Bulwark Cemetery: It’s Full of Doerings!

It’s not exactly the most common family name, so for us to see it out in the wild is both unexpected and a rare occurrence. Once in a while, we’ll notice the name on some random headstone, but instances of that can be counted on one hand. In the Bulwark Cemetery, it’s seen on three separate graves and this makes it the highest concentration of Doerings yours truly has ever encountered in a single spot. They’re everywhere!

Truth is, it just seemed like such an odd and interesting coincidence, something so completely out of the blue (we revel in randomness) that we had to jump in. Are these long lost relatives? Probably not and anyway who’d want to be kin to this genetic mess? I guess I could always be that strange uncle everyone talks about in hushed tones. You know, the black sheep…”he did what?”

There’s three Doerings here. Rosina (Anna Rosina in death records) was born in 1865 and perished in 1943. Bertha was born in 1893 and went to the great beyond in 1950. Finally, Emanuel was born in 1899 and passed on in 1959. The latter two were said to be born in the US where as Rosina originally hailed from Germany.

There’s some hundred and ten people interred at the Bulwark Cemetery, so while three Doerings may not seem like much, by our own observations, it’s a literal convention. Doeringcon!

Presumably these people were all family (they are all next to each other) and while we could go down the rabbit hole and start digging through history accounts of the area to know more about them, we really don’t have the time and resources to make such a diversion. Maybe one day, though.

Bulwark dates from the mid-1910s and blossomed to be home to some one hundred folks before dying by the 1960s. The location is the vast Alberta plains, middle of nowheresville and well east of Red Deer.

Little remains of the town today but a couple falling down buildings and the much photographed muscle car. Soon it’ll all be a memory but for now, one can stand in downtown and imagine it as it was. The cemetery’s separated from the town by about a kilometre.

Look up Johnny Bachusky’s write up on the town on the interwebs to know more and peek into a window to know what Bulwark was. We were hanging with that well respected journalist this day.

The Team visited the town and may at some point do a write up. We got some nice photos but so little time these days.

Later we visited what remains of Bulwark’s grain elevators. There’s some remains down by the former rail line just outside town but one of the elevators themselves was later moved to a nearby farm and it deserved a little of our attention. I think for sure there will be a write up on this one.

Your author knows more than a few Doerings online, but they’re not relatives, and I guess we just came together due to sharing the same name. Funny how that works. And now in the notes we see we’ve come across ten out in the wild in various cemeteries (all random finds), including these three souls.

Thanks for reading this silly little post.

Till we meet again, goodbye and goodnight.

They’re saying…

”There are so many interesting things right here in our backyard. Thanks for sharing them! Keep up the great work!” Gerry Deemter.

More like this…
The Little Cemetery Moyie BC.
Badlands Cemetery.
Sacred Heart.

If you feel like chatting or want more information on what you see here feel free to contact us!

Date of Adventure: May, 2020.
Location(s): Bulwark, AB.
Article references and thanks: FindAGrave.com and our dear friend Johnnie Bachusky.

At the Bulwark Cemetery.

An uncommon name, yet there’s a few here.

They’re no relation that we know of.

This was a random find, so quite a surprise.