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Potter's Field

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Home/Exploring/Arts, Culture and Heritage/Potter's Field

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Potters Field

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Introducing Greenwood Cemetery's Potter's Field Monument and Interpretive Plaque Project

Welcome to the place where the present and the past meet, the start of a community effort to honour its history and its forgotten citizens.

Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound, Ontario, is home to a Potter's Field where at least 1242 vulnerable people from our community lay in their final resting place completely unidentified, without any visible marker to note a life lived or an individual's story. Hundreds of newborns/stillborn/toddlers, orphans, seniors, the working poor, the homeless and hundreds of members of Owen Sound's black community including those who escaped on the Underground Railroad and their descendants.

Potter's Field (also known as the "Indigent Lot") became operational in 1860 and was in use for more than 100 years. The definition of Indigent is "suffering from extreme poverty."

In 2018, an anonymous donor came forward at the City of Owen Sound's Doors Open cemetery tour and generously offered to support the creation of a permanent monument to honour those in Potter's Field. The City of Owen Sound supports this plan and has agreed to provide a complementary interpretive plaque and website for this project.

Between December 2018 and the end of February 2019, the public was asked for input on ideas for the future design of the Potter's Field monument. Thank you to those who took the time to contribute their thoughts by completing this short survey. The data from the survey was analyzed and presented at the spring 2019 open house.

You can also review the list of all known persons in Potter's Field.

On behalf of the donor and the volunteer committee, thank you.

Aly Boltman

The Potter's Field Memorial monument was unveiled at Greenwood Cemetery in May 2021:

Potter's Field Memorial Monument

Background Information & Staff Reports

  • Presentation from Aly Boltman to Community Services Committee - September 19, 2018
  • Staff Report CS-18-150 Re: The Potter's Field Monument and Interpretive Plaque - November 21, 2018
  • Map of Indigent Section (Potter's Field) in Greenwood Cemetery
  • Invitation to Community Information-Seeking Session/Open House (held on May 25, 2019)
  • Staff Report CS-20-047 Re: Potter's Field Monument and Next Steps - April 27, 2020
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