Kiely’s final resting place is one of the many graves of prominent Catholics that were visited when Catholic Cemeteries unlocked the gates to the downtown Toronto cemetery for a rare tour of the four-hectare property. In 1869 Kiely purchased the Street Railway Company which he doubled in size by 1880 to give Toronto the beginnings of a modern urban transit system.
“(Then) in 1891, 11 years later, his contract ran out,” said Frank Jannetta of Catholic Cemeteries. “So the city fathers figured we can do a better job at this great thing than you can. They lasted five months.”
The transit contract was returned to Kiely who established the TTC, which he ran for the rest of his life. Kiely is among some 29,000 people, many of them working-class Irish Canadians, buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery. The cemetery abounds with notable people from Toronto’s earliest days, including green-grocer Joseph James Pape (who had Pape Avenue named after him), banker, brewer and financial founder of St. Augustine’s Seminary Eugene O’Keefe, and Patrick Boyle, founder of The Catholic Register.
Amy Profenna, Catholic Cemeteries’ manager of marketing and public relations, said the stories behind the headstones attract people to the historic cemetery.
“People come to the tours for a variety of reasons — to connect with their own past and heritage, to learn about the history of the local Church, to connect with their faith on a new and different level,” she said.
About 25 people took the 45-minute tour July 27.
“The tour was held this year to commemorate The Year of Faith and to celebrate the faith of some of the early Church in Toronto,” Profenna said.
The public is normally restricted from wandering the locked cemetery, which is located off Yonge Street south of St. Clair Avenue. In 2005 the largest public tour of the cemetery was conducted to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since then smaller private tours for special groups have been hosted.
“The tours are not scheduled on a regular basis,” said Profenna, “(but) we have been able to do a few special tours for various groups.”
Profenna says arrangements can be made for those wishing to visit graves of relatives.
For those interested in the history of Toronto’s old cemeteries, a tour of Mt. Hope Cemetery will be held on Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. Contact Profenna at Catholic Cemeteries for details.