Little Lake Cemetery

Peterborough’s Little Lake Cemetery is one of the oldest and most beautiful active burial grounds in the Kawarthas. Located on a peninsula on the east shore of Little Lake, in downtown Peterborough, it will come as no surprise that many of the City’s best known historic figures are buried there. It is also the final resting place of many community founders from throughout the Kawarthas—particularly early gentry who played such a conspicuous role in the 1830s and 1840s.

When they first came over, the aspiring gentry attended teas and balls together, forming relationships that lasted a lifetime as they supported each other in their aspirations to be leaders of their communities. Though most of their ventures ran into serious difficulties, and most were forced to move away to find a more stable livelihood, many ended up together again in the end. Mossom Boyd, proprietor of Bobcaygeon, was taken on the Steamer Victoria in a very public event, with his old pioneering peers James Wallis (original Fenelon Falls and Rosedale proprietor) and Robert Dennistoun, acting as pall bearers. Both are buried close by—Wallis is immediately beside his old friend Stafford Kirkpatrick—with whom he stayed when his business ventures were falling apart in the 1840s. Boyd is right beside his well-known bush superintendent Norman Barnhart. They are certainly not alone—many more of their old peers are just a few steps away.