St. Louis Cemeteries and Burials

Cemetery record holdings on microfilm, microfiche and CD-ROM

Early St. Louis City Cemeteries

The earliest pioneer burials in the St. Louis region were in vacant grounds adjacent to the community.  Many of these early burials were performed on Auguste Choteau's property located at present day 4th and Market.  

By the 1770s, Catholic fathers began to bury Catholics in a consecrated burial ground located near 2nd and Market streets.  This burial ground was adjacent to the first Catholic Church (built in 1776).   We know this burial ground pre-dated the church. 

In 1815, Auguste Chouteau gave notice that burials would no longer be allowed on his property and he sold the land in 1816.  The new owner transferred the bodies from his property - beginning a systemic practice in the St. Louis region of removing burials as land became more valuable. As land increased in value, bodies were dug up, transferred, and reinterred on property further from the center of St. Louis.  

In 1823, an ordinance was passed which stated "the practice of interring the dead in the Catholic burial ground in the center of town is prejudicial to the health of the citizens."  Following this ordinance, every time the city limits expanded, old cemeteries were closed and new cemeteries were started outside of the city limits. This occurred in 1841 (Eighteenth street), 1855 (one block west of Grand Ave.), and 1876 (Skinker Ave).  Each time, bodies were exhumed from the old cemeteries and transferred to the new cemeteries. 

Transfers of bodies and record-keeping relating to those bodies was poor.  Coffins and the bodies contained within were left behind in error.  Names were not recorded as having been transferred and not maintained with the deceased.  Denominational affiliations were often mixed up - when three denominational cemeteries at the intersection of Franklin and Pratte streets were closed,  Presbyterians and Methodists found their way into the vault of a Catholic church. 

Rural Cemetery Movement

While St. Louis struggled with establishing permanent city cemeteries, a rural cemetery movement was on-going in cities around the world where the development of attractive, park-like cemeteries was becoming a successful practice.  Eventually the rural cemetery movement reached St. Louis and in 1849, a group of St. Louis businessmen purchased the 138-acre property of Stephen Hempstead along Bellefontaine Road north of the city for this purpose. In 1849, the Bellefontaine Cemetery Association was formed and Almerin Hotchkiss was appointed superintendent. Under Hotchkiss, the cemetery property was expanded to 332.5 acres and he began laying out the winding park-like cemetery. The same year, the city was devastated by a cholera epidemic which killed one-tenth of the population, closing three cemeteries and forcing the opening of four more. The pressure was on for a better system of burial. 

Bellefontaine Cemetery was the first rural cemetery established in the St. Louis region - it opened in 1850.  The Catholic Archdiocese adopted a similar plan when it purchased land next to Bellefontaine in 1853 for what would become Calvary Cemetery.  In 1868, a third rural cemetery, Oak Hill, opened in St. Louis County in East Kirkwood.  Later St. Louis cemeteries - both denominational and commercial - would adopt the rural cemetery approach to their design. 

Catholic Cemeteries and Churchyards

There are three common types of Catholic cemeteries in the St. Louis region -  Parish Cemeteries or Churchyards, Small Cemeteries belonging to specific parishes or orders, and large Archdiocese cemeteries built in the Rural Cemetery Movement tradition. 

Parish Churchyards and Cemeteries  

In the early years of St. Louis, it was commonplace for a Catholic Parish to have a neighboring parish churchyard or cemetery.  These cemeteries were installed in geometric rows, close to one another, with little plans for what city growth would mean for their future. As the city expanded and the land increased in value, bodies were exhumed and transferred and the land sold off.  As example, over 2000 persons were buried next to the Old Cathedral at 2nd and Market before the cemetery was closed due to city ordinance. These burials were later transferred to a Catholic Cemetery at the intersection of Franklin-Pratte which bordered on  Methodist and Presbyterian Burial Grounds. Ultimately, the burials at Franklin-Pratte were removed to Calvary, Rock Spring, or the vault at Bridget of Erin church.

Other Parish Cemeteries - particularly in St. Louis County remain in their original location.  For example, the earliest burials at Our Lady of Assumption parish' cemetery date to 1796.   

Small Cemeteries

In the 1820s, as land became scarce, the Catholics began the process of opening new cemeteries further from the city center.  A French Burial Ground was opened in 1824 at 7th and Washington. The same year, a Catholic cemetery was opened at the intersection of Franklin and Pratte streets. These early small cemeteries only lasted a few years before bodies were exhumed and transferred to new plots further out. The record keeping of such transfers was very poor.  In the case of Franklin-Pratte: Methodists from the adjoining cemetery found their way into the vault in Bridget of Erin church.   

Transfer errors and poor record-keeping were not limited to city cemeteries. For example:  Old St. Ferdinand Cemetery in Florissant filled up in 1876. A New St. Ferdinand Cemetery was opened and the bodies were transferred - but not the headstones.  

Archdiocesan Cemeteries

The Archdiocese opened two cemeteries:  Calvary (1867) in the north and Resurrection (1928) in the south.  These cemeteries were constructed to have elements of rural cemeteries: locations outside the city, rolling hills, winding roadways, and planned landscapes. 
 

Protestant Churchyards and Cemeteries

The four earliest Protestant burial grounds in St. Louis city and county are Baptist, Methodist, and (Southern) Presbyterian.  Germans arriving in the late 1830s expanded upon this number with the proliferation of German Evangelical, Evangelical Lutheran, and Lutheran congregations.

Protestant Churchyards

The oldest protestant churchyard in St. Louis County was established by Fee Fee Baptist Church in 1814.  Protestant Churchyards were common in both St. Louis City and County.  Many congregations established a churchyard on the land neighboring the church building. The churchyard belonged to and was maintained by the congregation.  Protestant Churchyards followed a formal, geometric pattern in landscaping and in their burials.  Headstones were placed in straight north - south rows with text facing east. Any roads were straight and entered to the center and around the exterior of the yard.  Churchyards did not contain family plots.  Typically burials occurred one right after another - with the exception of the occasional spouse buried next to one another.  Landscaping followed the simple pattern with trees specifically selected for their simplicity (mostly Oaks and Cedars).  A sexton maintains the churchyard. 

Rural Protestant Cemeteries

Following the St. Louis cholera epidemic of 1849, Protestant Churches adopted the practices of the rural cemetery movement when designing their burial grounds. In 1855, German Evangelicals designed the first Rural Protestant Cemetery in St. Louis County - St. Peter's Cemetery on Lucas & Hunt Rd.  While established and maintained by congregations, these rural cemeteries were built in the county and abandoned the geometric simplicity of the churchyard design.  The Rural Protestant Cemeteries were often designed by civil or landscape engineers and featured rolling hills, trees, and family monuments.  Burial plots were sold in family lots, similar to their rural cemetery counterparts.  Many of these cemeteries later established an endowment for perpetual care - and have been well maintained due to this reason. 

Cemeteries Associated with Specific Denominations:

German Evangelical Cemeteries in St. Louis

This guide provides information about cemeteries related to congregations of the former Evangelical Synod of North America located in St. Louis City and County. The Evangelical Synod was a German Protestant denomination that in the course of several mergers has been incorporated into the present-day United Church of Christ.  The guide was compiled by the staff of the Eden Theological Seminary Archives and is made available here by permission. Records for some cemeteries listed in the guide are available on microfilm copies in the St. Louis County Library History & Genealogy Department.

A guide to German Evangelical Synod congregations in St. Louis is also available.

Jewish Cemeteries

Early Cemeteries

The first Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis were United Hebrew (Jefferson and Chouteau) and Camp Spring (Pratte street between Gratiot and Cooper) which were located in the area of the Mill Creek Valley train yard.  These cemeteries were established in the 1840s as places for Orthodox Jewish burials.  As with so many city cemeteries, the 1849 St. Louis Cholera epidemic filled the cemeteries rapidly and both groups had to establish new cemeteries in the county.  

County Cemeteries

Emanu El est. Mount Sinai Cemetery on Gravois Road in 1850 and transferred bodies there from Camp Spring in 1872.  United Hebrew est. a new cemetery in 1855 on Canton Ave. in what is today University City.  United Hebrew transferred bodies from the city in 1880.   Both congregations began to lean towards reform Judaism and in 1871, Sheerith Israel Congregation opened B'nai Amoona Orthodox cemetery at North and South Road. 

Eventually Mt. Sinai changed it's name to New Mt. Sinai.  The Mt. Sinai and United Hebrew cemeteries adopted a rural cemetery movement approach to burials with rolling hills and winding landscapes - this was in sharp contrast to the traditional orthodox B'nai Amoona. Chesed Shel Emeth at Hanley and Olive was opened in 1893 by Russian Orthodox.  Latvian Jews opened Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol on Ladue Road in 1901 and Chevra Kadasha was opened on North and South Road in 1922.  All of these Orthodox cemeteries were compact, crowded, but well cared for and strictly organized.  

African American Cemeteries

Early Burials

Prior to the civil war, enslaved African Americans were generally buried with the family who owned them.  Slaves are mentioned in the records of many public and protestant cemeteries as well as in family graveyards.  Free Blacks were generally buried in city-owned public cemeteries, potter's fields, or in Catholic cemeteries.  Unfortunately, early burials were often marked with fieldstones, wooden headstones or crosses, or personal items - all of which have disappeared. 

Church Cemeteries

There were many small African American church congregations that formed following emancipation and many of these churches had churchyards or cemeteries where they performed burials.  As with early protestant and catholic parish cemeteries, funds for perpetual care were not set aside and because burials in these cemeteries were free - little care was performed.  It was the responsibility of the families to maintain their loved one's graves.  

Commercial Cemeteries

 In 1874, Greenwood Cemetery opened on Lucas & Hunt near St. Peter's Cemetery. In 1903, Father Dickson cemetery was opened by the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor on Sappington Road in Crestwood.  In 1920, Andrew H. Watson opened Washington Park Cemetery on Natural Bridge Road.  All three cemeteries were built in the rural cemetery tradition.  However, unlike other rural cemeteries, no plans were established for perpetual care.  In the 1970s, control of the cemeteries transferred to new owners.  The new owners - discovering no funds for perpetual care - realized the only way to profit from the cemeteries was new burials.  The cemeteries quick fell into disrepair and soon became overgrown, vulnerable to vandalism, and other illegal activities.  Fortunately, in the 1990s concerns were raised and Greenwood Cemetery and Father Dickson Cemetery benefited from large scale volunteer restoration projects which continue to this day. 

Washington Park's story is more tragic. Interstate 70 projects and airport expansion resulted in large removal projects at the cemetery with thousands of burials removed. Other burials bordering on the airport or interstate were flooded by water disposition from the new infrastructure projects.  From September 1987-1989, new ownership did a particularly poor job of record-keeping, failing to record the section / lot / grave of a large number of burials.  Today, the cemetery is in extremely poor condition despite multiple active efforts to save it. Large portions of the property are overgrown and impossible to venture into without significant clean-up.  Burial markers are missing / damaged or completely lost to woods or water. 

Fraternal Organization Cemeteries

Early Burials

Many fraternal organizations established in St. Louis would provide members with burial and death benefits - including free burial spots for their members.  Many organizations purchased burial plots in Bellefontaine Cemetery. In 1890, the Woodmen of the World ( established in Omaha, NE) guaranteed their members prepaid burials. 

Fraternal Cemeteries

In 1877, the Deutsch Orden Harugari purchased two acres for members and their wives in Manchester.  In 1884, the Arminia Lodge of Deutsch Orden Harugari purchased two acres on Olive Street Road for a meeting lodge and cemetery.  Burials were probably free at both cemeteries. In 1881, the St. Louis lodges of Odd Fellows purchased five acres near Jefferson Barracks for a cemetery.

Commercial Cemeteries

20th Century

St. Louis was an early adopter of commercial cemeteries featuring attractive elements of rural design that were streamlined for ease of care. Unlike traditional cemeteries, these commercial cemeteries could provide expanded services for a profit.  The first of these cemeteries was Valhalla, established on St. Charles Rock Road in 1911. Valhalla was run by Charles B. Sims, a Chicago lawyer who had previously opened another for-profit cemetery in Mobile, AL in 1905. Sims' empire of cemeteries expanded in California, Alabama, Illinois, and Wisconsin. He also opened Mount Hope Cemetery in St. Louis County. In 1916, Hubert Eaton bought out Sims and hired Sidney Lovell to design the Valhalla Mausoleum. Lovell also designed Mausoleums at Mount Hope and Oak Grove cemeteries. 

In the years prior to the Great Depression, investors inspired by Sims purchased large tracts of farm land for commercial cemeteries. Park Lawn (1912), Memorial Park (1919), Lakewood Park (1920), Washington Park (1922), Lake Charles (1922), Mount Lebanon (1925), Hiram [Bellerive] (1925) were all established during this time period.   All of these cemeteries are rural movement inspired and many feature mausoleums which dramatically increase the capacity of the cemeteries. 

Family Graveyards

Family Graveyards were a common practice of rural protestants of southern or midwestern heritage.  As the local protestant churchyard or cemetery may have been a great distance from the family home, it was commonplace to bury several generations of loved ones in a cemetery plot on your families' land. Often these family plots contain several generations of family members as well as family slaves and freed blacks who lived near their former owners.  

Family graveyards were once common across St. Louis County anywhere a family might have been isolated.  As development pushed westward, many of the family plots have been exhumed and transferred to a protestant or community burial ground.  Those family plots which remain mostly exist in rural western edge of St. Louis County in Wildwood, Ellisville, Chesterfield, and Eureka. 

 Saint Louis City burial certificates, Jan. 1882 - Oct. 1908, on microfilm