To experience the Tour fully, run your mouse over the numbers as you go from one, to two, and so on, to the end, revealing the associated text at each stop. A full version of the text is available at the bottom of the page.
1. Lot 1061 – Juniper Path – Robert Foulis (1796-1866) was born in Scotland. He worked as a portrait painter and an engineer in Halifax and Saint John. He established the Saint John iron foundry, did river, bridge and road surveys, and worked on early St. John river boats. He established a School of Arts, the precursor to the Saint John Mechanics Institute. He is best known for his invention of the world’s first coded steam fog alarm, installed on Partridge Island in 1859. Foulis’ invention was not patented and he received no compensation of what was the world’s most significant marine safety device until the invention of radar, over 75 years later. In 1926 the St. Andrew’s Society of Saint John erected this marker on his grave. His invention of the fog alarm was designated to be of National Historic Significance by the Historic Sites & Monuments Board of Canada.
2. STATUES – Several of the many in the Cemetery are featured here:
A. Lot 3588 – Catalpa Path – BARTON Lot – This statue is of a woman with long hair and a flowing robe. It is 1.7 metres tall and is cut from white marble. It stands on a textured marble base on which the family’s inscriptions are placed. The owners were William I. Barton, an engineer, and J. Herbert Barton, a dentist.
B. Lot 3311 – Willow Avenue – McKELVEY Lot – This statue is of an angel and stands 1.7 metres tall. It is cut from white marble and sits on a western granite base upon which the family’s inscriptions are placed. The McKelvey’s were prominent Saint John harbour pilots.
C. Lot 3468 – Central Avenue – MaCRAE Lot – This statue of a woman shows her right hand pointing towards heaven and her left hand holding a cross intertwined with flowers. It is 1.5 metres tall and stands on an elaborately decorated white marble base. The lettering on this statue, as well as a second white marble monument in this lot, is done in lead. This is a rare form of lettering. Alexander W. MaCrae was a barrister.
D. Lot 2502 – Garden Avenue – PORTER Lot – The statue is unique in the cemetery in that it is made of white metal. It shows a person holding an anchor. It stands 1.2 metres tall and sits on a base with raised lettering Our Love is in Christ. Below this base sits an intricately designed pedestal 1.7 metre high. These three elements sit atop a base with panels for the family’s inscriptions. It is also decorated with angels, an anchor and a woman grieving at a cross. The lot owner was John E. Porter, a steam boat captain.
3. Lot 1229 – Hazel Path – Thomas McAvity (1810-1887) was born in Saint John and served as Mayor from 1859-1863. He was the founder of T. McAvity & Sons, a hardware and brass foundry business. One of their best known products, found in many communities throughout Canada, is the fire hydrant, with the name McAvity molded in the casting.
4. Lot 3025 Cherry Path – George Frederick Phillips was born at Coles Island, N. B. and died at Cambridgeport, Mass. on June 4, 1904. He served as an engineer on the USS Merrimac which sank in Santiago de Cuba harbour on June 2, 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Engineer Phillips was one of very few Canadians to receive the United States Congressional Medal of Honour. At a grave side ceremony in 1989, a member of the Medal of Honour Society described Phillips as having displayed extraordinary heroism throughout this operation.
5. CHAPEL/COLUMBARIUM/CREMATORIUM
The Chapel was built in 1911, designed by prominent architect G. Ernest Fairweather, who is buried near the pavilion. The Crematorium was added in 1939. Ours was the first crematorium in the Maritime Provinces and also served the northeast United States for many years. In 1995 the Chapel was refurbished with the addition of a Columbarium. The Chapel is open to the public Monday to Friday during regular business hours. To the left of the Chapel is our second Columbarium. On the right of the chapel, on the Rothesay Avenue side, is the Gilbert Lot.
6. Lot 2 – GILBERT Lot – This lot is on Prospect Point, part of the original land acquired for the cemetery from Henry Gilbert. He retained this ground for use by any of his descendants. It is a circular lot with a monument in the centre inscribed with the family name. There are three circles of graves within the lot with a perimeter roadway. Flat grave markers indicate family burials. A trust still administered by the family continues to provide for the upkeep and care of the Gilbert lot.
7. Lot 10 – Spruce Avenue – CAMPBELL – Georgianna Campbell (1831-1848) was the first person buried in Fernhill on March 8, 1848. She was the niece of one of the founders of the cemetery.
8. Lot 698 – Snowdrop Path – John A. Munroe was a well known and promising architect who was executed on Feb. 15, 1870 for the murder of his mistress and their child. A married man, he took up with Maggie Vail, and they had a child, Emma Mae. With his child less than a year old, he murdered them at the Black River Road in East Saint John. Their remains were discovered a year later, in 1869. Although some pleaded with the Federal Cabinet with a petition to save him, the death sentence was carried out. He is buried in the same lot as his father John J.
9. Lot 1919 – Iris Path – NELSON Lot – John Frederick Young died at age 19 on Oct. 13, 1890. A monument was erected in King’s Square to recognize his heroism in giving his life in attempting to rescue Frederick E. Mundee from drowning in Courtenay Bay. Young was raised by Helen A. Nelson who is also buried in this lot. Her brother, Edwin G. Nelson, also buried here, was a book seller and the composer of Canada’s first unofficial national anthem, My Own Canadian Home.
10. The REST HOUSE or PAVILLION – Central Avenue – The pavilion, or rest house, was built in 1898, and restored in 1991. The street car line was extended to the cemetery in 1914 and on weekends many families came to Fernhill. They tended to the family graves, had lunch at the rest house, and returned home on the afternoon streetcar.
11. The RUEL Fountain – This ornate fountain was donated to Fernhill in 1895 by James R. Ruel, President of the Board of Directors. The fountain is made of cast iron with a central figure of a woman and goats heads around the outside. Water flowed from the goat’s mouths into the large circular ground level section.
12. Lots 3893 and 5931 – The Field of Honour – The first burial took place in this hallowed ground on May 4, 1916. Veterans from both World Wars and the Korean War are interred here. The impressive monument at the rear of the Field of Honour was dedicated by the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire in 1915. Within this Field of Honour are also memorial stones, dedicated to those men and women with no known grave.
13. Lot 2397 – Mimosa Path – Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley (1818-1896), Father of Confederation, was born at Gagetown, N.B. He worked as a druggist in Saint John before entering politics. He was a member of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly before entering federal politics. In Sir John A. MacDonald’s first government, Tilley served as Minister of Customs (1867-1873). He was Lieutenant Governor of the province from 1873 until 1878 and for a second period from 1885 until 1893. He again served in MacDonald’s cabinet as Minister of Finance (1878-1885). There is a Historic Sites & Monuments Board of Canada plaque at his grave.
14. Lot 1691 – Linden Avenue – The Honourable William Henry Steeves (1814-1873), Father of Confederation, was born in Hillsborough, N.B. and was a prominent local merchant with a large lumber export business. He served in the New Brunswick Legislature from 1854 to 1867 when he was called to the Senate to be one of the original twelve Senators from the province. He served in the Senate until his death. There is a Historic Sites & Monuments Board of Canada plaque at his grave.
15. Lot 3608 – Central Avenue – The Turnbull Lot – Dr. W. Rupert Turnbull (1870-1954) was born in Saint John. He was an aeronautical engineer who, in 1902, built the first wind tunnel in Canada at his private laboratory in Rothesay. He collaborated with other inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell and J.H. Parkin. His most significant invention was that of the electric variable-pitch propellor, which was tested in flight in 1927. This propellor made it possible for aircraft to carry heavy loads. His prototype propellor is on display in the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. The local airport carries the name Turnbull Field in his honour.
16. Lot 1186 – Central Avenue – WIGGINS Vault – The Wiggins Vault was built in 1867, designed by the same architect who laid out the cemetery, Matthew Stead. There are two other vaults in Fernhill, the Appleby and Reynolds vaults. The Wiggins vault is the largest and most elaborate of the three. There have only been four entombments in the vault. The Wiggins family were prominent 19th century merchants.
17. CHURCH OF ENGLAND SECTION – Shortly after Fernhill opened, sixteen acres of land encompassed by Hill Avenue was set aside for the Church of England. On Oct. 23, 1849, The Right Reverend The Lord Bishop of Fredericton, Bishop Medley, consecrated the ground. Only members of the Church of England congregations were buried in this area.
18. JEWISH CEMETERY – In 1873 Fernhill sold some of the lots in the southeast corner of the cemetery to members of Saint John’s Jewish community. One large section was set aside as the Green-Hart cemetery, only for members of those families. The rest of the Jewish cemetery is owned by the congregation Shaarei Zedek. There is a small stone chapel in this cemetery, erected in memory of the mothers of Hollywood producer Jack Cummings, his brother Nathan, founder of Sara Lee Foods, and MGM founder Louis B. Mayer.
19. Lot 24 – Ocean and Ridge Avenues – Marine Lot – The Marine Lot was purchased by the Commissioners of the Marine Hospital on July 3, 1848. Mariners who died of illness or accident aboard vessel enroute to, or in Saint John harbour, were buried here. The first burial was on May 9, 1848. There have been 444 burials here, although there are only a dozen markers. The anchor was a gift from the Officers and Crew of the SS Coalby. The two 32 pounder naval guns have decorated the Marine Lot for over 100 years.