Original gravestone removed by descendants of Donnellys

By ELWIN MOORE

[ Removal of the Original Donnelly Tombstone, Unknown, University of Western Ontario Archives ][...] LUCAN — The original gravestone for the five members of the Donnelly family, slain by vigilantes in 1880, was removed yesterday from a shed on St. Patrick's Roman Catholic churchyard grounds, two years after it had been taken from the burial plot because of vandalism.

But Donnelly descendants who took away the stone, led by Mrs. Nora Lord, 78, and her son William, of Levack, Ont., refused to say where it would be kept, or what would be done with it.

[...] At the insistence of the descendants, the diocese erected a new marker in May, but without the accusing words "murdered" under the names of each of the five dead.

[...] Rev. F. J. Bricklin, pastor of St. Patrick's told a Free Press photographer and reporter to leave the churchyard during the removal of the stone.

"You're not wanted here ... I don't want you here," he said. [...]

Source: Elwin Moore, "Original Gravestone Removed By Descendants of Donnellys," London Free Press, July 21, 1966. Notes: J.J. Talman Regional Collection, University of Western Ontario Archives, Donnelly Family Papers, B4878, File 28.

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