The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MISCELLANEOUS cont‘d Startling Changes â€" Feb. 8, 1965 cont‘d Under the new redistribution plan the western half of Nonthunberland will be amakgamated with Durtham County fo forum a single nriding. East Northumberfand will become part of a new niding to be known as Kawartha and which will inclkude the eastern and northern part of Peterborough County, extending all the way to the boundary of HaZliburton County. Thus our present riding which is compact and homogeneous will be repfaced by an elongated territorny stretching {from the heavily populated area along Lake Ontamric to the sparsely inhabited Land of Lakes and rocks of north Peterborough. Certainlky the electors of the new riding will share Llittle in common, and many years of political tradition associated with the history of Northumberfand will go down the drain. MISCELLANEOUS â€" 1964 . One more LZink in the early history of Presqu‘ile Point has diAappqued. The last remaining headstone in the ~ Pioneer Cemetery LZocated in Presqu‘ile Provincial Park is reported missing by Department of Lands and Forests officiaks. Someone presumably a souvenit hunter, has removed the stone. The depanrtment is most anxious that it be returned so that it may be permanently installed in an enclosure over the grave, and would appreaciate hearing from anyone who has knowledge of its wherabouts. According to the Department of Lands and Forests the stone bore the following inscription: " IN MEMORY OF" PARMELTA Wfe of Mr. 1. NutEi{{ died Sept. 1, 1865 Aged 34 yas. 1 mo. and 3 days Farewell my {friends and children dear, 1 am not dead but sLleeping here. As I am now, so you must be, Prepare in time to {follow me." However, a story wiitten by Cap. C.H.J. Snider in his Schooner Days column of the Toronto Telegram years ago, records the insoription as "the wife of Mexi. Nutlif{." Few people in this area have been aware of the existence of this early burying ground, Located a short distance to the night of the new park xoad where it ascends the sand nidge a Llittle beyond the entrance to the camping area. Fornmerly it was visible from the bay shore road, and in the summer orange Llilies, bfuebells and other fZLowers waved silently over the LZong neqlected graves of the departed pioneers. In winter the bitter winds sighed among the bare aumachs and other shrubbery over which the witd grapevines climbed. Now it is hidden from view by new plantations of evergreens. When presqu‘ile Point was selected as the site of Newcastle and the capital of the newly created District 0f Newcastle in 1802, a townsite was surveyed, a plan of which appeared in the old county atlas of 18§7. However the Zosas of the government schooner Speedy of{{ Presqu‘ile Point on October 7, 1804, spelied the doom of the projected capital. But the fow settlers and sailons who continued to reside there had to have a cemetery and the existing site was chosen. One or more of Setleck family, Presqu‘ile pioneers of the 1800 era, are believed to be buried there. Oldtimers can remember when several headstones marked the dozen on more graves. Eventually the cemetary was abondoned in Llieu of the old Covell Cemetery and Mount Hope, which was opened {n 1867. Miss Mayne Atkinson, veteran postmistress at Presqu‘ile Point, recalls a letter rneceived in Buighton years ago, addressed to the postmaster. It was from a 90 yearolkd man in Vancouver, B.C. asking the postmaster to Llook in the old Presqu‘ile Cemetery for a date on a tombstone which would determine the death of a relative and substantiate his claim to an Iinheritance. ( . Misas Athinson recalled that her father, the late Williom Atkinson, had told her of a ploneer cemetery at " Presqu‘ile and a search supplied the requested information from the headstone which is now reported missing. A.C. Conrbey, Buighton‘s veteran memorial craftsman now in his I1st. year, told The Trentonian that at one time there were about a dozen grave sites visible in this pioneer cemetery. But no one mentions whether there was more than one tomstone there. Perthaps some of the graves may have been oniginally marked with ordinary field stones, a custom in pioneer days, or wooden markers which have LZong since déisappeared. Various rumors are current as to the fate of the monument, but to date the Department has been unable to discover its present whereabouts. Lands and Forests officials are anxious to have it returned in order that it may be restored to its oniginal site and a fence erected around the old cemetery. Incidently, vandals recently toppled the boulder from the top of the cairn erected to Brighton‘s first settler, Obediah Simpson, LZocated at the entrance to Presqu‘ile Provincial Park. The stone remains on the ground near the base of the cairn but to date no one has seen fit to replace it.