Descendants of Early Settler find their Ancestor’s Gravestone
Clark Nichols was one of the first few residents to live in the South Elmsley ward here in the Township of Rideau Lakes. Today, his descendants, Myrtle Johnston and George Wood, are proud to restore and place the gravestone of the man widely regarded as South Elmsley’s first settler who did not arrive from the Perth military settlement, in a cemetery located here in town.
Upon his death in 1856, Nichols was laid to rest on a small part of the 100-acre land he purchased and later sold a part of in the 19thcentury.
One of Nichols’ handful of noteworthy historical achievements is his opening of Lombardy’s first licensed tavern, which he kept open from 1817 to 1822.
Johnston who was told by her grandmother, a granddaughter of Nichols himself, that his remains were buried under an apple tree somewhere along Highway 15, had been searching for the gravestone relentlessly, only to come back with no results.
Johnston, who’s also a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society’s Leeds and Grenville Branch, finally had a solid lead in 2007 when she met Wood, another of Nichols’ descendants, who told her that his dad had led him to the gravestone almost 50 years ago.
One thing led to another and Johnston finally found what she had been searching for in vain. On July 10, Nichols headstone was rededicated and put in its final resting place.
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