Regina man hoping to memorialize unmarked graves

Kenton De Jong is hoping to bring people out to the Regina Cemetery to learn more about the history of the city and to support Spanish Flu victims currently resting in peace in unmarked graves.

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"If we don't do something now, we won't remember them in the future," said De Jong, a Regina-based travel blogger, who currently working with the city to start official tours at the cemetery on Fourth Avenue. 

His interest in the cemetery started when he wanted to do a story on the history of the cemetery. De Jong picked up the Regina Ethnic Pioneers Cemetery Walking Tour booklet and did it himself. After that experience, he thought this was something others in the city should experience.

"I think it's important that we know our roots, that we know where we came from and who was involved in where we came from," De Jong said. 

"Regina has so much history in it and there's not a lot of places where you can find the history. But the cemetery is one of those gold mines where it's overflowing with history. It's overflowing with people that have changed Regina's history throughout the ages — from the Northwest Rebellion to the Regina Cyclone, the Regina Riot, all these events, they're all here, still here waiting for people to learn about them."

'We don't know how many bodies are there'

While a thirst for knowledge brought De Jong out to the Regina Cemetery, it was an experience while there that is now fuelling his passion to do more.

In the northern part of the cemetery, there is a somewhat bare section of grass that De Jong said is called Potter's Field. There are currently only a few grave stones scattered around the field.

According to De Jong and some local historians, many of the Spanish Flu victims ended up in unmarked graves in that area. 

"I couldn't believe it," he said. "We don't know how many bodies are there. We don't know if we're talking 10 people, we don't know if we're talking 100 people. We know that 330 people died from the Spanish Flu, but we don't know how many are buried here and it's sad that they don't have a head stone."

De Jong has been doing free practice tours to prepare while the City of Regina reviews his application to make them an official offering. His mission is to use all the money raised from the tours to purchase a memorial for the Spanish Flu victims.

"It's been 100 years, they don't have a head stone. I think it's about time that they finally got one," De Jong said. 

De Jong has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the memorial.

Regina's popcorn man

One of the people spoken about on the cemetery tour is John Alecxe, a Romanian immigrant who arrived in Regina in the 1900s.

De Jong said Alecxe was one of 300 people that worked on the legislative building. Following that he sold popcorn out a cart downtown. 

"It sounds kind of silly, but he did it for 50 years. He did it from 1926 through until the '70s and he became famous in Regina for selling this popcorn. I talked to people who met him and who tried the popcorn and they said it's the best popcorn they ever had," De Jong said.

Rob Deglau with the Regina Civic Museum confirmed they still have Alecxe's popcorn cart and they're hoping to do something more with it in the future.

De Jong said doing the tour inspired him to go and see the popcorn cart in person. The overall experience brought Alecxe's story to life for someone like De Jong, who was too young to know him.

"When I first heard the story, I'm like, 'That sounds like a story that most people don't know'. But then as you talked to people like, 'Oh, you knew John, you had popcorn from John. You used to do that in the summer, go to John.' Like wow, he really made an impact in 50 years."

Other people featured on the tour include Const. George Lenhard and Det. Charles Millar. Lenhard was shot while conducting an investigation during the Regina Exhibition. His killer was never found. Two years later, Millar was beaten to death with heavy objects in the 1935 Regina Riot.

While the stories are often sombre, De Jong nonetheless finds them captivating.

"I love finding little nuggets of knowledge throughout the city," he said. "This is what we were. This is who we are. We are a group of people who over the years come together through trials, tribulations and we have formed this wonderful city called Regina.' "