By Kyle Schrader
As he picks up flowers spilled by April showers, Kenneth
“Ken” Cox points to a grave etched as being shared by Benjamin, George, and
Dennis Lackland and explains, “When there was a flu epidemic, it was not
unusual to have two children buried together, or a mother and child.”
Cox, chairman of trustees of the Fee Fee Cemetery
Association, is perusing the grounds, located on Old Saint Charles Road in
Bridgeton. He notes the poor readability of the Lacklands’ grave marker: “It’s
worn limestone. Limestone just doesn’t stand up to the weather.” Lastly, he
points out that the monument, like many others there, is an obelisk (think
Washington Monument).
A man with appreciation for the details and history of Fee
Fee Cemetery, Cox has held his position as chairman for approximately a decade.
Before that, he “joined the church in 1986 and got on the board of trustees,
gosh, probably 20 years ago, give or take.”
Cox verifies the historical significance, stating, “It is
the first and oldest active cemetery west of the Mississippi.” That distinction
“used to belong to one down around Ste. Genevieve, but they closed it and the
church around 100 years ago.” He continues, “You’ve got old cemeteries out in
the woods somewhere, but we don’t know that.”
Besides the Lackland family name, one scanning headstones
might also see the locally recognizable Adie, Hickman, Hanley, Averill, and
Branneky surnames, just to name a few. Regarding family plots, Cox asserts,
“People bought lots back on the 1930s and are just now using the rest of them.”
But perhaps the most interesting resident in the cemetery is
Confederate soldier James Morgan Utz, who died in 1864. “He was caught as a spy
here in St. Louis,” Cox relates. “He didn’t claim innocence, but somehow
somebody got ahold of Lincoln for a pardon. He was hung the day after Christmas
in downtown St. Louis, wherever the Union headquarters was, because the pardon
was not in time.”
The original Fee Fee Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist
church west of the Mississippi, was organized in 1807, and the original church
structure was built when land was deeded for a church and cemetery in 1815.
That small wooden structure (the exact whereabouts of which remain unknown and
the subject of rumor and speculation) was replaced in 1828-1829 by the brick
Old Fee Fee Meeting House, which still stands today and is the oldest house of
worship in St. Louis County. In 1870, a new church building was erected at Fee
Fee and St. Charles Rock Road (then replaced by another church, the current
one, built at the same location in 1975), and the Meeting House was converted
into a cemetery office and caretaker home. It remains so to this day, with
caretakers Pat and Brenda Moutray residing there with son Chris.
Just behind the Meeting House is the “Preachers’ Area,” where
only past preachers of the church are buried. And as one drives up to the
Meeting House, to the right is “Cremation Garden,” where the ashes of the
deceased are laid to rest. There is also a gate still standing in the middle of
the yard, a gate to nowhere, as it were, that was put up in 1914. “It’s too
narrow now,” Cox clarifies. “A car or truck would tear it up,” as it was made
for buggies. He indicates a particularly large slab of a headstone, weighing
several tons, and marvels at how it must have been brought in via horse and
buggy.
Referring to some of the older burials in the cemetery, Cox
attests, “We do have some Revolutionary War burials in here, but they were
moved from other unknown cemeteries.” He adds that he has “no idea” about the
number of graves, because “there are a lot of unmarked graves.” He can,
however, often tell if the ground has been disturbed. “If the ground’s real
dry, sometimes I can tell whether it’s been disturbed or not.”
In addition to pointing out the popularity of obelisks on
the property, Cox comments that there are a number of headstones with Masonic
symbols, indicating the numerous Freemasons. And finally, he shares a story
about why Civil War-era Union headstones tend to be flat or curved at the top,
while their Confederate counterparts are often pointed like a rooftop: “So no
damn Yankee can sit on them,” or so the saying goes.
Occasionally, Pattonville High School brings its history
students to the cemetery for field trips. In 1957, Ruth E. Abraham wrote As
a Tree Planted, about the history of Fee Fee Cemetery, and as the rebuilding of
Fee Free Road afforded more space to be used for future burials, there is
undoubtedly more history left to be written.
