Founders Cemetery, Marker #45

(~1810-1849)

Jonathan was born in Yarmouth Township about 1810. He died in Beaver River 11 April 1849 at the age of 39. While some sources say he was born in May 1811 we have chosen to calculate his year of birth from the age of death stated on his grave marker. The cause of his death is not known.

Jonathan was the sixth of thirteen children of Jonathan and Elizabeth “Betsy” (Robbins) Raymond who were likely buried in one of the Old Stones cemeteries and later removed to Island Cemetery, the active cemetery for Port Maitland and Beaver River. The record for their removal says they were first buried in the “old burying ground.” We do not know which of the three Old Stones cemeteries had that designation. Jonathan Sr. and Betsy lived first in what is now the town of Yarmouth, then known as Cape Forchu. They settled in Beaver River sometime prior to 1820 as their home was one of only three not destroyed in the fire of that year when Jonathan Jr was nine years old.

Jonathan married, probably about 1834, Annis Jane Parry, daughter of Cyrus and Hannah (Corning) Parry. We do not know where she is buried. Following Jonathan’s death Annis married three times. Jonathan and Annis had eight known children, all of whom lived to adulthood and married. At least four of them settled in Essex County Massachusetts, the original home of Jonathan’s grandfather, Daniel Raymond, the first Raymond to settle in Yarmouth Township.

In 1839 Jonathan was recorded as being a member of the Beaver River Total Abstinence Society, possibly the first temperance society in North America. Jonathan’s father, Jonathan Sr, was a founding member. It is his father’s name you will see on the sign on the front of the Beaver River Temperance Hall on the northeast corner of Beaver River Road and Highway 1.

Jonathan is a Mayflower descendant. Through his mother he is descended from Mayflower passengers Isaac Allerton, John Billington and Richard Warren. Through both his mother and his father he is descended from passengers John Howland and John Tilley.

More about Jonathan and his family appears in the Old Stones Family Group Sheet Index.

Please leave a comment if you have any additional information about him, particularly his place of birth in Yarmouth Township and the cause of his death.