I’m no expert on the history of the Scratching River Reserve… actually I’m no expert on any of the stuff I write about. But I feel like I know even less about Rosenort and Riverside because I don’t own any books about them. Or have I just not been paying attention?
I’ll tell you what, when I learned that Riverside used to be called Rosenhoff, that really blew my mind. I wonder why the name changed. And when. And also back to why again.
I can tell you what I assume: that someone felt “Rosenhoff” sounded too embarrassingly ethnic and it was time for a generic English/Canadian-sounding name so they slapped Riverside on it and ditched the Rosenhoff. And so now it sounds just like all the other places beside rivers called Riverside.
But that’s just an assumption.
However, I do know a little bit… because the Historical Atlas of the East Reserve includes a map at the end of the Scratching River Reserve. I felt very silly for never having visited those cemeteries so one day we headed out there.
I think the old Rosenhoff cemetery south of Riverside was my favourite Scratching River cemetery.
Speaking of the Atlas and my assumptions… it says that Riverside was a completely different centre than Rosenhoff. Apparently Riverside was a commercial centre that was at the north end of Rosenhoff village.
What.
So in between Rosenort and Rosenhoff there was also Riverside?
I find that strange.
But, okay.
So anyway this is the cemetery south of Rosenhoff and I think area pioneers may be buried here. I forget why I think that. Did someone tell me that?
In the Atlas, this cemetery is labeled as Rosenhoff Cemetery. But according to this website, there’s also a Kroeker and a Klassen cemetery somewhere around here as well.
Something Andrew observed while we were in this cemetery, is that some of these headstones feature the first name quite prominently. The headstone above says “Jacob” in huge letters, and the one below says “Franz”. I don’t think we’ve seen headstones like that in any other cemeteries.
It was a rainy day when we were there, but the rain didn’t stop us from exploring.
In fact, I think it was the perfect kind of weather for exploring cemeteries!
Perhaps we will visit more of them in the rain this year.
Thank you to Andrew for agreeing to traipse through cemeteries in the rain with me.
I’ll do a few rounds of these cemeteries again this year.
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