Bronte Pioneer Cemetery

Bronte Pioneer Cemetery is as much the victim of time and weather as the souls buried within it., In 1830, Philip Sovereign deeded the east corner of his farm for a cemetery after several people had already been buried there. He specified that it be for people of "all orders, sects, nations and parties.", Among the settlers some of the first black residents of Bronte are buried here. Almost a third of the headstones belong to children; others to mariners., Sometimes, but not always, sailors survived the lake hazards. Lake Ontario claimed three young men who are buried here, near the west corner. Jimmy Baker was first mate on the schooner Magellan when she collided with the U. L. Hurd in 1877. Jimmy's was the only body found. The Dorland brothers were fishermen lost east of Bronte in the great gale and snowstorm of December 1886. Both left young families., The Lake Ontario gales that took the lives of Bronte mariners also claimed the bones of some of the survivors and their families. Over the years about 70 feet of cemetery and 100 feet of road allowance have gone into the lake, taking a few graves with it.