When we discovered Memorial Cemetery in historic St. Genevieve, Missouri, I couldn’t wait to take pictures. I love history, I love cemeteries, and while this one appeared to be rather sparsely populated, the headstones that were present were remarkable.
Some history and more pics after the jump…
Memorial Cemetery was established in 1787 and is colloquially considered to be the oldest cemetery in Missouri. While I was busy snapping away, The Hubs was reading up on the history of the place. At one point, he asked me how many graves I thought were in this two-block historic location.
I don’t know, I said. Maybe three hundred?
Actually, he answered, there were over 3500 burials in this tiny place. That’s why it was closed. And that’s why they’ve done what they could to identify and restore what markers they could, but there’s no way after all this time to do a complete job.
The history of the place is really fascinating. Somewhere is a young slave boy. The daughter of a Native American chief. Victims of a steamboat explosion.
All in one comparatively tiny, two-block cemetery. Suddenly, I was wary of even taking another step…
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