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Westville Football Team, 1907;
l. to r.: back row: W.D. Ross (Sec), R. Ross, G. Cassidy,
J.W.H. Sutherland (Pres), s. Wallace, G.W. Burney, M.S. Grey
(Mgr.); middle row: R. Johnston, T. Wright, J. Reid (Capt.),
J.D. Fraser, T. Grey, G. Henderson; front row: G. Dawson, A.
Muirhead, J. McIsaac, M. Muirhead
Funeral Services
Along with the settling of people in Westville in the 1860s came the dreaded illnesses and, as mining and industry developed, so did deaths and disasters.
Like most small areas, a local carpenter or furniture business undertook the responsibility of providing caskets when needed, thus came the word “undertaker”, and Westville was no exception.
One of the first “undertakers” here in the late 1800s was John Brown, who was a carpenter by trade. In the early 1900s James McLaren opened furniture and undertaking business on the corner of South Main Street and Drummond Road. After his death just a few years later, this business was purchased by H. Allie McQuarrie who for about thirty years, operated as H.A. McQuarrie Furniture and Undertaking at this same location until his death in 1942. From this time until 1946 services were provided by neighboring towns.
In 1946, Osborne G. Eagles started a service on Munro Street, after receiving a degree in funeral directing and embalming. In 1952 he purchased the George E. Munro property on North Main Street, opening the first funeral home the public was able to use for visitations and funeral services. He was joined in 1975 and 1978, respectively by his two sons, Arthur and David.
Cemeteries
An act to incorporate St. Philip’s was passed by the Governor in Council and assembly on the 11th day of March 1898 as follows.
Robert Maxwell, Duncan MacGregor, Murdock MacKay, John D.B. Fraser, James Johnston and Robert Grey of Pictou, and their associates, successors and assigns, are herby constituted a body corporate under the name of ‘St. Philip’s Cemetery Company”.
The first names on the lot register are William Munsie and George Leadbeater.
The first annual meeting of the company was held on April 30, 1898, and annual meetings have been held continuously since that date.
St. Bees’ Cemetery was purchased from Thomas and Sarah Craig in 1895 by the Right Rev. Frederick Courtney, Lord Bishop of Nova Scotia for St. Bees’ Parish for the sum of $50 and the lot was 193 feet by 410 feet; another parcel, 193 feet by160 feet, was acquired at a later date.
The first burial in the cemetery was two years before the property was purchased.
Edward Cassidy, age 20 years, was the first to be buried in the cemetery in 1894.