Reston Cemetery

The Boulton pioneers have a large memorial stone at the east side of the Reston Cemetery, right inside the gate.  The receipt below shows they paid $5 for a "Lot in Plot" on October 30, 1897.

The Trails Along the Pipestone history book written in 1981 is available online at Manitobia  and says cemetery leases were drawn September 14, 1897 on a plot of land at NE 16-7-27.  It does say early burial records were lost in a fire to the butcher shop, perhaps the one where much of the east side of Main Street burned in Reston in 1916.

Benjamin died suddenly at age 59 from a ruptured appendix on January 13, 1895.  I wonder if he would have been buried at the farm and then reburied when the cemetery was established and the receipt above was issued to his son Thomas.

Benjamin's wife Ann and his sons Anthony and Herb as well as Herb's wife Margaret are named on the stone.  The side is engraved with the name of one of Thomas and Elsie's twins, Emily Patience, who died at 2 years old in 1918.

My Brother-in-law Richard remembers hearing his Dad and Uncle Frank talking about the even larger top this stone used to have with arches and angels but when repairs had to be made, it was simplified.

Thomas and Elsie have a plot and stone further west.
  

The history books says the cemetery had times when it was left wild and not kept up but it is now a beautiful spot.  The spruce trees that surround it were brought from Riding Mountain in 1932-33 and planted by volunteers.