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"Cariboo" Cameron 1820-1888

Born in this township, John Angus "Cariboo" Cameron married Margaret Sophia Groves in 1860. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, he went to British Columbia in 1862 to prospect in the Cariboo gold fields. That year at Williams Creek he struck a rich gold deposit. While there his wife died of typhoid fever and, in order to fulfil her dying wish to be buried at home, he transported her body in an alcohol-filled coffin some 8,600 miles by sea via the Isthmus of Panama to Cornwall. She is buried in the nearby Salem Church cemetery. Cameron built this house, "Fairfield", in 1865, and in 1886 returned to the B.C. gold fields. He is buried near Barkerville, B.C.

Location

On the grounds of Cameron's former home, called Fairfield, on County Road 2 and County Road 27, west of Summerstown. After Cameron's death, the building housed the Legionaries of Christ; it is now privately owned.

Region: Eastern Ontario

County/District: United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

Municipality: Township of South Glengarry

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