her ancestors' graves because the cemetery is on private land and is publicly inaccessible from the nearest road. The current landowner allows Duncan into the site using his driveway because she has promised not to hold him liable for any potential injuries.

Duncan, Weaver and Graeme Bachiu, a local filmmaker, have been advocating for the cemetery's restoration for several years and it appears they're finally getting some traction.

Coun. John Metcalfe, who sits on Haldimand County council and its heritage board, says Haldimand is in the process of acquiring the cemetery and has budgeted about $100,000 for its rehabilitation.

Metcalfe says he wants to clean up "the leaning trees, the debris on the ground ... just making it safe" for people to enter the site.  

"But we have to have ownership of the property which is what's being worked on right now," he said.