Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

In this cemetery are the graves of a number of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) who were prominent in this section in the early days of Missouri. They include Oliver Cowdery, for a time a close friend and associate of Joseph Smith, founder through revelation, of that church. The large granite monument was dedicated November 22, 1911. More than two hundred people from Salt Lake City, headquarters of the church were present.

By agreement with the City of Richmond, after the cemetery had been abandoned for about seventy years, the church landscaped the area in 1949-50. Brush and rubbish were removed, headstones were restored where possible, new shrubbery, hardwood and evergreen trees were planted and the entire area sown to grass.

The land for this cemetery, first called the "Public Burial Ground," was deeded by John C. Richardson, August 13, 1846, to Charles R. Morehead, James M. Lapsely and George A. Dunn, trustees in trust, for "the sole and exclusive use of the inhabitants of the town of Richmond as a public burial ground forever." The price was $80.00 for approximately one acre. Its location on high ground was prompted when disastrous spring floods washed away the grave of Mr. Richardson's wife's mother in the Missouri River lowlands in 1844.

Here were buried some of the early pioneers and other prominent citizens of Richmond and vicinity. A new and larger cemetery, west of the city, was established about 1875. Some of the bodies were transferred there.

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