Old Bryan Family Cemetery - Marthasville, MO
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member YoSam.
N 38° 37.294 W 091° 02.053
15S E 671131 N 4276615
Small family cemetery that draws a few thousand visitors each year because.....
Waymark Code: WMNXQ5
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/20/2015
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member Max Cacher
Views: 3

County of cemetery: Warren County
Location of cemetery: Boone Monument Rd., off MO-47, 1/2 mile S. of Marthasville.
Number of graves: 32 listed in family bibles

In 1799 Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the great Daniel Boone, acquired 40 Spanish Land Grants to colonize this area (then owned by Spain). The United States did not acquire this until 1804.
Of the family broght here by Daniel Morgan Boone, were his parents, [Daniel & Rebecca], his brothers [Nathan, Jesse] and their families, and his sister [Jemima Callaway] and her family, and his mothers family [The Bryan's].

This cemetery is located on the land grant issued to Rebecca's parents, Joseph Bryan. It was the first started, so used by other even though the rest of the extended family was spread around.
This is Marthasville area, the Callaway's were in Dutzow area, the Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone's were in the Mateo area, etc...

The link to Find-A-Grave where the creator of this listing did a very good job with his history and facts.


Daniel Boone has suffered body-snatching shenanigans but with a twist: He appears to have ended up in two graves.

Everyone agrees that Boone died at his son's home near Defiance, Missouri, in 1820. Everyone also agrees that he was buried nearby in Marthasville (about 14 mi. west), near the grave of his wife, Rebecca. But then the story gets muddled. The folks in Frankfort, Kentucky, would have you believe that Rebecca and Daniel were exhumed 25 years later and reinterred in Frankfort Cemetery. The marker near Defiance mentions the reinterment, but...

According to Defiance, Frankfort dug up the wrong body. The grave next to Rebecca's was already occupied when Daniel died, they say, so he was buried at her feet. Daniel's relatives were angry at Frankfort and didn't tell them about his true burial plot. They let Frankfort cart away the body next to Rebecca's, the body of a former slave.

Scientific scrutiny seems to support Defiance's claims. A forensic anthropologist studied a plaster cast of the skull in Frankfort's "Daniel Boone" grave in 1983 and said that it really belonged to a large black man. Frankfort, of course, pooh-poohed those allegations.

Both graves have worthy monuments. Frankfort's is bigger (that was, ostensibly, the reason for the move in the first place) but it's in a big cemetery and must share its surroundings with other dead people. The memorial near Defiance is out by itself, and it's worth remembering that Daniel Boone's own reason for leaving Kentucky was that it was "too crowded."

We say, since the marker is all you get to see anyway, it's a toss-up. Daniel Boone is buried in the spot easiest for you to get to on your next trip.

Case closed

In 2008 an ironic twist, the monument (or at least the bronze plaque) was stolen from the Daniel Boone grave stone. IN 2009 a composite plate was re-dedicated and all looks normal again. [P.S.: the police caught the thieves and they now reside in a celled room

City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Marthasville, Warren County, Missouri

Approximate number of graves: 32

Cemetery Status: Inactive Maintained

Cemetery Website: [Web Link]

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kJfishman visited Old Bryan Family Cemetery - Marthasville, MO 05/15/2016 kJfishman visited it