On August 5th, 1822, Andrew Scott received a grant of land where the village of Churchville would eventually stand, from the Bridge to Steeles Avenue and east & west from the river to the CPR railway tracks. Of all the members of the Beatty Caravan of settlers, Scott may have fared the best in the random draw for unsettled lands. There was excellent water access in the lowlands, including a natural mill race, and the lands along the top of the valley were covered in ancient White Pine forests. Scott's ownership was short-lived, however, as three months later he sold it to John Beatty (leader of the Beatty Caravan, founder of Meadowvale and future founder of Victoria University). At some point while Beatty held the lands, Amaziah Church built a saw mill and grist mill on the lot. Beatty sold the 100-acre lot to Amaziah's family members, Dr. Thomas Stoyell and Rhoda Church Matthews-Stoyell in February of 1831. More than anyone, the Stoyells were responsible for creating the community of Churchville that we know today. They built their home, Whitehall, at the top of Raine's Hill and subdivided the lands down in the village along Churchville Road.
       
      Rhoda Church Matthews-Stoyell was younger sister to Amaziah Church who, it is believed, had set up a rudimentary saw mill on this section of the Credit prior to the New Survey in 1819. While the veracity of this has been debated for many years, it is a fact that Amaziah's son Orange began leasing land south west of the village in 1820 and that Amaziah and Rhoda's two sisters, Polly and Orpha, both settled in nearby Streetsville in the 1820s.     

     Settlers in Upper Canada often created small, private family burial sites in corners of their properties, and it is likely that there are still undiscovered graves located around Churchville. With the village's population beginning to boom in the 1820s, an organized cemetery was required to serve the needs of both Churchville and neighboring Meadowvale. It needed to be on high ground to avoid the constant flooding that the village faced, and it needed to be far from any wells or sources of consumed ground water. The Stoyells willed a portion of their property, situated right near the northern border of Toronto Township, to be a non-denominational public burial ground. The first recorded burial in the cemetery was Amaziah Church, in 1831, though there may be older, unmarked graves on the grounds.

      It is unclear how the cemetery was initially administered in its first decade. Records seem to indicate that only 12 people (including three children) were buried there between 1831 and 1836. One of those individuals was Dr. Thomas Stoyell, who is the oldest person buried in the cemetery, being born in 1760 and dying in 1832. Burials ceased completely in 1837 and resumed in 1841, when 2-month old Presylla Calder was buried. The Calders owned the local monument works and crafted many of the earliest monuments that still stand on the grounds. 

        The Board of Trustees of the Churchville Cemetery trace their origins back to 1841. The first slate of Trustees appointed in 1842 were Joseph Bradt (who owned a mill just north of Eldorado), Orange Church (who was running Church's Mills at that time), Richard Pointer (tannery owner on the south bank of the Credit), Richard Willis & Fletcher Hall, both of whom were also Trustees for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, John Willis, who briefly ran a shingle factory in the village and Dr. William Todd Jr., the local surgeon. Being a trustee must have carried some prestige, as these men were the leaders in the community at this time. All except for Joseph Bradt are buried now in the Cemetery; he moved to Indiana in the late 1840s.

        The two busiest years for burials in the 19th century happened in 1860 and 1862. 13 burials took place in 1860, including 7 children under 10 years of age. 14 burials took place in 1862, including 9 children under 10 years of age. With a population of only about 400 at this time, this would have been an especially tragic few years for the community. This was also a decade of economic hardship in the village as arson claimed several of the mills and businesses. At some point during this period all of the original cemetery documents, including the only known survey, were lost in a fire. 

        In 1865 the Trustees were Fletcher Hall, Richard Willis, William Whitehead, William Elliott, Francis Birdsall, William Thomson and J. E. Pointer. Fletcher Hall died in 1872 and in 1873 his nephew Levi S. Hall replaced him on the committee. He served for many years as secretary for the board.

       On June 12, 1891, a call went out to the community to resurrect and reform the Board of Trustees. A meeting at the Cemetery was announced through posted notices in village, advertisements in the local newspapers and from the pulpit of Churchville Methodist Church. The man responsible for driving this initiative was Levi S. Hall. His vision for an active, accountable and organized Board survives to today and the community owes much to his efforts. Mr. Richard Willis, the only surviving member of the original 1842 Board, attended this meeting and submitted his resignation.  Although the Board had technically already existed for 50 years, our records often refer to this meeting as the true starting point for the Trust.

      As a result of this meeting, a new slate of Trustees were elected, consisting of the following seven gentlemen: Wm. Thomson, Daniel Neelands, Sigsworth S. Reeve, George Wilson, Saul J. Pearson, Alex Hutton & John Willis.

     Levi S. Hall stayed on, serving as Secretary to the Board.

      The new Board elected Daniel Neelands as their first President. He was son of Daniel Neelands Sr.,  who settled the land as a member of the Beatty Caravan and nephew of Andrew Neelands, who served as the first teacher in the village. Daniel Neelands Jr. died in 1914.

The Board immediately set about purchasing two adjoining acres of land from the Reeve family for $200. George Murray, a local barrister and Plot Owner who lived across the river at 7895 Creditview Road volunteered to oversee the transaction. A loan was taken out from the President's son, Cyrus Neelands, to cover the expenses and to begin to build up the Trust. Happily, a donation for $200 was received soon after from Churchville native and New York City millionaire Erastus Wiman Jr. that allowed the Board to pay off this debt and begin financial operations. 

      The Board determined to hire Mr. Passmore to complete a survey of the new property, but he was unavailable. They opted to hire Orangeville's C.J. Wheelock, who was at that time working for the nearby Credit Valley Railway (CPR) to survey and lay out the new purchase.  Relations between the new Board and Wheelock were frosty and disputes arose over the amount of days he and his men spent working (they charged for seven, but were only observed to be on site for six) and whether the Board really required the elaborate, framed linen survey that was being offered. Ultimately the Board agreed to Wheelock's terms. 

To this day, the Board still uses the original survey that he produced to locate plots. You can see an image of the survey to the left.