Saint James Cemetery in Saint-James, Manitoba

About

Get directions 525 Tylehurst Street
St James, Greater Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3G 3H5 Canada

Coordinates: 49.87982, -97.19846
www.stjamesanglicanchurch.ca/cemetery
[email protected]
+1-204-888-3489
Office Address
195 Collegiate Street
Winnipeg, Greater Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3J 1T9 Canada
Cemetery ID:
Additional information
Located across from Polo Park, with its main (pedestrian-only!) entrance south of the intersection of Tylehurst Street and Portage Avenue
The gates are always open, but there is no system of roadways for vehicles and thus visitation on the very uneven ground is by foot only.
NOTE: One of the perks of being located on the river bank is that the cemetery attracts wildlife, notably deer. The cemetery is a perfect haven for them to raise their babies safely away from traffic. ... and no, they are not 'trapped' by the fence. Adults can easily leap over it, leaving the fawns in a safe spot until they return. DO NOT FEED ANY OF THE ANIMALS!
Further: This is an old cemetery and many stones are old and weathered, constituting part of their charm, but not helpful for people trying to get information from them. Rubbings: might help, but you need permission from the cemetery manager to attempt this; you may cause more damage if you do it improperly.
The Parish does not offer perpetual care services, instead relying on family members to tend to their ancestors' markers. Sometimes there is no family left, and they do what they can, based on donations we receive to cover the material needs and worker salaries.
Also, as the ground settles and the coffin collapses over time, the stone may topple. Remember... this is a river bank ... and the property is on a bed of Manitoba "gumbo". If you are concerned about the condition of a grave marker or cemetery plot, please contact the cemetery manager via email, phone, or the "Contact Us" form on the website.

Members have Contributed

About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

Photos

36 open photo requests.

Parish of St James (the Assiniboine) Anglican Church members manage this historic place and welcome people to visit this old First Nations meeting ground.

The Hudson Bay Company granted the land to create the Parish of St. James in 1851. The Church, erected in 1853, is the oldest log church still in use for regular worship in Western Canada. The first interment took place in 1856, and this non-denominational cemetery is still in operation. A columbarium ("Come Home to St. James") was added several years ago, and ash burials also take place. NOTE: St James Cemetery, although it surrounds an Anglican church, is the cemetery for the "parish", which became the town.

(Source: St James (the Assiniboine) Anglican Church website [2023/09, Adapted])

In 1850, Rev. W. H. Taylor was instructed by the Bishop of Rupert's Land, David Anderson, to establish a church for the settlement expanding westward along the banks of the Assiniboine River. Located on high ground, this site was chosen for its association in the minds of settlers with shelter and deliverance from devastating floods. On 8 June 1853, the cornerstone of the new church was laid and by the end of the year the Red River frame building was completed. Consecrated as St. James Church on 29 May 1855, it became a focal point of settlement along the Assiniboine and gave its name to the surrounding area.

In 1998, a plaque was erected west of the church building by the Historic Sites Advisory Board of Manitoba.

(Source: Manitoba Historical Society [Adapted])

Dominion Land Survey coordinates: LSD11-36-10-02-E1

In the historic neighbourhood of St James, which has since been fully absorbed into the administrative framework of the City of Winnipeg (aka "Greater Winnipeg")

A part of the town's story and those of its inhabitants from the early days of European settlement through roughly 1967 is told in the volume "A History of St. James". A free digital version of this and many other Manitoba local history books can be found online in the University of Manitoba Digital Collections. There is also a list of such books organized by district and town name on the Manitoba Historical Society's website on their page entitled "Finding Aid: Manitoba Local History Books".

A list of burials in this cemetery is available from the Manitoba Genealogical Society (reference #0121), transcribed by a member or members in 1983. Also available to MGS members is a searchable online database named the "MGS Manitoba Name Index" (or MANI). Some additional information is contained in the 1996 MGS publication "Carved in Stone: Manitoba Cemeteries and Burial Sites" (revised edition, Special Projects Publication, 106 pages).

Additionally, many records for Anglican congregations in Manitoba and over part of the territory designated historically as "Rupert's Land" (esp, as bounded on the south by the U.S. border, extending north into the Manitoba Interlake Region past Fairford, with the western boundary reaching into the Pembina Hills and includes Portage la Prairie, eastward the diocese stretches to Sioux Lookout/Atikokan) are now with the Diocese of Rupert's Land and kept in their offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.