LAST Saturday marked 175 years that the Kilmore Public Cemetery has been the final resting place for citizens as it served the needs of nearby communities and inland Victorians until more cemeteries were established nearby.
The first burial was one John B Wheeler as cited on the Kilmore Historical Society memorial plaque located near the cemetery pergola.
The oldest surviving dated headstone belongs to Hastings Armstrong Cunningham.
It’s the final resting place for the much-loved, first-born infant son of Hastings Cunningham and his wife Rebecca.
The inscription reads;
Hastings Armstrong Cunningham
Born March 1, [1850]
Died September 19, 1850
[It is] well for would we our babe recall
And soothing and sweet are the tears that fall
But a few brief pangs on his mother’s breast
And we laid him down in his holy rest
Ere the world its snares around him threw
His brow yet bright with baptismal dew
It is well since the saviour’s word is given
That of such as our child is the host of Heaven
No struggle for him, no doubts or fears
His young cheek spared repentant tears
It is well and we hear and adore the rod
For the wielding hand was the hand of God.
At the time of baby Hasting’s death, the family was living at Mount Emu Station, near Skipton, 183 kilometres from Kilmore.
The grave was marked with an elaborately inscribed headstone, and its final resting place is at row number = DD, grave/site number 55.
Over 175 years of rain, hail, sleet and snow the headstone has weathered.
The Kilmore Public Cemetery committee used the funds to have a stone mason rejuvenate its surface and also make a base for it to rest on, permanently.
Members of the Kilmore Historical Society were among the community members who braved the crisp spring afternoon, and they said the cemetery is the best it has looked in 20 years.
