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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Emma’s body was not recovered but George’s remains are interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. 76 Torontonians died in the Lusitania disaster. #todayinhistory #onthisday

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

George and Emma Copping died in the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania on 7 May 1915. George owned the Reliance Knitting Company and frequently traveled to Britain for business. Few lifeboats were lowered and George and Emma had to jump into the icy waters...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

The Timothy Eaton Company 1904 Spring & Summer catalogue: Our Motto: The Greatest Good to the Greatest Number (courtesy Toronto Public Library)

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

James French (1816-1892) owned the Royal Lyceum Theatre which burned in 1874 and the Royal Opera House which burned in 1883. The theatres stood on the site of today's TD Centre. James is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in this Classical Revival style vault by F.B. Gullett & Sons. Photo 2013.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

When I take a break from writing about Toronto history, I write about Affinity. Now available: The Expert Guide to Affinity by Canva 3.0 - learn how to create books, magazines, newspapers, reports and more. Download the PDF free! mikeloader.ca/2025/12/21/e...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Today is the 149th anniversary of the opening of Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. Postcard c.1903 by Galbraith Photo Co., courtesy Toronto Public Library. #MountPleasantCemetery

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

... and 30 other soldiers were badly injured. The two soldiers were buried together in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Photo from the Toronto Daily Star. #OnThisDay #ThisDayInHistory [2/2]

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

On this day in 1912, 700 members of the 48th Highlanders were returning to Toronto from a training exercise in Milton when their CPR train slammed into a Detroit Flyer passenger train pulling out of the Streetsville Junction. Privates Mac Murdock and John Bannatyne were killed instantly... [1/2]

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

While locating the unmarked grave of Reason Williams in the Toronto Necropolis, we found this antique cap gun, likely lost by Cabbagetown children playing Cops and Robbers between the headstones many years ago. We left it where we found it for somebody else to discover someday.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

...to Oakville in 1965. Thomas Fullerton Just bought it in 1970 but his second wife buried him in California. Baillie was a successful bond dealer and steal magnate who built shell casings and airplanes during WWI. He refused a salary, donated his profits, and was knighted.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Mausoleum Row in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the 1920s before the trees grew. The tall one, third from the left, is the Baillie/Just mausoleum. Neither the man it was built for or the man who bought it are interred in it. It was built for Frank Wilton Baillie who died in 1921 but he was reinterred...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

...reinterred with their markers to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. Mount Pleasant kindly uncovered John’s marker for the Ontario Genealogical Society Toronto Branch in 2024 so we could check if it was still legible, but sadly it had completely deteriorated.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

John Wesley immigrated from England to the Town of York (Toronto) where he took over the Neptune Inn on New Street, now known as Jarvis. His wife Elizabeth died during childbirth at age 36 and he died five years later at age 33 from typhus fever. They were buried in Toronto’s Potter’s Field and...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

The Mausoleum and Crematorium in Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery was designed by Darling & Pearson and its main chapel is named for Thomas Carfrae who led the creation of Potter’s Field in 1826. It is home to 17 stunning stained glass windows. #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

The building was designed by Darling & Pearson with York & Sawyer and was completed in 1931. It was the tallest building in the British Empire until 1962.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

The Canadian Bank of Commerce building at 25 King Street West in Toronto has a 32nd-floor observation deck which is closed to the public so this is an uncommon view. Each side features four 24-foot heads for Courage, Observation, Foresight, and Enterprise. Photo ©2016 by Michael Leland.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

...and her marker and remains were moved to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. The inscription implies she was a housekeeper but the name of her employer is unknown.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The inscription on Eliza Crawford’s marker reads “This small tribute of respect was erected by her master in testimony of her worth”. Eliza was born in Hull, England and died in Toronto of liver disease at age 32. She was buried in Potter’s Field...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Walter was shot to death in 1902 by a pop bottler in a dispute over the amount owed for returned bottles. The white shooter was acquitted of his murder.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

...Reason moved to a farm in Grantham (St. Catharines). After the American Civil War, Reason and Rebecca’s sons Walter and Moses moved to the United States to take part in Reconstruction and taught in Freedmen’s Bureau schoolhouses in Louisiana...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Reason and Rebecca Williams’ daughter Henrietta didn’t survive the day and they buried her in Toronto’s Potter’s Field in 1836. Her marker and remains were moved to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. Reason was an African American blacksmith who’d come to Toronto from New Jersey in 1825. About 1852...

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Jane is buried in Niagara Falls with her husband. The pond was drained in 1936. Illustration 1890.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

On July 24, 1892, Jane Lowrie Doran became the first person to die on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. She was being treated in the nearby Deer Park Sanatorium on Heath Street when she left the building while it was still dark, crossed into the cemetery, and drowned in the pond.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

His wives and children were reinterred in 1875 to Mount Pleasant Cemetery when Potter’s Field was closed and the marker for his daughter Mary, who died at 16 from Hysteric Passion, has been preserved.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

In Toronto, John operated a provision store and later the Scottish Arms Inn and a confectionary. He buried his two wives and three children in Potter’s Field. He died in 1864 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Toronto Necropolis.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

John Bannerman was born c.1786 in Kildonan in the Scottish Highlands. He served in the Army and was wounded in the Battle of Toulouse in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. He was discharged in 1815, married, and immigrated to Toronto a few years later.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

The accident is referred to as the Woodbridge crash because in 1970 the location was closer to Woodbridge, and Brampton hadn’t grown to encompass the crash site.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

The captain was one of Canada’s most experienced pilots, Peter Hamilton, who had flown bombing raids over Germany during WW2. He had been shot down in 1944 and held as a POW. About half of those on board are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

On this day in 1970, all 109 people on board Air Canada flight 621 from Montreal to Toronto died when it crashed in a field in what is now Brampton. The Douglas Super DC-8 was half full because it was to to pick up passengers in Toronto before continuing to Los Angeles. #onthisday #thisdayinhistory

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Alexander Rogers mausoleum stained glass window depicting Jesus helping Peter while walking on water in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:31) Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

He declined a Senate appointment and Knighthood, died in 1918, and is buried in the Necropolis. Photo 1933, courtesy Toronto Public Library.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Ross is remembered as the editor of The Globe and founder of the Toronto Evening Telegram and for being taken prisoner by Louis Riel, serving as a member of parliament, publishing the Landmarks of Toronto books, and supporting the Hospital for Sick Children.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

John Ross Robertson donated the large Freemasons lot in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The monument was dedicated in front of 2,600 onlookers on June 24, 1893, the feast of St. John the Baptist who is important in the Masonic Rite. #todayinhistory #onthisday

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Finn had fought the Germans in 1940 in Norway where he and his brother had stolen a German floatplane while its pilots went ashore. The Sam McBride was almost new at the time of the accident and still ferries passengers today to the Toronto Islands. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Today in 1941, instructor Finn Kjos and student Tron Harsvik took off from Toronto harbour in a Northrop N-3PB Nomad floatplane like this one and clipped the rigging of the ferry Sam McBride, killing the Norwegian military pilots. #todayinhistory

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

This circle between plots F and G was filled in sometime between 1993 and 1998

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

The circle’s paths have been filled and the trees have grown but this 1891 photo helps us imagine how impressive it would have appeared to early visitors. Photo from the Toronto General Burying Grounds Historical Sketch and Rules and Regulations, 1891.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

William Fitch died in 1885 at the Battle of Batôche and his funeral procession was a mile long. His monument by F.B. Gullett & Sons includes a life-sized bronze bust and was at the centre of a circle in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

1913 ad for the Strath Gowan development on property south of Lawrence Park owned at one time by Jesse Ketchum and last farmed by Nicholas Garland, with a 1911 photo. Ad from The Globe, 17 Apr 1913, and photo courtesy Toronto Public Library.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

In 1849 at age 20, Harvey Prentice Dwight became Toronto's only telegraph operator. He rose to president of the Great North Western Telegraph Company and connected Canada with tens of thousands of miles of wire. Harvey was the father of Canadian telegraphy and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

The Mausoleum and Crematorium in Mount Pleasant Cemetery opened in 1920 and is home to 17 stunning stained glass windows, as well as the final resting place of WWI flying ace Billy Barker and Titanic survivor Mary Fortune. #stainedglass #stainedglasswindow

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

I bought this postcard to scan for a forthcoming book and you're welcome to use my scan for any purpose. I will donate the postcard to the Toronto Reference Library when I'm done.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

The leaf-covered Pergola & Art Room for the comfort of female shoppers at the W.A. Murray & Company store (17-31 King Street East), postcard 1906.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

James was released a year later but the Canadian government didn’t apologize for the internment of over 600 Italians until 2021. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. #onthisday #onthisdayinhistory Photo 1930 from City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 20662

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

On this day in 1940, James Franceschini was arrested and interned as a threat to Canada because he’d been born in Italy. He had arrived in Toronto as a penniless teenager, worked in construction, and became Canada’s largest road contractor.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Inscription: SACRED to the memory of AMELIA Wife of Miles Wilkinson who departed this life April 3rd, 1847, Aged 40 years. Affliction sore long time I bore, Physicians were in vain. Till God was pleased to give me ease, And free me from my pain.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Amelia Wilkinson was born in England and married to a saddler named Miles. She died in Toronto in 1847 at age 40 and was buried in Toronto's Potter’s Field. Her remains and marker were moved to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1875. The cemetery does a great job of maintaining this rare intact slab.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Photo of Number 5 Company, the Merchant Rifles, made up of shopkeepers and clerks, courtesy QOR Museum. #onthisday #onthisdayinhistory

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

On this day in 1866, Fenian invaders from the United States fought Canadian defenders at the Battle of Ridgeway near Fort Erie. Nine soldiers from the Queen’s Own Rifles of Toronto were killed in action or died of wounds, and 21 others were wounded.

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Mike Loader @mikeloader.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

He once said “I don’t want an up-and-down tombstone. They can lay me away with a smile on my face if they will put mine flat on the ground—a ribbon stretching for 4,000 miles.” Perry might have a regular tombstone in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, but he also got his ribbon.

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