The Granum is a small rural cemetery that was established in the late 1800s. There are approximately 825 burials and the cemetery is still being used.
Within Rocky View County, with only 415 residents, Granum is the least populated incorporated town in Alberta.
A tall caragana hedge surrounds the cemetery on three sides. It is speculated that Mary Fitzpatrick Chugg was the first burial and due to a surveying error, her grave still remains outside the cemetery.
There are wild tales and rumors about why her grave is outside of the cemetery. No one knows for sure but the excerpt below, from the Town of Granum, may contain the explanation.
Read the article published in
The Western Producer.
Granum Cemetery
Granum Minutes February 3, 1908 – Moved to offer C. and E. Land Company fifteen dollars per acre for land for cemetery purposes. *Granum Minutes July 14th – 1908 Cemetery Lots to be sold at ten dollars and half lot at 5 dollars.
*Granum Minutes November 23rd, 1908 – A resolution passed that cemetery lots be changed in price from ten dollars per lot to one dollar per foot. S.J. Slough (Chairman of Council) *
The Granum Cemetery is well known for having the grave outside the actual cemetery.
The grave outside the Granum Cemetery is that of Mary Fitzpatrick, born Sept, 1865 and passed away April 16, 1908. The stone reads “Beloved wife of E.R. Chugg” Mary was the daughter of William Debursey Fitzpatrick and Maria Colbert who came to Canada, to the now Gatineau area in Quebec, from Ireland in the early 1800. Mary and Ebenezer R. Chugg were married in 1894, and in April of 1903 they and their 4 children: Nellie, Edna, Everett and Lila left for Leavings.
Memories of Nellie (Chugg) Lang: “In April 1907, our sister Lilia died. She had been sick a week; then her appendix ruptured. She was laid to rest in a corner of Mr. R. Laughton’s field where there were no graves. There wasn’t a cemetery at this time. Then, in 1908, Mama passed away at the age of 42 years. She was the first one laid in the new cemetery. This was not properly surveyed yet, so her grave can be seen still, just outside of the cemetery.” *
*Granum History Book,
Leavings by Trail, Granum by Trail
Granum History Book Committee
1977
From the Town of Granum