The cemetery was established around the 1870s, the earliest headstone we found was that of infant Lill A. Myrtle, buried here in January of 1876. To date there are only around 50 headstones here. Surrounded by a mixture of mature deciduous and coniferous trees, this is a very serene and pastoral place. Today the cemetery is maintained by the United Church, as indicated by black granite posts at the entrance.
At the front (east) end of the occupied section of Searletown Cemetery, the Leard Family plot is in the south half of the cemetery. The sole zinc headstone we found here, it has the form of a thick slab atop a wider and sloping rusticated base. At the top of the monument is an overhanging cornice under a low rounded top with a vegetation design. Round dormers with stylized spreading leaves adorn the overhang. More rustication is to be found in small amounts on the sides of the slab.
Buried at the headstone are six members of the Leard family, Captain Lewis Leard and his wife Mary Ann (Muttart), as well as four of their children, Barrett, Bessie, Isabella and William. Little Bessie died at the age of four.
CAPT. LEWIS LEARD
BORN 1832,
DIED 1911.
HIS WIFE,
MARY ANN MUTTART,
BORN 1838, DIED 1892.
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CHILDREN
OF CAPT. LEWIS
LEARD
BORN DIED
BARRETT, 1860, 1879.
BESSIE, 1875, 1879.
ISABELLA, 1871, 1894.
WILLIAM, 1867, 1892.
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