Cemeteries Archives

May 18, 2012May 7, 2021

Egypt Mills Trinity Lutheran Church

I was roaming around the Oriole – Egypt Mills area with Friend Shari’s mother, LaFern Stiver, last spring. Once we got photos of the places we wanted (I’ll get around to them one of these days), we just rambled.

We paused at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt Mills. It’s a remarkably well-preserved church and cemetery located at 5665 County Road 635, just down the road from the barn I shot with Shari.

Other area churches

Photo gallery of Trinity Lutheran Church

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to mover through the gallery.

April 28, 2012

Fall Cometh Before the Spring

I should have run these during the fall, but it’s hard to say what’s going to catch my eye on any particular evening. These were taken in the fall of 2009 in Memorial Park Cemetery. If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can see flowers on some of the graves. It’s pretty hard for florists to compete with the natural beauty of nature.

Those aren’t persimmons

Mother’s a real fan of persimmons. We usually make it up to Tower Rock where there’s a great tree. When I took a closer look at the leaves on the ground, I saw the ground was covered with what looked like persimmons, so I made a mad dash up to the house to bring her back to see the treasure I had discovered. I don’t know what they were, but they turned out NOT to be persimmons.

Shady Grove Cemetery

Shady Grove Cemetery between Cape Girardeau and Dutchtown at the deadend of CR 211 is the final resting spot for more than 250 members of the area’s black community. It dates to before the Civil War. A reader pointed it out to me after I did a story on the Pecan Grove School, which is at the corner of Hwy 74 and CR 211.

When I went there about two years ago, it was in pretty ratty shape. When I returned with LaFern and Shari Stiver on a beautiful fall day in 2011, the land had been cleared. I hope careful note was made of where the tombstones were located because they had apparently been moved to make the clean-up easier. I did note red flags scattered here and there.

More information about Shady Grove

The Missourian ran a fairly long piece about the history of the cemetery in the June 25, 2008, edition.
The Find A Grave website lists 131 interments and has a map that shows where Shady Grove is located.
Diana Steele-Bryant and Sharon Sanders, librarian for The Southeast Missourian, have published a book, “Dark Woods and Periwinkle: A Glance Back at Shady Grove,” which documents 240 burials. It is available from the Cape Girardeau Genealogical Society web site.

Photo Gallery of Shady Grove Cemetery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

January 29, 2012

Cruse Cemetery Near Toga

We passed the Cruse Cemetery north of Toga on Stoddard County Rd 203 many a time on the way to visit one of Mother’s dearest friends, Daisy Zimmerman. When I paused there in the early 1970s, it was looking pretty shabby. (Click any photo to make it larger.)

Weeds had overtaken stones

It’s always disappointing to see any cemetery neglected, but this one is a fairly large one, with almost 200 interments in it, the Find A Grave website shows. The good news is that recent Google Earth photos show that it’s in much better shape today.

Local legend of the rich man

Somewhere along the line, I heard a story about a rich man who had been buried in this cemetery. Local legend was that the man had a fair amount of money and had always said he was going to take it with him. After he was put on the dark side of the dirt, it was said that his grave was dug up by someones unknown who thought that live crooks could better spend the stash than a dead man.

I don’t remember if anyone ever said if there was any treasure found, whether the grave was successfully dug up or any any other juicy details. The other piece of the story was that when he was planted again, this time his grave had a huge concrete slab poured over it.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the slab, but I can’t locate any photos of it.

Another tombstone mystery

There are lots of interesting stories about cemeteries in the Advance area. There was once a family cemetery on the town square in Advance. The tombstones all mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night. Nobody in town would give up the culprits. Even my mother and Daisy, who were wired in, claimed no knowledge of what happened to the stones.

Daisy, left, is no longer with us, so she kept the town’s secret to the end, if she ever knew it.

Tag: Cemeteries