Township: Flos Township (Concession 4, Lot 21)
Locality: Simcoe County
Municipality: Springwater

Drive to Phelpston, Ontario
Head west on Flos Concession 4. The road goes straight on for some time.
When it makes a turn north, stop the car.
Pull over and continue walking west through the bush
(Flos Concession Four used to continue straight west at one time).
The cemetery is straight ahead.
OR
After going North a bit, the road again heads West.
After turning west the first home on the south side.
ASK permission, In the field behind home & Barn.

Dennis Gallagher owned 100 acres on the south half of Concession 4, lot 21. He had moved from Apto Township to Vigo Township in 1866 and wanted the Vigo community to have their own Catholic Church and Cemetery.

On January 31, 1867 Dennis Gallagher made a donation of a portion of his land, to the Roman Catholic Diocese, for the purposes of building a Church (on 10 acres) and a cemetery (on 1.5 acres).

Mr. James McVeigh built St. Mary's Church (aka Vigo Church) between 1869 and 1871. The Church was blessed and dedicated by Rt. Rev. George Northgraves of Toronto.

In 1881, a large forest fire swept through the area. The Church was saved but the large cross on the top burnt off and fell. The cross landed between the church and the O'Neill plot in the cemetery. It was never removed and rotted into the soil.

After the railway was built, and the area grew, the decision was made to build a 3rd church and cemetery, in Flos Township, more central to the area at Phelpston. St. Patrick's Catholic Church was built in 1891 under the guidance of the parish priest, Father Michael Gearin, who oversaw the congregation from 1885 until his death in 1929.

The 3rd cemetery in Flos Township was established in 1903. The Roman Catholic Church decided to close burials at Vigo cemetery and Apto Cemetery. Residents were encouraged to move their loved ones to the new cemetery in Phelpston.

If you find a death prior to 1903 in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Phelpston, they were first interred in either Apto or Vigo and moved when the new Cemetery opened.

The last known burial in Vigo Cemetery, was Michael Kelly, in 1909, who was allowed to join his parents and sister in Vigo Cemetery when he died. The cemetery was abandoned by the Catholic Church soon after St. Patrick's Cemetery in Phelpston opened.

In 1914 a request was made by Fr. Gearin to sell Vigo church, which has been closed since the opening of St. Patrick's in Phelpston. Mass has not been said in the Vigo church for over five years. Vigo church was eventually dismantled, with the lumber taken to St. Louis to build the rectory there. The Altar of Vigo was moved to St. Louis as well.

Flos Township took over maintenance of the two abandoned cemeteries (Apto & Vigo) and in 1998 what stones could be salvaged where made into a cairn on each site. There are about 14 stones on a cairn in what is now the closed Vigo Cemetery.