Object Record
Images
Additional Images [5]
Metadata
Object ID # |
2018.006.001 |
Object Name |
Headstone |
Title |
Remnant of One of Nahneebahweequay's Headstones |
Date |
1865? |
Year Range from |
1865 |
Year Range to |
1870 |
Made |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Sarawak Township (formerly), Township of Georgian Bluffs, Grey County |
Description |
The top half of a broken-off white marble headstone (gravestone) that was used at the burial site of Catharine B. Sutton (Nahneebahweequay). The carved lettering has "CATHARINE SUTTON / NAHNEEBAHWEEQUA / Born October 1823 / ...Sept. 1865." The top edge is slightly curved and the break extends downward on the right further than the left. The lower part had Nahnee's last words carved: "Exclaiming in her Language / Jesus I Want to love thee better." |
Provenance |
Used at the burial site of Catharine B. Sutton (Nahneebahweequay). She died in the evening of September 26, 1865, and was buried in Sarawak Township, Grey County. At that time, their log dwelling and farm was at Lot 33, Concession 3. It is unknown what happened to the bottom half. The stone was replaced with a replica (which also was broken eventually). A neighbour, Charles Julyan, who attended her funeral in 1865, later stated in an 1871 letter that she was buried in her garden, which she had requested before her passing. Nahneebahweequay's English friends, Christine and Robert Alsop, helped send money for Mrs. Sutton's missionary work and knew that she was ill and might pass away soon. Perhaps some of this money went towards providing a gravestone for her? William Sutton died in 1894. The eldest daughter, Catherine, lived there c. 1901, but eventually the farm was sold. The private cemetery was in the midst of a cow pasture for many years. Circa 1938, the land belonged to William Saunders, and the headstone was laying on the ground in two pieces. He gave permission to have the burial plot was enclosed with an ornamental metal rail by the Kemble W. I. and Earl Grey I.O.D.E. c. 1938. The I.O.D.E. group, according to a newspaper article, "had the stone cut down and placed up-right again." At an unknown date, the broken stone was collected and a replica stone was put in its place. The remnant was displayed at the County of Grey-Owen Sound Museum from 19__-2003, and then moved to the Grey Roots Museum & Archives site in May, 2004. |
Collection |
Funeral & Undertaking Collection |
Material |
Stone/Marble |
Dimensions |
W-20.276 L-17.52 D-1.969 inches |
Found |
Sarawak Township (formerly), Township of Georgian Bluffs, Grey County |
People |
Sutton, William Sutton, Catharine Sutton, Albert Julyan, Charles Alsop, Christine Majolier Saunders, William |
Subjects |
Death & burial Funerary Object Graves First Nations of Central Canada Marble Grief |
Search Terms |
Sarawak Township Cobble Beach Golf Course Ojibwa (Anishnaabe, Anishnibeg) |
Function |
Used to mark a human grave / burial site. |