_edited.png)
Our History
Serving Perth with dignity since 1872
Since 1872, Elmwood Cemetery has been more than just a final resting place—it's a living chronicle of Perth's remarkable history.
When the "Old Burying Ground" on Craig Street filled to capacity in the 1860s and health officials demanded any new cemetery be located outside town limits, a group of determined citizens formed the Perth Cemetery Company.
Architecture with Purpose
​The cemetery itself tells Perth's story through its structures and monuments. The impressive stone gates, constructed around 1907 after years of maintaining wooden gates with hitching posts for up to 25 horses, were designed by architect George Thomas Martin of Smiths Falls with stone transported from Montreal. The 1897 vault, also designed by Martin, solved a uniquely Canadian problem—providing secure winter storage when frozen ground made burial impossible. For decades, it served not just Elmwood but cemeteries throughout the region, a testament to our ancestors' practical ingenuity.​
Figures from Perth’s Past
​​Within these grounds rest the people who shaped Perth: war heroes like William Hagyard, Perth's first WWII casualty whose aircraft was shot down over the English Channel, and Lieutenant Alexander W. Kippen, killed at Batoche in 1885, whose monument features a marble statue erected by his fellow citizens. Here lie business leaders like John A. McLaren, the millionaire bachelor distiller whose will sparked one of Canada's largest legal battles, and Thomas Alfred Code, whose textile mills employed generations of Perth families for 116 years. Philanthropists John A. Stewart and Jessie Mabel Henderson Stewart rest here, their legacy living on in the Stewart Park they gifted to Perth. Mayor Robert Douglas, who arrived from Ireland as a carpenter and built a commercial empire, shares these grounds with his family.
​
Elmwood Cemetery is also home to innovators and pioneers. Dr. J.F. Kennedy brought the telephone to Perth in 1877, possibly hosting Canada's first long-distance call. Flora Madeline Shaw became an internationally recognized pioneer of nursing education. The Meighen family, who ran the prominent department store at Gore and Foster Streets, helped establish Perth's commercial heart. Judge John Glass Malloch built Victoria Hall, now part of our hospital. These stones don't just mark graves—they celebrate lives that built the Perth we know today.
​
We invite you to walk these grounds, to read the stones, and to discover the remarkable individuals who rest here. Every monument tells a story. Every name represents a life that contributed to Perth's rich heritage. This is where our history lives—in stone, in memory, and in the beautiful landscape that continues to serve our community more than 150 years after those first citizens had the vision to create it.
​
Read more stories of Elmwood on our blog: