ABOYNE – The Wellington County Museum and Archives is unveiling new digital content this Remembrance Day.
To complement the Wellington County Remembers: Commemorating Our Fallen database which was launched a few years ago, the museum and archives is now launching Wellington Remembers: Our Cenotaphs Unveiled.
“We’ve had people asking us a little bit about what’s the history of the cenotaph?” said archivist Karen Wagner. “When were they built? Why were they built? And who built them?
“So, while sort of doing the research on the soldiers we did come across a little bit of that information and we finally had a chance now to put it all together in this virtual exhibit.”
Wagner said archivist assistant Lisa Harrison took a deep dive in the 13 Wellington County cenotaphs, looking at the archive’s resources.
“She looked at everything from council minutes to programs when they were unveiled to newspapers to photographs of the unveilings,” Wagner said.
Wellington County cenotaphs were built between 1919 and 1956 and each has its own story.
“It was sort of after the First World War that local councils and the public wanted to commemorate the courageous men and women who obviously paid the supreme sacrifice during the First World War,” Wagner said.
The first cenotaph to be built was in Eramosa Township. It still stands today in Rockwood and was a joint initiative between the community and town council.
In Arthur it was initiated by the Arthur Enterprise’s editor of the day and in Drayton it was the Women’s Institutes of Ontario that pushed for a cenotaph.
Sometimes the funds were publicly raised and other times it came out of the taxes, Wagner explained.
In addition to the online database, the Wellington County planning department is using its GIS mapping system to make a story map showing where each cenotaph is located in the county.
“So it incorporates some text, as well as photographs and the public will be able to zero in on exactly where the cenotaph is located in each municipality,” Wagner said.
While the information is not yet accessible by the public, Wagner said there would be a link up by Nov. 11 at https://www.wellington.ca/en/museum-and-archives.aspx to access the new database.
Newspapers
In addition, the archives is also adding more Second World War newspapers to its online collection.
“They’re fully text searchable so that people can search for their relatives that lived in the various municipalities during that time,” said Wagner. “You can be researching the Shand Dam, which was built during the Second World War. We have a lot of interesting stories.”
For more information visit https://www.wellington.ca/en/museum-and-archives.aspx and click on the “Collection and research” tab.
