Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis)
Calvary Cemetery | |
---|---|
United States of America | |
Coordinates | 38°41′42″N 90°14′18″W / 38.69502°N 90.238244°W |
Type | Catholic |
Owned by | Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis |
Size | 470 acres (190 ha) |
No. of graves | 300,000 |
Website | Calvary Cemetery |
Find a Grave | Calvary Cemetery |
Calvary Cemetery is a
History
In 1849 a cholera epidemic struck St. Louis and claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people. This disaster prompted city officials to pass an ordinance banning the creation of new cemeteries within city limits, as it was thought that such a measure could prevent additional people from becoming sick. At the same time, existing cemeteries in St. Louis were nearly full and had no room to expand.
Recognizing the need for a new rural cemetery, Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick purchased Senator Henry Clay’s “Old Orchard Farm” in 1853, located several miles northwest of St. Louis. Kenrick initially set aside the eastern half of the 323-acre farm for a new cemetery, and kept the western half for himself, where he lived for many years in the former Clay Mansion. Calvary Cemetery opened for burials in 1854, with Archbishop Kenrick as its first president.[citation needed]
Prior to the establishment of Calvary Cemetery, parts of the Clay farm had served as a burial place for Native Americans and soldiers from nearby
Space for full-casket traditional burials is available for the next 300 years at Calvary Cemetery, according to Archdiocesan sources. Many former St. Louisans choose to be returned to Calvary for burial, including August Chouteau X, a great-great-great grandson of the city's founder, who lived most of his life in
In 2003, a
Notable Calvary burials
- Louis Auguste Benoist (1803–1867), pioneer banker and financier
- Mary Odilia Berger (1823–1880), founder of Franciscan Sisters of Mary, which operates hospitals in Midwest
- Thomas Biddle (1790–1831), military hero during the War of 1812; killed in a duel with Missouri Congressman Spencer Pettis on Bloody Island
- Lewis V. Bogy (1813–1877), United States Senator (1873–1877)
- Martin Stanislaus Brennan (1845–1927), Catholic priest, scientist, and author
- Patrick E. Burke (c. 1830–1864), officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, Missouri state legislator
- Thomas Ambrose Butler (1837–1897), Irish-American priest and poet
- The Wizard of Ozfilm
- Philando Castile(1983-2016), victim of high-profile police shooting
- Mayor of St. Louis(1965–1973)
- Louis Chauvin (1881–1908), ragtime musician
- Kate Chopin (1851–1904), author
- Oscar Chopin (1873–1932), newspaper cartoonist
- François Chouteau (1797–1838), fur trader and businessman, founder of Kansas City, Missouri
- René Auguste Chouteau(1740–1829), fur trader, co-founder of the city of St. Louis
- First Lieutenant and Medal of Honorrecipient
- Jesuit priest and missionary to the Native Americans
- Thomas Anthony Dooley III (1927–1961), physician and humanitarian
- Charles and Ray Eames, designers and architects
- James Brailsford Erwin (1856–1924), brigadier general
- Daniel M. Frost (1823–1900), brigadier general in the Confederate States Army
- Anthony Giordano (1915–1980), boss of the St. Louis crime family
- Chief Engineer of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
- Robert E. Hannegan (1903–1949), St. Louis politician
- Martin Wilkes Heron (1850–1920), bartender and mixologist, creator of the liqueur known as Southern Comfort
- John Joseph Kain (1841-1903), a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Saint Louis
- Ted Kennedy (1865–1907), inventor of the baseball catcher's mitt, baseball pitcher, and sporting goods manufacturer, in Baseball Hall of Fame.
- Peter Richard Kenrick (1806–1896), first Catholic archbishop west of the Mississippi River
- Thomas Hart Bentonon Bloody Island
- Old Courthouse
- Alexander McNair (1775–1826), first governor of the state of Missouri (1820–1824)
- Virginia Sarpy Peugnet (1827–1917), one of the three original grand dames of St. Louis, Missouri.
- Reconstruction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/The_grave_of_poet_and_playwright_Tennessee_Williams_in_Calvary_Cemetery%2C_St._Louis%2C_Missouri.jpg/220px-The_grave_of_poet_and_playwright_Tennessee_Williams_in_Calvary_Cemetery%2C_St._Louis%2C_Missouri.jpg)
- Thomas C. Reynolds (1821–1887), Confederate governor of Missouri from 1862 to 1865
- Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016), A movement conservative and author known for leading the opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment
- U.S. Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Ellen Ewing Sherman(1824–1888), wife of General William Tecumseh Sherman
- William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), U.S. Army general, noted for his "March to the Sea" through Georgia during the Civil War. Sherman was not Catholic.
- Antoine Soulard (1766–1825), last Surveyor General of Upper Louisiana for the Spanish government
- Marie Julia Cérre Soulard (1775–1845) was an American landowner. Soulard donated the land that hosts Soulard Farmers Market to the city of St. Louis, Missouri.
- Raymond Tucker (1896–1970), mayor of St. Louis (1953–1965)
- John Wesley Turner (1833–1899), Union Army general during the Civil War
- Cosa Nostraboss in St. Louis
- James Wall (1863–1927), comedian and minstrel
- Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright
- St. Louis Jane Doe (?–1983), an unidentified child who was found murdered in an abandoned house. She is buried in the Garden of Innocents, a section of the cemetery designated for unidentified decedents
See also
- List of United States cemeteries
- Bellefontaine Cemetery
References
- ^ "Calvary Cemetery Website", accessed 14 Jun 2013
- ^ "Calvary Cemetery Website", accessed 14 Jun 2013
- ^ "Idaho Catholic Register" Archived 2012-12-11 at the Wayback Machine, 16 Mar 2012
External links
- Calvary Cemetery Website
- Calvary Cemetery at Find a Grave
- “Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri,” The Monumental News, June 1894, pp. 283–285.