Pingle Burying Ground, Markham, Ontario

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Markham, York, Ontario, Canada
Surnames/tags: Pingel Pingle

The Pingel/Pingel Burying Ground is a small pioneer cemetery in Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the west part of lot 22, concession 6 of the former Markham Township. This was the location of the former homestead of Jochim Pingel (also known as Joachim or Jacob Pingle), one of the Markham Berczy Settlers who first settled in the area in 1794.

As is typical of many pioneer cemeteries, it was used for ad hoc burials mainly of close family members, and burials there ceased shortly after local official church cemeteries were opened.

The earliest known burial on the site was that of Elisabeth, Jochim's teenage daughter, which took place in 1799. Jochim himself was the last known burial in January 1822.

Subsequent Pingel burials were at the St. Philip's and Bethesda Lutheran cemeteries.

Monument

The only surviving grave marker on the site is a large columnal monument. On one side, it commemorates three core members of the Pingel family (Jochim, his wife Anna Maria, and their daughter Elisabeth). Each of these three has a separate inscription on the three remaining sides of the squared off base of the monument. Notably, the monument contains a reference to "Canada West". This term was only officially in use between 1841 and 1867, following the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, but preceding Canadian Confederation. As such, it provides very likely evidence to date the monument. There are obvious problems associated with a grave monument erected decades after the last burial on the site, as the accuracy of the information conveyed cannot fully be trusted.

Publications and records

The Ontario Genealogical Society has published a transcription of the surviving cemetery monument. This does not include the written records of burials.

Separately, the Ontario Genealogical Society has published a transcription of the Bethesda Lutheran Church documents. This includes baptisms, marriages, and burials of the St. Philip's congregation. Unfortunately, burial records only begin in 1819, which was only a few years before burials ceased at the Pingel cemetery. Nevertheless, it includes several interesting non-Pingel burials which are not commemorated on the surviving family grave monument.

List of burials

A list of burials can be compiled based on a combination of all available sources. Ordered chronologically, these are:

Burials

Date	Name	Church record?	Gravestone	Notes	FindAGrave
1799	Elisabeth Pingel	N	Y	Daughter of Jochim Pingel	Find A Grave: Memorial #185251146
1814	Anna M. Pingel	N	Y	Wife of Jochim Pingel	Find A Grave: Memorial #185250915
1819	Mrs. Bauers	Y	N	Buried 24 August aged 84 years. "Wife of Joh. Bauers"	Find A Grave: Memorial #186727367
1819	C. F. Cornelius	Y	N	Buried 21 November aged 72 years, 9 months, 16 days. Buried "Pingel's place"	Find A Grave: Memorial #186727523
1822	Jochim Pingel	Y	Y	Buried 12 January. "Joachim Sr", buried "on his place"	Find A Grave: Memorial #185250730
1830	Martha Pingel	Y	N	Possible burial; no location listed in church records. 85 yrs, 7 mo 18 days.	Find A Grave: Memorial #186727566
1832	Cornelius	Y	N	Buried January. Noted as "single" and female. "In her 88th year of age"	Find A Grave: Memorial #186727452

Discarding the possible burial of Martha Pingel, there are two clearly distinct groups of people: close Pingel family members and others. With the establishment of St. Philip's Church in 1820, it is noticeable that burials abruptly cease aside from "legacy" cases who may have preferred to be buried with close relatives over being buried in a churchyard, namely Jochim Pingel himself, as well as the single female Cornelius burial.