The Herb Lake Graveyard - Draft

Headstones on the Graves

The Community of Herb Lake Landing MB will dedicate a plaque on June 1, 2013 in memory of the pioneers who are buried in the abandoned graveyard at Herb Lake Manitoba Canada. It is our hope that the community Gathering Place with the cairn honoring this graveyard will be used by people who wish to gather and remember their loved ones and honor the pioneers of the area.

The cost of the plaque for the cairn has been donated by Hemauer Funeral Home at the Pas, with financial assistance from the Heritage Program.

We plan to print a small booklet for the June 1st ceremony listing the names of people buried in the graveyard. The list of burials has been compiled from records of the Anglican and Catholic churches and from old timers who recall the burials, but there may be other names that have been forgotten.

The following is the list of the burials. We would like to know more about the lives of these people and welcome your comments. If you have information on this graveyard we would appreciate hearing from you. We have a facebook page at herblake100 or you may contact us at butlerg30 at hotmail dot com Please put "graveyard" in the subject line. If photographs are available of these persons we would be happy to include them. This is a work in progress, and we will update it as we learn new information.

BURIALS AT HERB LAKE GRAVEYARD:

Joe Carriere, died 1946
He was the son of Roger and Sarah Carriere, He was 17 when he died (must have been born approx 1929). He hauled freight with horses from Herb Lake to Skunk Hollow near Snow Lake. He froze his lungs on one of the trips and was hospitalized but later died.
Gus Olson remembers attending a funeral where all the pall bearers were dressed in their uniforms at the service, but he is not sure if it was Joe Carriere's funeral. (Pallbears probably included Alf and Bobby Roberts and Eric Stoltz.)

Roger Carriere, died April 20, 1955
He was a trapper. He is the grandfather of Millie McLaughlin and Connie Patten of Snow Lake. Vicki McShannock recalls attending his funeral in the Catholic Church.
Gladys Sigvardson (Carriere) said in the 1990s that her parents and a brother were buried at Herb Lake and that Pete Durand made the crosses.

Sarah Carriere
She was the wife of Roger Carriere

Norma Carriere died Feb 17, 1936
She was the infant daughter of Roger and Sarah Carriere

Maryleen Bartlett, born 1938, died July 22, 1945
Bartletts had a store near the lakeshore and Maryleen, 7, liked to sit on the town dock. She drowned near the dock and it is believed that she fell into the water early in the morning and for an unknown reason was not able to surface. Mel Linn rememebers the search for her. Later, he recalls his mother taking him to attend the viewing of the body, where she was laid out on a couch in the living room wearing a pink dress. Margaret Spencer also recalls her mother taking her to view the body.

Sam Cluclatch
He lived with Mrs.Allard.

Norman Stoltz, born 1935 and died Jan 5, 1940.
He was the 5 year old son of Louie and Hilda Stoltz.

Cliff Olson
Cliff was in the army, then mined for 20 years. He was Gus Olson's brother and a half brother to Ernastene (George Bartlett wife).

Mabel Ballard, died June 26, 1944
She was married to Marsh Ballard and had a son Lincoln who attended school at Herb Lake.

Allen Eugene Bartlett, died August 12, 1955
He was Buddy and Claire Bartlett's (ne Cote`s) infant son.
The baby became ill at Herb Lake and as there was no doctor in the community, Claire and the baby were taken across the lake in rough water by Jim Corman, Tommy Roberts and Melvin Smith to the Snow Lake Hospital. Jim recalls that conditions on the lake were so bad that he did not expect any of them to survive the crossing. Despite their heroic efforts the baby died.

Telephore Cote
He was Wilferd Cote`s brother and Margaret Spencer's uncle. He fished in the winter and mended nets during the summer. He operated the big barge hauling large trucks and equipment from the South End (now Herb Lake Landing) to Anderson Bay for the Howe Sound mine at Snow Lake before the road was constructed to Snow Lake. He lived in a log cabin at Herb Lake Landing.
(pictures available of the barge and of his cabin.)

Isabelle Geisz, born 1888 died July 22, 1946 (check date: d.1940)
Her daughter Claire married Fred Bridgeman and had sons Stewart and Wesley. Stewart Bridgeman is a long-time resident of this area. Mrs. Geiz death and funeral is commented on later in this booklet.

Mertha Folster, died Jan 26, 1940
Folsters at Herb Lake Landing owned a lodge later purchased by Bill and Mary Hale. It is likely Mertha was a member of that family.

Lillian Skulmoski
She died when an infant. Her sister Frances (b. 1919) of Cormorant MB attended school in Herb Lake and remembers when her baby sister died.

Anthony Skulmoski, died July 2, 1940
Anthony was swimming with his brother Walter when he drowned. Walter lives in Wobowden MB. Anthony had sisters Lillian and Francis.

Pte Harry Roberts
He was in the 1st World War. After the war he was a bookkeeper. The Roberts home was on a point close to the town dock.
(photo available as he is in a family group photo.)

Charlie Staback
George Allard in notes, said that when he was trapping with Louie Stoltz, there had been a bad storm. It snowed for three days and nights and when it subsided there was 2-1/2 feet of snow on the ground. Possibly due to this storm, two of their friends, Charley Stayback and Fred Miller drowned on Wekusko Lake on October 27, 1930. When Allard and Stoltz learned of this news they returned to Herb Lake. (Charley Stayback is probably a misspelling of Charlie Staback).

Lionel and Jenny Thevierge
Lionel enlisted in the 2nd World War and was sent overseas.  He was wounded and was sent to the Deere Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg where Jenny Cann worked as a custodian.  They were married and after his discharge from the hospital he worked at a golf course in Winnipeg for a short time.  He then re-enlisted and was posted to Fort Churchill in the Provost Corps Unit (Army Police).  Ruth, their first child, was born in Churchill.

Jenny Cann grew up in Herb Lake. She attended school in Herb Lake and then later in The Pas. Her parents owned a sawmill on Wekusko Lake, purchased in the 1930s.  The mill was located 6 miles south of Herb Lake, later called Cann’s Point, and it provided lumber for Herb Lake and for the Rex, Laguna and Bingo Mines. The steam boiler from this old mill is now at the Snow Lake Mining Museum.

Lionel left the Army and the family moved to Herb Lake in 1955. Their son George was born in Snow Lake MB. The sawmill at Cann’s Point had not been in operation for a number of years and the family, together with Gordon Cann, Jenny’s brother, decided to open a tourist lodge at Cann’s Point.

Lionel and a Heinz boy were in a canoe, making their way from the South End to Herb Lake, and following along the shore line to Dolton’s Point, when they capsized.  The lake was very rough and it is possible that they hit a reef.  Both men drowned. Lionel’s body was recovered and he was buried at Herb Lake.  It is not known if the Heinz boy’s body was ever recovered.

After Lionel’s death, Jenny continued to live at Herb Lake with her children. Her mother was the postmistress in the community.  Jenny enjoyed crafts and made jewellery.  She was also an avid photographer and left a collection of pictures of Cann’s Point and Herb Lake which provides an insight into the lives of the people of this early community.  When the children grew older, and the town faded, Jenny moved to Winnipeg.  Jenny’s ashes are buried beside her husband’s grave in the Herb Lake Graveyard.

LIST TO BE CONTINUED

Other Unmarked Graves at Herb Lake
by Peter Dunlop

There are two unmarked graves about 100 feet south of Milty Robert’s old cabin and about 30 feet from the lakeshore. I first became aware of them more than twenty-five years ago when I was prospecting and saw part of a white picket fence lying on the shoreline. These white fences were commonly used to enclose graves. These graves were maintained in good order for many years by Herb Lake people.

Shortly before Milty Robert’s passing, I had the privilege of taking him back to Herb Town by boat, which turned out to be his last trip across. When I was in Milty’s yard with a friend, Milty casually pointed out an area in front to my friend and said that there were two graves there, but he did not know whose graves they were. Up until that year, Milty had kept the grass cut, including the area over the graves but the grass at that time was too long to make out the graves. The next spring when the grass was still low, I was again in the area and I clearly saw the outline of the two graves. Since that time the grass has grown very high, but if it were cut, the graves could probably be re-located. I made some enquires, and I understand that Ann Corman (Ron Corman’s mother), said that the graves were those of Indian people passing through.

Isacc McKay's Grave

Isaac McKay, who died in 1919, is buried near the Rex Mine site and the old school yard.
(info from Jim Corman and Dennis Stoltz)

John Beardy's Grave
His grave is between the school and the old cynide dump.
(info from Dennis Stoltz)

Deadman's Island
from Peter Dunlop:
There is a grave supposedly on Deadman’s Island. (Quite) a few years ago I was on that island shortly after some canoe tourists who had camped there departed. They had started a fire which wasn’t properly put out which consumed most of the underbrush and burnables. When I got there it was still smoking. There is a typical prospectors type rock trench on the island but I didn’t see any sign of a grave. Because it is mostly rock it struck me as a difficult place for a gravesite. Does anyone have info on a gravesite, or how the island was named?

When you are deciding what to leave the next generation, try to be more creative than debt. - unknown