DIAMOND STONE CATHOLIC CEMETERY
(R.M. of Willow Bunch #42) – (1918 to 1994)
This burial site was donated by Ferdinand “Fred” Geiger as Diamond Stone Catholic Cemetery, sometime in the mid 1910s. In that same era, rocks were hauled for the foundation of a church, but it was never built.
The first interment in this cemetery, that of Lawrence Weisgerber, took place April 09, 1918. The most recent burial, that of Agnes M. (Weisgerber) Jacques, took place in the summer of 1994.
The cemetery is situated — from Willow Bunch — seven miles south on Highway #36, then four and a quarter miles west on the grid-road.
LAND LOCATION: southwest corner of the SE 1/4 of Sec. 17, Tp. 4, Rg. 28, W2nd, in the R.M. of Willow Bunch #42.
This cemetery is surrounded by a decorative barbed wire fence, with a metal gate at the main entrance. In more recent years, a beautiful little wooden sign was setup on two substantial poles, topped off with a metal filigree decoration. The sign reads “Diamond Stone Cemetery”.
The books for this cemetery are kept by the parish of St. George, Assiniboia, Sk., Phone # 642 4439. They’re also accessible in albums at the Willow Bunch Museum and on the Internet at www.willowbunch.ca .
As of May 25, 1998, the family of Mark G. & Doreen (Packet) Crooks have, by a signed agreement between themselves and the Catholic Church, agreed to be caretakers of the cemetery. A newly installed sign and fence, it is expected, was their gift in memory of those buried there. The family resides on the SE 1/4 of Sec. 35, Tp. 3, Rg. 29, W2nd, in the R.M. of Poplar Valley #12, and their mailing address is P.O. Box 81, Fife Lake, Sk., S0H 1N0. Phone # 476 2088.
Those people listed in the Master File with “Yes” by the notation “Site Marker:”, have a headstone/marker and their burial spot was located. All other people have no known headstone/marker and their burial spot was not found.
All headstones in the cemetery were checked in person on December 26, 1997, by Gilles A. Bonneau. Afterward, Mr. Bonneau and his brother, Janvier C. Bonneau, painstakingly typed in all the particulars for each entry, with Gilles doing the final editing.
All names have been further checked against the cemetery register, by Reverend Roger Ducharme and Gilles A. Bonneau, for accuracy and to include those people without a headstone.
