From a news release
STE. GENEVIEVE – It is no surprise to find the oldest cemetery in Missouri in Ste. Genevieve, the oldest permanent European settlement west of the Mississippi River in what is now Missouri. Flooding of the Mississippi caused a gradual relocation from the original town site on the Mississippi to the present town location on a higher level.
Representatives of the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve cemetery committee, the City of Ste. Genevieve and Les Amis-St. Louis recently gathered at Memorial Cemetery to acknowledge major restoration and tree maintenance projects commencing in the cemetery.
By 1787, limited burials began at the New Town site. It was not until 1793 that Memorial Cemetery became the primary cemetery for the community. Catholics regardless of color or nationality were interred there and soon it also became the burial ground for non-Catholics as well. It is the final resting place of French families such as the Roziers, Valles, LeCleres, Lalumondieres, Thomures, LaRoses, and Beauvais’s, baptized Native Americans, and free and enslaved Blacks.
Also interred there are distinguished Missouri educator Joseph Hertich, legislators such as Senator Lewis Linn, and Missouri’s first US Representative, John Scott. Between 3500 and 5000 bodies are believed to be buried there and as a result, the cemetery was closed to burials in 1881.
Owned by and supported by the City of Ste. Genevieve, the cemetery‘s ongoing maintenance and preservation is managed and partially funded by the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve. The Foundation has been engaged at the cemetery in several activities, starting last March with a seminar on gravestone preservation, sponsored by the National Park Service. With the knowledge gained at the seminar, volunteers have been at work cleaning the stones and monuments at the cemetery. Recently, the Missouri Department of Conservation partnered with the Foundation to facilitate an inventory analysis and future care and maintenance plan for the many trees in the cemetery.
With a new $60,000 grant from Les Amis-St. Louis, a French cultural organization that advocates for and supports historic resources along our local French Creole Corridor, and support from the City of Ste. Genevieve, the Foundation will repair the cemetery’s iron fence and continue the restoration of the cemetery’s old gravestones and monuments. Members of the City, Foundation, and Les Amis recently met at the cemetery to review the proposed projects.
Les Amis president, Kina Shapleigh remarked during the discussion, “In this rapidly changing world, few things remain more certain today than our French history, and the legacy we wish to leave for future generations. Les Amis deeply appreciates the Foundation’s tireless work and dedication in preserving and protecting Memorial Cemetery in Sainte Genevieve.”
The Foundation and the citizens of Ste. Genevieve are grateful for Les Amis support.