Lisgar Heritage

Have you ever driven along one of our city's busy roads and spied a tiny cemetery hidden amidst a modern subdivision? Seemingly oddly misplaced, have you ever wondered why a graveyard was located there? Such is the case of Switzer's Cemetery ( a. Amidst the modern subdivisions of Meadowvale West lies this tiny front runner cemetery at the corner of Derry Road and Shelter Bay Road. A Eden Cemetery ). In 1823, the burgeoning pioneer crossroads added a little log schoolhouse on what was Samuel Switzer's farm. This schoolhouse also served as the local meeting place and church hall. Soon it became obvious that the little school couldn't hold the congregation, so meetings were held out of doors by torchlight.

In 1824, John Switzer sold a portion of his land to the new congregation for the founding of a church and cemetery. The congregation proceeded to build a tiny frame church solely to the rear of the surviving graveyard. The church was unofficially dubbed "Switzer's Church" as it was on John Switzer's farm and five Switzer families attended the church. The growing community was also dubbed "Switzer's Corners".

The community soon added a hotel on the southeast side of Derry Road and Winston Churchill Boulevard. This hotel, controlled by David Mason, was called "The Black Pony Tavern". The Marshall family later purchased the building and they changed the name of the pub to "The Dewdrop Inn". Samuel Alexander operated a small store on the southwest corner of the modern crossing of Winston Churchill and Derry Road. The congregation voted to officially name the new church "Eden". When the store added a post office on August 1, 1871, the community became officially named "Lisgar" in honour of Sir John Young Lisgar, the Governor General of Canada in 1869. This church was devastated by fire in 1908 and the higher portions of the church were razed. The contents were saved, moved to the close by blacksmith shop until the church may be mended and re-opened in 1910. Eden United Church was again mended and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1968. The new red brick school, S.S.

The Lisgar community also added a new college, replacing the original log schoolhouse, in 1887.

But, as with many pathfinder communities, the prominence of Lisgar shortly began to decline, and one by one, indicators of the town started to vanish. Station closed immediately thereafter, its exact location lost. The old Dewdrop Hotel burned in 1961 and wasn't replaced. The declining congregation moved to a new home and the old church was demolished in 1980. The only mementos of the trailblazer community are 2 graveyards, a new church and a modern road named Lisgar. For a number of years, the old Eden College sat empty and neglected till time and vandalism caught right up with it. Switzer's ( Eden ) Graveyard and the Kindree Family Cemetery ( where the Sixteen Mile Creek crosses Derry Road ) remain historic markers for the tiny hamlet, while the new Eden United Church, at Winston Churchill Boulevard and Battleford Road was opened in 1987 and houses one of the very oldest congregations in our area.

In an effort to stir a collective memory, we are able to glance at the names from the historic maps that picture the Lisgar area to loan a human face to this vanished town names like Cook, Corwin, Hamilton, Mason, McClure, Switzer, Waite and Weylie, amongst many others. They are the names of individuals that have stories to tell and that deserve to be remembered.

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