Page 9 - Oct 2024 News On 7

HAZZARD HISTORY NOTES

by Grant Ketcheson
FACT OR FOLK LORE?

There are many stories passed down from our ancestors, recollections of events of the past. There is such a legend told
of Hazzard's Cemetery. In fact, this one achieved credibility such that it was mentioned in the book, “Pilgrimage of Faith”,
by Alma Moorcroft, Alma Blackburn and Blanche Sandford. This book tells the stories of the churches and church
communities of the Madoc Township area. Extensively researched and documented, it is the definitive history of these
unique local settlements. The largest chapter in the book deals with Hazzard's Church and its adjoining cemetery. As
Hazzard's Cemetery is the oldest burying ground in Madoc Township, a good bit of the section deals with this cemetery.
One of the stories of Hazzard's Cemetery tells of pioneer Sylvanus Bond. Born in 1806, he came from Argenteuil County,
Quebec and, in the 1840s, purchased one hundred acres of land at the four-corners in Cooper. In fact, in the early days,
that crossroads community was called Bond's Corners and the first school was Bond's School.

By the time Mr. and Mrs. Bond passed, the cemetery at Cooper had been established and was only a mile from the Bond
farm. Why would they have chosen to be buried at Hazzard's Corners, some five miles away?
Local lore has it that Sylvanus Bond wished to be buried on the site of the old log school that had once stood on the site
of Hazzard's Cemetery. The story suggests that this was the school that he had attended. With only a little sleuthing, we

determined that, when the Bond family came to Madoc Township and settled on their farm at Cooper, Sylvanus was
already forty years old! Could it be that he taught in that little log schoolhouse? This is a much more likely scenario.
Of course there are no pictures of that log schoolhouse. However, whatever the facts of the story, we will continue to
believe that the grave of Sylvanus Bond is the very site of one of the earliest schools in our township. Such tales are the
stuff of legend!

There is another twist to the Bond family story. The gravestone of Sylvanus Bond is still intact. Close by there is a family
stone bearing the names of Mr. and Mrs. Bond and other members of the family. As Mary (Brown) Bond died some
eighteen years after her husband, obviously the family had a new stone erected after her passing. However, the spelling of
Mr. Bond's name is different on the newer stone! A family error or that of the engraver? Another story lost in time.