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The Blyth Union Cemetery was created in 1881. The cemetery site was
bought from John Newcome on County Road 25 between Blyth and Londesboro.
John Newcome was buried in the cemetery in 1883, two years after it
opened. When Union Cemetery opened, the old burial grounds (west end of
North Street in Blyth) were abandoned and later made into a
Horticultural Park. Some of the older tombstones were moved to the Union
Cemetery while others from the former burial grounds remained. The old
gravestones were relocated to Sections B & C of the cemetery. The
pillars at the cemetery's front gate were built in 1888 by Mr. Frost
from Seaforth. The cemetery is also home to one of the largest monuments
in Huron County. It was erected by Dr. Sloan in memory of his two sons
who died within a month of each other in 1886/87. It is over 12 feet
square and 23 feet high. The monument was built in 1887 but also
memorializes other family members including Dr. Sloan who passed away in
1921. The graveyard also has a mausoleum that was built in 1957 in
memory of T.J. Poulton and his mother, father and sister. The earliest
tombstones in the cemetery date to 1861 (John S. Millen) and 1862 (Jas.
Cloakey).
The records for the Blyth Union Cemetery are kept at the Township of
North Huron Town Hall in Wingham. The Huron County branch of the Ontario
Genealogical Society indexed the cemetery tombstones and those indexes
can be found at the North Huron Museum in Wingham and the Huron County
Museum in Goderich. The Township of North Huron took over care of the
cemetery after amalgamation in 2001. Prior to that, the cemetery was
managed by a cemetery board with representatives from Blyth, East
Wawanosh and Hullett Townships. Past caretakers included Graham Jackson
and Carl Longman.
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