Dozens are buried in the Clement’s Cemetery on the 2nd Line, just east of Yonge Street in Innisfil.
In the far southwest corner is a faded headstone, the inscription barely legible. This stone marks the resting place of Lewis James Clement, for whom the cemetery was named.
Lewis James was the son of James Clement. James was born in 1764 in the Mohawk Valley of New York State, part of a loyalist family whose father, Lewis Cobes, had fought on the British side in the American Revolution.
He was born in 1764 in the Mohawk Valley of New York State, part of a Loyalist family whose father, Lewis Cobes, had fought on the British side in the American Revolution. No longer feeling welcome after the colonies won their independence, the Clement family moved to Upper Canada’s Niagara Region, where, in 1786, 22-year-old James wed 16-year-old Catharine Crysler.
The newlyweds settled a farm on Four Mile Creek and began to raise a family, including Lewis James, born March 15, 1798.
Young Lewis was no stranger to hardship. Military forces of the young United States crossed the Niagara River in 1812, kicking off the War of 1812 and three years of fighting, much of it focused on the Niagara Peninsula. The war turned the Clement family upside down. Crops and livestock were stolen as armies marched back and forth, and the fear of the home being taken over by hostile invaders always hung over them.
Ardently anti-American, James served as a lieutenant in the militia, serving much of the time as a dispatch rider between the garrisons at Fort George and Fort Erie. It was a dangerous assignment and, in early 1813, he was severely wounded in his hand, probably shot, or cut by a sabre in one of many skirmishes that plagued the region. Infection set in and James died on March 13, leaving a heavily pregnant Catharine to care of their children and farm. Tragically, childbirth was difficult, and both Catharine and the baby died on July 13.
Lewis James Clement was now an adult at age 15. He set out to make a life for himself; thankfully, with four older siblings, none of the younger Clement children went uncared for.
Lewis James Clement remained in Niagara for the next two decades, farming, and married Abigail Emmett on April 1, 1828. The couple had 11 children — six sons and five daughters.
In the 1840s, Lewis and Abigail uprooted and headed north for new possibilities in Innisfil. Thankfully, except for the uncertainty surrounding a move to an unknown region then still very much wilderness, Clement’s life wasn’t marred by the turmoil and tragedy his parents had endured. He farmed successfully, raised his family, and served as a respected voice in the community.
He died on April 9, 1873, and was laid to rest in a plot on the family farm he had previously set aside for burials. This plot became known as Clement’s Cemetery.
