This week a new marble headstone went up in the cemetery in Bentley, Alta.
The white headstone marks the grave of Patrick Bannon, an American who immigrated with his wife and son and daughter-in-law to Alberta from Minnesota in 1908.
The engraved headstone was paid for by the American government and shipped from Virginia, because before he became a Canadian farmer, Bannon fought in the U.S. Civil War.
According to information from Jean Humeniuk, who married Bannon’s great-grandson, the family came north from Minnesota.
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They homesteaded near Lomond until 1919, moved to the Brooks area for three years and then finally to Bentley where Patrick died in 1924 at the age of 81.
Humeniuk of Bemidji, Minn., is writing Patrick’s life story and it was during a couple of visits into Alberta to see the Bannon grave and farm that she contacted the museum and cemetery staff.
Derek Dickau, who is on the board of the Bentley cemetery, said he will have the headstone erected on the grave site by early June. Its height will be matched to the tombstone on the next grave, which marks the spot of a Second World War veteran, a sort of “soldier’s area,” he said.
Dickau said the Bannon headstone weighs more than 90 kilograms.
He said the Bentley cemetary dates back to 1900 and 1,100 people are buried in it. Ironically, the present day town of Bentley has a population of 1,100.
