In 1810, Robert Doak and his wife Abigail (Crosby) left Sutton, N.H. for the wilderness of Canada. They arrived in Compton Township and purchased 150 acres for a farm. In 1825, Philemon Crosby deeded 50 acres of additional land to his sister Abigail on the condition that she and Robert agree to take care of Philemon and Abigail’s parents for the rest of their natural life. They did take care of their parents (Ebenezer and Susannah Crosby) until the parent’s deaths in 1836 and 1841.

Robert and Abigail had six children. The last child born was George W. Doak in 1827. At the young age of only two and 1/2 years, George died. Robert and Abigail were crushed by his death and decided to consecrate a private cemetery dedicated to his name. George was buried there in 1829.

The cemetery is, according to family lore, part of the 50 acres deeded 4 years earlier to Abigail by Philemon Crosby. It was a small plot “containing about 50 graves” and was reportedby R.K. Potter in 1972 to be in “Sad shape. Most of the stones had been overturned and broken and are covered by several inches of soil and a tangle of waist high brush”.

R.K Potter in his Crosby document also reports that in the middle 1940’s the cemetery was visited by George O. Doak and his Wife Bee (Berberich) of Chapel Hill, N.C. where they found the headstones of both Ebenezer and Susannah Crosby, and reported that Ebenezer's read “Died May 30, 1836 - aged 83”.

The Cemetery is located about 3.6 miles south of the crossroads in Compton and about .3 miles west (according to R.K. Potter). These instructions are not useful today, because it is not possible to determine where the “crossroads” are.  

As of 7/1/2001 per a visit to the site by John Reginald Doak Jr. here are better instructions on how to get there:.

From the Town offices in the center of Compton, go south towards Coaticook on Rt 147 for 2.9 miles. Make a right turn on Jacques. (As you turn on to Jacques, you should stop and look across the Coaticook river across the fields sweeping upward to the left. On the distant horizon to the left you will see the silhouette of Silos. That is the location of the old Doak farm, now owned by the Vaillancourt family.)  Continue on Jacques for  eight tenths of a mile and make a left turn onto a dirt road called Dion road. Go 6 tenths of a mile to the Doak Cemetery. The address of the Vaillancourt farm is 650 Dion road and the Cemetery is just 100 feet beyond it on the left hand side of the road. Look for a long red brick Wall enclosed in a wire fenced in area. 

The house at 650 Dion is reported by the Vaillancourt family to be 150 years old and is part of the old Doak "Summer" house.  The house IS very old and your Web Master was given a tour of the staircase and upper floor.  The Staircase and floors above are original and one can see the original planks and the cut nails used to secure them. The Vaillancourts say that the present house is the front 1/3 of the original house. The other 2/3 was torn down by the original Vaillancourt family. This flies in the face of family lore which says "the Hermitage" was on the opposite side of the road and was not torn down -- it burned down. No verified pictures of "The Hermitage" or records of any kind have been found for the house. 

In July, 2000, John R. Doak Jr. hired a Compton Genealogist to locate the Cemetery, with the intent of transcribing the Gravestones. It was difficult to locate, but the with assistance of a local farmer by the name of Russell Nichols, it was found. To their surprise, it had been transformed into a well cared- for Memorial burial ground. No one locally seemed to know anything about it, including who owned the land or who was maintaining it. The plot was fenced in and grassed over. It had a large, long memorial wall in the center with about ten Headstones embedded in the wall. There were not anywhere close to 50 headstones and the rumors were that the broken and unreadable stones had been trucked off to California by the unknown benefactor. By October, no progress had been made towards finding out who had re-done the cemetery.

On October 3, 2000, a breakthrough occurred. John Doak received an answer to one of the many messages he had left on Message Boards on the Internet. A message came from Grant Doak of Mississauga, Ontario. Grant and his brothers Douglas (Yellowknife, NT) and Jim, had done the Cemetery renovations.

THEY had heard through family stories that there WAS a Doak Cemetery somewhere near Compton. They visited the spot in 1983 and resolved to clean it up and in fact, remodel it into a Memorial that befitted the contribution that the families buried there had made to the growth and prosperity of the Eastern Townships during the 1800’s. They designed a layout of the facility and contacted all the Doak descendents they could find to raise the funds needed to do the job. Unfortunately, not too many descendents could be found and the brunt of the expense fell on the three brothers.

All the Headstones that were in the cemetery have been embedded in the wall. Some undoubtedly are missing (Robert Doaks’ is not there) and probably will never be found. There is a list of the Gravestones elsewhere on this Web Site.  As you will see, there are more than ten listings documented.

It turns out that the intervention of the three Doak brothers was fortuitous. While the land of the Cemetery has been owned by the Anglican Church Diocese of Quebec since 1868, the local Parish was not maintaining it. The local churchwardens were just finalizing arrangements to deconsecrate the cemetery so that the farmer who owns the adjacent land could plow it over. But for the efforts of the Doak brothers, the headstones might now be part of a pasture fence and corn might be growing over the graves.

The Cemetery land as earlier stated was set aside by Robert Doak in the name of his son George W. and consecrated in 1829. The deed to the land was formally transferred to the Anglican Church Diocese of Quebec in 1868 by Robert‘s son James Doak. James probably inherited it in 1859, when his father Robert died.

The Story of the Renovation has been promised to me by the Doak brothers. When it arrives I will post it. They have photos and a beautiful inscription written by Grant Doak and added to the Memorial wall to honor the memory and the accomplishments of the early Doak pioneers in the area. There is also an interesting story of a Doak that was buried there in 1987 after perhaps a hundred years of no burials there.

(More to Come.)

Notes as a result of John R. Doak Jr. visit to the cemetery 7/1/01.

The bricks at the base of the Wall are chipping away from weather. Some repairs will be needed in the next 5 years.

Roger Vaillancourt, the current owner of the farm told me this story. It is one we have heard before, except that Roger says his Grandfather  personally told him this tale:

Prior to 1972, two vans and a pickup truck came to the site of the cemetery, which was in very bad condition, and wanted to take the headstones away. Mr. Vaillancourts' Grandfather, using his front loader, helped load the gravestones into the pickup truck until it could hold no more.  The two vans and truck then drove off, never to be heard from again. All three vehicles had California license plates. This story begs several questions. The answers  to which some day may be given by  a future visitor to this Web Site.

Who in California would know of this remote burial ground and come to take the stones? Why were the stones taken to California and where in that state did they go? How were they used? Were they stored or put on display in some memorial location? There are 16 Stones in the Wall now with a list of 20 names on the Gravestone list.  Family lore says that up to 50 people were buried there. Fifty minus 16 equals 34. Were 34 gravestones including Robert's taken to California? Were the gravestones that were taken of "Doak" or was another Family name the target?.

More to come --