Courtesy of Library of Congress and
State Historical Society of Missouri

Fort Bellefontaine Park
near 38.829779,-90.2181064
Historical Cemetery
Established: 1809
Closed: 1826
Size: 0.0 acres
Burials: 33
Graves moved: 1904

Click on this image to see the cemetery boundary georeferenced in a Google Maps interface.
Image courtesy of the year 2018 ArcGIS layer from St. Louis County GIS Center

GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 38.829779 Longitude: -90.2172351 Click here for a Google map.

The Old Forte Belle Fontaine Cemetery was established in 1809, when then Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Bissell moved the original Fort Belle Fontaine encampment to a new location. The cemetery was located about 100 yards or so southwest from the Cantonment buildings, which during the period of 1805 to 1826 had interments of at least thirty to forty military officers, and about 100 enlisted soldiers. (1) The location was confirmed to be along the bluffs on the south bank of the Missouri River about a hundred yards southeast along the bluff past the old abandoned block house, when W. T. Norton visited the site in 1911. At that time the old cemetery on the bluff was strewn with rocks and mortar, the debris of old tombs. All the tombs were in a more or less ruinous condition. The tombs were built of masonry, about two feet above the ground, and upon them rested the memorial tables. Most of the inscriptions were illegible.(2)

In 1904, newspaper stories, most notably in The St. Louis Republic, recorded the recovery and moving of thirty-three burials with headstones to the newly established Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Therefore, a considerable number of unmarked burials still remain at the now decertified cemetery. The article in The St. Louis Republic included rough photos and drawings of the site. (3)

This old cemetery is not related to the Bellefontaine Cemetery established in 1849 on the road leading to Fort Belle Fontaine and initially called the Rural Cemetery.(4)

Cemetery Specific Data Notes

1) Browman, David L., Cantonment Belle Fontaine 805-1826 The First U.S. Fort West of the Mississippi River, Washington University In St. Louis Press, 2018, pages 4 and 7.

2) Norton, W. T., Old Fort Belle Fontaine, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 4 No. 3, University of Illinois Press, Oct. 1911, pages 337 and 338.

3) Heroes of Fort Bellefontaine Now Rest at Jefferson Barracks, The St. Louis Republic, April 10, 1904, page 41.

4) Billon, Frederic Louis (1888). Annals of St. Louis in Its Territorial Days, from 1804 to 1821. 9780598280671, 0598280677: published by the author. p. 390.

Additional Resources

Fort Belle Fontaine Park, St. Louis County Parks Department

Find A Grave Old Fort Belle Fontaine Cemetery and Unknown Soldiers of Fort Bellefontaine Memorial

 

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Last modified: 18-Nov-2024 17:52