Owsley Union Cemetery - near Powell, MO
N 36° 41.215 W 094° 12.844
15S E 391533 N 4060828
A large cemetery next to a small church in rural McDonald County, MO
Waymark Code: WMJCG1
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 10/29/2013
Views: 2
The Owsley Union Cemetery lies next to the Union Church. There were more than 2800 burials in the cemetery at the time of this posting. Although there were graves without dates, the earliest recorded grave is from 1855. By the way, those are not "orbs" in some of the original listing photos. The sun was very low, and it gleamed off of some of the grave markers -- even brighter to the naked eye than what the photos show.
Historically the name Union was used of churches that did not have a specific pastor or denomination. Usually preachers from different denominations came on a rotational basis and preached at such churches. However, in this area the name Union is very popular, even when applied to cemeteries and churches with a regular pastor.
The reason may stem from the Civil War. At that time, the areas just north of the Ozark plateau, such as this area, had been peopled by English and Germans who remained faithful to the Union, whilst those down in the hills and valleys, mostly Scots from Ireland, sided with those who wanted their independence from the Union. This is described in
this Google document on Ozark Pioneers.