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Editorial Notice: This page is a design study published by Haven Casket & Monument. We have no ties to the Moodie family, the Strickland literary estate, or Belleville Cemetery. The notes here are based on public sources.
Susanna Moodie Grave: Belleville Cemetery Memorial Design
Quick Facts
| Subject | Susanna Moodie (born Strickland; pioneer author of “Roughing It in the Bush”) |
| Born | December 6, 1803 in Bungay, Suffolk, England |
| Died | April 8, 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Buried | Belleville Cemetery, Belleville, Ontario, Canada |
| Memorial Form | Upright Victorian era family marker |
| Stone | Sandstone (weathered) |
| Notable | Author of the 1852 memoir “Roughing It in the Bush.” One of the earliest English language Canadian books |
Photo: Canuck girl at English Wikipedia · Public Domain · Source on Wikimedia Commons
Where is Susanna Moodie buried?
Susanna Moodie is buried at Belleville Cemetery in Belleville, Ontario. The cemetery is on the east side of the city. Moodie spent the second half of her life in Belleville. Her family moved there from a bush homestead near Lakefield in 1840. The Lakefield homestead is the subject of her famous memoir. She is buried in the Moodie family plot.
Memorial Design Analysis
Susanna Moodie’s grave is an upright Victorian era sandstone marker in the family plot. The stone shows a lot of weathering. That is normal for old Ontario stones. It is not a flaw. Local sandstone was the main stone for Victorian markers in southeastern Ontario. Granite was too costly to transport until the 1880s. These sandstone markers wear away slowly over the years. Moodie’s stone has been weathering for about 140 years.
The inscription gives her name, her life dates (1803 to 1885), and a short identifying line. The letters are carved as Roman serif capitals. That style was standard for Ontario stone shops in the mid 1800s. There is no artwork on the stone. There is no long story of her life. There is no mention of her writing. The plain look fits the family row tradition of the time. It also fits the simple realities of a frontier town cemetery in 1885.
The Moodie family plot is in the older Victorian section of Belleville Cemetery. The stones nearby use the same sandstone, the same weathering pattern, and the same shapes. Her marker blends in with the rest of the section. That was a planned choice. The era valued continuity in a family row over making one person stand out.
Why Susanna Moodie’s memorial is studied
Susanna Moodie’s grave is studied for the gap between her literary fame and the plainness of her marker. “Roughing It in the Bush” (1852) is now seen as a key early Canadian book. University classes, biographies, and Margaret Atwood’s 1970 poetry collection “The Journals of Susanna Moodie” are all built on her work. Her grave shows none of that. It is a simple pioneer era family stone. It has weathered alongside its neighbours for 140 years.
Old Ontario sandstone markers like Moodie’s are now treated as heritage pieces. Many cemeteries hire conservation experts to slow the weathering and record the inscriptions before they fade. Haven’s specialists work with families on heritage style memorials. We can match the look of historic stones using modern weather resistant granite. That keeps the stone readable for many more years.
View Haven’s heritage memorial program →
Editorial Notice: Haven Casket & Monument has no ties to the Moodie family or any literary heritage group.