St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery - New Gascony, Arkansas - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The town of New Gascony was located in Jefferson County, close to the community of Cornerstone. The settlement was one of a few established in the prior to the 1829 incorporation of the county. Frenchman Antoine Barraque reached Arkansas in 1816 after serving with the army of Napoleon. He became proficient in the language of the Quapaw and established a trading relationship with the tribe which enabled him to acquire tracts of land below Pine Bluff. Eventually, a community developed around his cotton plantation which he named New Gascony, after his hometown in France. Barraque was a headstrong leader and persuaded the county government to move to New Gascony in 1832. However, after a special election was held the county seat was moved back to Pine Bluff.

New Gascony grew to include the first mill in the county, a store owned by Barraque and a river port. Reverend Patrick A. McGowan had St. Peter's church built in 1855. In the late 1880s the Cotton Belt Railroad was extended east through New Gascony.

St. Peter's Cemetery is the only burial ground representing New Gascony with interments beginning in 1827 and ending in 1927. The French and Spanish influences on the community began with Eulalie Vaugine, the granddaughter of Joseph Valliere, Spanish commandant of the Arkansas Post in 1787. Joseph's daughter Marie, married into the French Vaugine family and produced Eulalie, whose tombstone contains the earliest recorded death date in St. Peter's. Eulalie was the first wife of Creed Taylor who is buried beside her. Creed came to Arkansas in 1821 and became the first territorial sheriff of Jefferson County, and after Arkansas' admittance to the Union he was elected first county judge. He established the first sawmill in this sector of the state and donated heavily to the Catholic Church. After Eulalie died he moved his plantation nearer to New Gascony and married her first cousin, Mary Ann Valliere. After her death he married Mary Boone, granddaughter of Daniel Boone. Both Mary and Mary Ann were interred beside Creed at St. Peter's.

Several graves belonging to the Gracie family are gathered beneath the limbs of two large cedar trees. Creed Taylor's daughter Ann Elizabeth Taylor, married Pierce B. Gracie in 1848. Gracie had migrated to America from Castlecomer Kilkenny, Ireland in 1835. Pierce and Ann's son, John Gracie was selected as an original board member of the Colored Industrial Institute in Pine Bluff and was also vice president of the Bank of Pine Bluff. John Gracie and his father were postmasters at New Gascony. A station along the Pine Bluff Arkansas River Railroad was named for the Gracie family and the postal operation was moved there but at John's request it retained the name of New Gascony Post-Office. Gracie used convict labor to clear thousands of acres of land until 1906 when the practice was abandoned. He then turned to northern Italy for a new work force whom he provided with a four room cabin and one acre of land for a garden. The cluster of worker homes was located to the east of the cemetery. This accounts for names like Gacio, Fratesi, Mancini and Boccarossa, found on tombstones in St. Peter's. John Gracie, his wife and his parents also rest under the cedars in St. Peter's.

St. Peter's Cemetery bridges history to remind Arkansas of the settlement of New Gascony. The burial plot was nominated to the National Register under Criterion A with local significance with Criteria consideration D as a link to the past for descendants of those buried within its grounds and an example of an early multi-ethnic community. New Gascony's English, Irish, French, Spanish and Italian roots are demonstrated in the names found on St. Peter's tombstones.

Street address: Morgan Drive Altheimer, AR US 72004 County / Borough / Parish: Jefferson Year listed: 1998 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Exploration/Settlement Periods of significance: 1825-1949 Historic function: Cemetery Current function: Cemetery Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] National Historic Landmark Link: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed

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