Memorial Cemetery - Ste. Genevieve, Missouri - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

 "Memorial Cemetery. North Fifth Street between Market and Jefferson streets. Early to late nineteenth century.  Property type: cemetery. The Memorial Cemetery, Ste. Genevieve's community cemetery beginning in the early nineteenth century, covers an area of approximately two square blocks bounded on the east by Fifth Street, on the north by Jefferson Street and the south by Market Street. A tall ashlar limestone retaining wall with stone slab capstones extends along much of the east boundary of the cemetery while the remaining sides are enclosed with wire fences. Wrought iron gates are hung from limestone gateposts on the east side of the cemetery property. The site of the cemetery is a sloping, tree-shaded hillside. A gully extends across the central portion of the cemetery property.

Graves are marked by a variety of types of monuments including box tombs, obelisks, truncated columns, flat stones, headstones, and small numbers of wrought iron crosses. Some of the headstones are surmounted by granite crosses. The most prominent obelisks include those erected for the Thomure family and for Senator Lewis Linn. The Linn monument is situated in one of three fenced plots in the eastern portion of the cemetery. The other fenced plots contain graves of the Rozier and Gregoire families. The cemetery is divided into three distinct sections: one for Catholic burials, one for Lutherans and a third for other Protestants. Over 50 Native Americans are buried in the cemetery as are an unknown number of slave and free African Americans. Some of the three dozen victims who died in the explosion of the steamboat Doctor Franklin II are buried in the cemetery, as well.

Among more recent markers is a stone crucifix near the center of the cemetery. The older graves are generally located in the eastern portion of the cemetery. Many of these graves are marked by granite obelisks mounted on granite plinths.

An incomplete list and map of those interred in the cemetery has been prepared. Review of the names and viewing of the grave markers indicates that members of the French, German and Anglo-American communities of Ste. Genevieve are all interred in the cemetery. Most of the older French graves are located along the Fifth Street side, while a small group of German graves, some lettered in German, are placed in the northwest comer of the property.

According to local records, one of the first burials at the cemetery was that of Antonio D'Oro. a captain in the Regiment of Louisiana and Military Commandant of Ste. Genevieve. Until the cemetery's official closure in 1881, the cemetery became the burial site of about 5,000 individuals. Almost half were children under six years of age. Among adult burials, about one-quarter were women under thirty. By the late 1870s, the cemetery had become seriously overcrowded with new burials often disturbing earlier graves. As a result, all new burials were prohibited after May 1882. One last burial occurred in 1894 when Odile Pratt Valle was interred in the Valle family plot."  ~ Historic District National Register Nomination Form