Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries: history

Buffalo head that is part of the William Clark Monument in Bethlehem Cemetery.

We also learned a lot of St. Louis history while going through these two cemeteries which are side-by-side. While Calvary is mostly a Catholic cemetery, Bellefontaine had people of all faiths. Together they make up over 700 acres of land in North St. Louis.

According to the website http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/history/walnut/text26.htm

Adjoining the Walnut Park area on the north are the City's two largest cemeteries, Bellefontaine and Calvary. They were established to provide outlying burial grounds to replace older ones near Jefferson Avenue, which lay in the path of the expanding city. Oldest of the two is Bellefontaine, which was founded in 1849 on 138 acres of the old Hempstead farm. Soon after its founding, an epidemic of cholera struck St. Louis to such an extent that fatalities numbered about ten percent of the population. An average of about thirty persons a day were interred at the new cemetery. After the epidemic, James E. Yeatman of the cemetery board, chose a young Brooklyn landscape architect to design the grounds. Almerin Hotchkiss remained as cemetery superintendent until his death 46 years later, when he was succeeded by his son for another twenty years. Bellefontaine's fine collection of trees is said to be due to the vigilance of the senior Hotchkiss, as are the winding roads and park-like beauty of the grounds. The roster of names of prominent St. Louisans buried there reads like a Who's Who list of the St. Louis citizenry. In later years, Bellefontaine was enlarged to reach its present area of more than 300 acres.

In addition to the Wainwright and Lemp Mausoleums, the Bellefontaine Cemetery also has one for the Busch's, Griesediecks and Anheusers---all beer barons. This is part of the Busch mausoleum decorated in hops. Originally, the Busches had a mausoleum that looked like a Swiss Chalet, but they were teased about it so much, they moved everyone to the "back yard", tore it down and re-built it to look like a miniature Gothic cathedral. They did, however, keep everyone in the backyard.

Above are the group from church who went on this tour: me, Nancy H., Sharon, Jean, Nancy S.
Busch Mausoleum with "back yard"

I thought David Francis tomb (below) was the most moving. David Francis was mayor, governor and the energy behind the St. Louis World's Fair.
Although this stone is not of anyone really famous, I thought it was interesting. This is for a riverboat captain named Sellers who went by the nickname "Mark Twain". Samuel Clemons adopted that name after Sellers' death.
Looking like the showman he was in real life, this is the tomb of Chris Von der Ahe---owner of the baseball team that became the St. Louis Cardinals. He had this erected 20 years before his death with his birth and death dates inscribed! He died of natural causes exactly on the day he'd predicted 20 years earlier. For more about the man who took his gate receipts to the bank in a wheelbarrow, read here.
But the most famous (based on the number of visitors) was William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
We learned he went from lieutenant to general by-passing all of the other ranks.
In addition to family members, several family slaves are also buried here.
The Clark Family Plot had a prime location at one time over-looking the Mississippi River. Although we could see the river in the distance, it now over-looks a trucking facility.
After briefly getting lost in Bellefontaine Cemetery, we went to Calvary Cemetery. According to the source mentioned earlier:
To the west, is Calvary Cemetery, the City's largest, which covers over 400 acres. It was established in 1858, under the direction of Archbishop Peter R. Kenrick. In the early 1850's, the cemetery's western portion was the Old Orchard Farm of James B. Clay, son of the famed Kentucky statesman. The old mansion on the site was later the archbishop's summer home. It was not razed until about 1950. Among notables buried in Calvary Cemetery are Auguste Chouteau, co-founder of St. Louis; General William Tecumseh Sherman, of Civil War fame; and members of the Lucas, Mullanphy and DeMenil families. A more recent grave there is that of Doctor Thomas A. Dooley, the founder of Medico, who was interred in 1961. Calvary is one of ten Archdiocesan Catholic cemeteries in the vicinity of St. Louis.
Although we didn't get to see all of those historics graves we did see the plot of General Tecumseh Sherman and his family---including his son's to the right. "Little Willie" died on the battlefield of natural causes while visiting his dad: he has a little drum on his stone.
Tennessee Williams epitaph was actually chosen by a friend according to this article I found on the internet: At first, Lady St. Just says, she had a difficult time deciding on the words she would place on Williams's tombstone. ''And I decided,'' she says, ''that the soul of Tennessee Williams is in this line from 'Camino Real': 'The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.' '' The essence of Tennessee was gentleness. He was the most gentle and compassionate person anyone could hope to meet. I feel blessed. He brought poetry into my life.''