IN GOOD HANDS

Interesting facts surface in Cow Bay headstone mystery.

Last Saturday would have been Douglas Humphrey’s 99th birthday. Sadly, he has missed the last 93 of them. Douglas died at the tender age of five after a tragic accident when hit by a car in Halifax.

His father was a military man and the Douglas family laid him to rest in Fort Massey Cemetery in 1929.

Douglas's life slowly became part of the Humphrey family’s oral history. Never a ghost. More of a folklore character.

His life was known and valid but never felt or seen.

In 2023 on the day of his 99th birthday a remnant of Douglas would finally be seen.

Published in last week's Nova Scotian section of The Chronicle Herald was the story, A Headstone-scratching Mystery.

Dozens of stones from Fort Massey Cemetery have been discovered on a property in Cow Bay.

How, when, or why the stones seemed to have teleported from the cemetery to the property is unknown, though theories have been suggested both online and in e-mails.

In that story, Douglas’s name was listed along with a photo of his headstone.

The Humphrey family recognized the name and information immediately. The son of the brother Douglas had known and the children of the brother he didn’t live to meet both reached out.

It was a shocking, exciting and bittersweet day of e-mails among the family, the property owner and myself, the writer of the original story.

Double checking, confirming and verifying dates of the information I had and the things that the Humphrey family knew, it was agreed Douglas’s nephew would come for the stone the following day.

If the coincidence of the story running and being seen on Douglas's birthday wasn’t odd enough.

And if thousands of pounds of headstones being discovered on land in Cow Bay, many kilometres away from where they belonged wasn’t already a mystery, the story is about to get stranger.

When Douglas’s nephew arrived at the property, he commented that the house had been renovated.

Chad, who lives on the property, asked him what he meant by that.

It turns out Douglas’s nephew’s maternal aunt once rented the property where Douglas’s stone was found.

He recalled visiting his aunt, from a different branch of the family tree, in the 1960s.

Back then the yard was a field. There were no stones.

There were no trees where the stones have been hidden for an unknown amount of years.

Douglas led us to some helpful information. A whispering from a stone.

Now we have a shorter timeframe of when the stones would have been transported. We now know the most recent stone from 1931 stood for at least 30 years before being removed.

The earliest stone would be about double that amount of time.

It was an emotional moment when a family member of Douglas was able to see and touch evidence of a boy who only existed in stories for the first time.

Chad had delicately raised it from the ground it stood in and away from the tree it rested on. His wife Maryann warmed it in the sun before cleaning off debris.

The headstone went home with the family, who had placed it at Fort Massey all those years ago, albeit a generation or so later.

The Humphrey family plans to possibly restore the stone, though it is easily legible and in fair condition.

They hope to return the stone to where Douglas lies. Where the stone belongs.

There was another child named in the original story. Jessie Smith, child of Jane Smith.

The names of the adult stones are being compiled and confirmed. Throughout the week another stone was found on a different area of the property. When Spring arrives, hopefully so will a complete list of whose stones were moved.

If you have any information, insight, or theories about the headstones moving from Fort Massey to Cow Bay at the end of or after the 1960s you can e-mail me at katy.jean@saltwire.com.