Monday, December 29, 2014

A Tardy Pardon and Other Buried Treasures



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.