Notre Dame Bay ~ NDB West District

Wellman's Cove Old Cemetery

The older cemetery was located in the center of the community and there is very little remaining except the bottom portion of one headstone. I had the opportunity to talk very briefly with Mr. Leslie Normore, a former resident of Wellman's Cove that left the community and moved to Port Anson when he was 13 years old. Mr. Normore said "My father told me there were 15 people buried in this old cemetery before they started a new cemetery up on the hill", (known as Cemetery Hill). There may be headstones buried in the thick layer of moss if it were to be excavated and restored.

The cemetery on the top of the hill is partially restored by former residents and their children. However, there are still headstones lying on the ground, leaning against trees and very large trees are growing next to many of the headstones. When I arrived there a large female moose was in the cemetery, grazing. I was very careful to not startle it because I feared it may panic, start to run and possibly break some of the remaining standing stones. I mentioned this to Mr. Normore and suggested they should build a fence to preserve the remaining stones. He accompanied me to the graveyard and was surprised to see that his uncle Phillip G. Normore's stone was broken off. He said that stone had been standing just a couple of weeks earlier, presumed to be broken by a moose. Mr. Normore was going to get something done to stop the moose from doing further damage.

Many of the graves are unmarked but are quite visable as graves, some are caved in. The information from the headstones, in the same manner it appears on the stone, is shown below:

Headstone inscriptions were transcribed by TERRY ROWSELL, September 1999. While I have endeavored to be as correct as humanly possible, there may be typographical errors.