Aug. 23, 2002 transcription of news broadcast on KFVS TV 12 news

Descendants Say Heartland Cemetery Made Grave Mistake

Some descendants of pioneers buried in one Heartland church cemetery say the church has made a grave mistake.

In July, around ninety of the oldest graves in the St. Agnes Cemetery in Bloomsdale, Missouri (formerly known as the St. Philomena Cemetery)were moved to make room for a school expansion. It's not so much the move that's causing the controversy, but the way the graves were moved.

According to local residents and witnesses, not only were the remains of some of the town's founding fathers picked up and reburied, their headstones were too! "The graves were all bulldozed and put into a mass grave, along with the headstones," says Ste. Genevieve County resident Joan Eydmann. "They're lost forever," she mourned on Tuesday afternoon, as she pointed out the unmarked patch of dirt which now covers both the remains and the headstones. "People will want to go back and look at their history, but it's gone. And these were the founders of Bloomsdale!" Local resident Linda Viox is also upset. She says many of her relatives' graves at St. Agnes were not moved, but this makes her worry that one day they could be. "It's just the way it was handled," she explained to Heartland News. "To me, I feel it wasn't done properly." Both women said they believed that the gravestones should have been individually preserved. "The gravestones should have been relocated," said Eydmann. "I realize the remains are probably pretty well decayed, because they're from the 1800's. But the headstones are a piece of art. They should've been maintained."

Not everyone agrees. Some parishioners point out that taking steps to preserve those graves would cost money, which the parish can't afford to spend on the past, while trying to build for the future. "As a parishioner of St. Agnes, I believe that the parish itself did everything legally correct," says Brenda Holst. "It may be upsetting to a lot of people that the graves were removed, but to expand the school, it had to be done."

There are documents that show that the St. Agnes Church and the St. Louis Archdiocese did follow all the proper legal procedures in moving the remains, from getting a judge's permission, to having some of the local descendants sign consent forms, to trying to let other descendants know about the move by putting ads in local papers. But Eydmann and Viox point out that not everyone who should have been notified reads local papers. One such person is Tom Stevenson, a Delaware resident, whose great, great-great, and great-great-great grandparents were among those whose remains were reburied. Even though Stevenson maintains an extensive genealogy website, including photo archives of most of the headstones at St. Agnes, he says he was never notified of the move. For now, Stevenson's website, www.genealogysource.com , is the only place descendants can visit those reinterred graves.

Stevenson, Eydmann, and Viox all say they'd just like to see the graves marked somehow, not only for their ancestors, but also for their own descendants. "I care about the historical aspect of Ste. Genevieve County. History is important," declared Eydmann. "My children or my grandchildren to come, that's the only thing they have to go by, is reading the books and seeing the cemeteries," added Viox. "That's the only history they have."

And that message has gotten through. Late Tuesday afternoon, Msgr. Richard Stika, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, issued the following statement:

"The Archdiocese of St. Louis regrets that a portion of a parish cemetery in Ste. Genevieve County was moved in a manner that leaves no markers to identify persons who had been buried in the space which the parish needed for a school expansion. Having recently been made aware of this situation and the concern it has caused for the descendants of persons buried at St. Agnes Cemetery in Bloomsdale, the Archdiocese is pleased to fund the construction and installation of a monument that will mark the names, and dates of persons who had been buried at the site....Christian burial is a sacred rite that should be supported by perpetual stewardship. As such, it is only fitting that a memorial should be constructed that will mark the burial spot of Catholic fore bearers in Ste. Genevieve County who helped to build a vibrant church there."

Aug. 22, 2002 article in the Ste. Genevieve Suntimes News

Aug. 28, 2002 article in the Ste. Genevieve Herald

Letter to the Editor of the Ste. Genevieve Herald

We are hoping to establish guidelines to help protect cemetery stones for future generations. Please check this page for updates, or join the Ste. Genevieve Genealogy email-list, the Missouri Cemeteries email-list or the Missouri Cemetery Preservation email-list.