Civil War History Marked in Stone

In today’s world, the tolerance for monuments to the “Lost Cause” are under attack. Although Kansas City doesn’t have large monuments in public spaces like New Orleans and Charleston, the area was under intense fighting as a severed line between Union and Confederacy.

Confederate monument in Forest Park, St. Louis
Photo courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch

There are small memorials to both sides of the fighting in private cemeteries across the area. One memorial erected by a local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy remained practically unnoticed in the middle of one of the busier intersections in town until a resident, likely inspired by the very-public removal and scrutiny of Southern statues being removed around the country, called attention to it.

Erected in 1934 and donated to the city, the monument “In Loving Memory to the Loyal Women of the Old South” originally graced parkland on the Plaza. It was moved to 55th and Ward Parkway in 1958 and remained camouflaged as millions of car raced passed it over the years.

It was simply another statue in the center of Ward Parkway surrounded by trees and green spaces.

This cement bench and shaft was in honor to the women who suffered during the strife of the war. Other large monuments- like Robert E. Lee in New Orleans- were met with cheers and tears as they were torn down. A St. Louis monument to the Confederate dead in Forest Park was disassembled and hidden from view in June 2017. The memorial to the women of the South remained untouched and unoffending until all hell broke loose in the media.

DOC Monument that sat at 55th and Ward Parkway, removed August 2017 to
an undisclosed location

All of these monuments have one thing in common-

They were on public parkland and in public spaces.

In Forest Hill Cemetery, 75 unmarked graves are a part of this area’s Civil War history. This Confederate burial ground wasn’t their first resting place; they were first buried where they fell, then moved to a small burial ground and finally made their way to an area marked with a monument - a monument that remains in a quiet, undisturbed cemetery in the heart of our city.

This is a place that should remain untouched.

Byrum’s Ford to the Gettysburg of the West

Gen. Sterling Price, CSA

On 63rd St. north of the Kansas City Zoo is parkland dedicated as the Big Blue Battlefield Park. This place, also known as Byram’s Ford, is the gateway to the showdown that happened just south of Brush Creek. At the Battle of Westport, Confederate Gen. Sterling Price, with approximately 8,500 troops- some of which were bushwhackers- launched an attack against 22,000 men led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis on October 22-23, 1864.

The numbers speak to the outcome; this was the end of Price’s Raid on Missouri and the last major Confederate military operation west of the Mississippi.

Gen. Sterling Price’s defeat at the Battle of Westport would have the bushwhackers following him south, thus virtually ending guerrilla warfare along the border. 1,500 soldiers were killed, captured and wounded in what many would coin “The Gettysburg of the West.”

Burial of the Unknown Confederate Casualties

The healing process post-war for those a part of “The Lost Cause” was to memorialize their memories in speeches and in stone. During Reconstruction, no one had the money to invest in the proper burial of so many that fell on the battlefields.

Around 1866, a local man named George W. Briant told some of his friends that if they would remove the bones of these Confederate soldiers from the trenches, he would give them a proper burial place.

Briant deeded a small fraction of his land to the Byram’s Ford Internment Association so that men hastily buried along the battleground could be placed in a proper cemetery. The cemetery was on the southeast corner of current-day Troost Ave. and Self Ave. (now Gregory), and they started removing unknown soldiers to this location. The cemetery became known as both the Confederate Soldier’s Cemetery and the Self Cemetery.

Overlay map on an 1877 atlas showing the location of the Confederate Cemetery. The area is marked with a cross and "Confed"

Even though today we mark the location of the Battle of Westport at Loose Park, the battle was much, much larger than this and included thousands of acres of farmland. The Battlefield Trust places the core battle area as just north of the Plaza, extends to Forest Hill Cemetery to the south, from State Line to the west and east to where Research Hospital is today. Just south of the Ward house (now 55th and Ward Parkway), over a dozen soldiers with no names or ranks known were buried in the trenches. Judge A.M. Allen of Westport commented, “I saw those Confederate buried the day they were killed.”

Col. Upton Hays 

Those unknown soldiers were moved to this location.

On May 20, 1871, thousands gathered at the little burial ground to honor five bodies that had been removed from local farms that were part of the Battle of Westport. They had been interred without known names or ranks.

Joining these unknown soldiers at the Confederate cemetery was one colonel idolized for his service. Col. Upton Hays, a 30-year-old local man-turned-militant, had fallen in Newtonia, Mo. in 1862 with a bullet through the head. Earlier in the summer before his death, Upton Hays and Dick Yeager, one of Quantrill’s lieutenants, had arrived in Westport with six others. They went to the home of Dr. Boggs and “demanded a large Union flag known to be in his charge, which of course he was compelled to deliver over.”

According to Deryl P. Sellmeyer in Jo Shelby’s Iron Brigade, “[Hays] had used the flag as the lining for his overcoat, and it formed part of the shroud in which he was buried.”

It was at his family’s wishing that Col. Upton Hays be re-interred at the only Confederate cemetery in Jackson Co. Those present when he fell were able to identify the grave outside of Newtonia, dig him up and carry him back to Jackson Co.

Civil War soldiers at Battle of Westport reenactment
Courtesy battleofwestport.org

As the crowd gathered, words of honor were bestowed upon the fallen Confederate colonel. “Col. Upton Hays was a Missourian. He was a man that never knew an hour of fear. . . He was brave, generous, true, devoted, noble- a patriot.”

Present also on this monumental day was James Barnes Yager (1809-1883), a man who served two terms at the state legislature and five terms as a judge in Jackson Co. His son, Richard Francis “Dick” Yeager, was a “notorious Missouri guerrilla” who served under Quantrill as one of his trusted lieutenants.

During the Border Wars, Yeager’s name graced headlines across the country as being a tyrant torturing Kansas towns. He sacked Shawneetown, Blackjack and was present at the Lawrence Massacre. At just 25 years old, Dick had developed quite the reputation.

As early as June 1864, it was reported by Union soldiers that Dick Yeager had been killed near the Jackson/Lafayette Co. border. News spread like wildfire, so when newspapers reported in early August 1864 of his death in Arrow Rock, the headlines read “Dick Yeager Killed Again.”

From the Wyandotte Commercial-Gazette, Aug. 6, 1864

The accepted death of Dick Yeager is that of the encounter in August 1864. As guerrillas robbed safes and stores in Arrow Rock, it was said that Yeager was shot through the top of the head. Two doctors in Arrow Rock examined the wounds and “thought they were of such character he could not recover, his brains exuding from two places.”

The guerrillas, with Dick in tow, we were said to have headed back to Jackson Co.

So when the little Confederate cemetery at the corner of Self Ave. and Troost was dedicated, it was only proper that Dick Yeager be re-interred there as well. Due to the complications of his death date, the stone today simply reads “1864.”

Shelby's Last Stand marker inside
Forest Hill Cemetery

Confederate Cemetery in Danger

By 1890, as roads were being widened, the cemetery that had simple rocks marking those buried there was being threatened. It was proposed in the Kansas City Star that they “may move bodies to Forest Hill and erect an appropriate monument.” Forest Hill Cemetery, started in 1888 and built upon the land of David Self (namesake of the Confederate cemetery), was just across the street from the infringed-upon cemetery and held 320 acres of land between Troost Ave. and Prospect Ave.

By this point, at least 70 unidentified bodies had been moved to the little space. Many of these soldiers were said to have served under Gen. Jo Shelby.

Rather fittingly, Forest Hill sat on the site of Gen. Jo Shelby’s last battle against the Union troops. Today, there is a marker inside the cemetery commemorating “Shelby’s Last Stand.” It was stated that the Confederate cemetery held the remains “among the best and bravest in Shelby’s command.”

Clipping from Elsmore Enterprise, Feb. 19, 1897

Between 1893 and 1894, the seventy-something bodies of Confederate soldiers along with Col. Hays were moved for a third and final time to lots donated by Forest Hill Cemetery.

Today, the location of what was once Jackson County's only Confederate cemetery is a car lot surrounded by large chain link fence and barb wire.

When Gen. Jo Shelby, then a 67 year old U.S. Marshal of the Western District, fell ill with pneumonia in February 1897, the discussion began as to where was a fitting place to bury the Confederate hero. The Ex-Confederate Veteran’s Association owned many lots near where the 70-something graves had been moved from the Self Cemetery, so it was determined they would make space for Shelby and his whole family.

Gen. Jo Shelby

Stephen Regan, a prominent Kansas Citian and Confederate veteran, was part of the Ex-Confederate Association’s committee that helped to move the remains from the old cemetery to Forest Hill. He had called on Jo Shelby weeks before his death and said that the old General had told him, “Captain, have you any room for me in that burying ground out at Forest Hill for me? When I die, I want to be buried there among my old soldiers.”

When Gen. Jo Shelby passed away peacefully in his home in Adrian, Mo. on Feb. 13th, the family decided “to bury General Shelby beside his comrades of the Confederacy in Forest Hill cemetery, Kansas City.”

The Movement for a Monument

The bodies had been moved together inside Forest Hill, but there still was no monument to mark them. At the turn of the century, the Daughters of the Confederacy moved to change this. They hosted balls, concerts and lectures to raise the $5,000 needed.

Dr. Jeremy Neely, Civil War and military history professor at Missouri State University, understands the influx of the movement for monuments during this time period. “I think that Confederate memorials say as much, and perhaps more, about the people who raised them and the period in which they were erected than the people of the Civil War generation,” Neely commented.

The monument "In Memory of Confederate Dead" was erected in
1902 by United Daughters of the Confederacy 

Memorial Day 1902, thousands gathered, including several hundred ex-Confederate soldiers, near the southeast corner of Forest Hill to see the monument “In Memory of Our Confederate Dead” unveiled. The project was backed by some of the most prominent men of the city.

They had talked of placing the monument on The Paseo or another spot on the battlefield; however, many men, including former mayor of Kansas City Turner Gill, believed Forest Hill was the most appropriate place because “that is where the bodies lie of the men whose memory it is proposed to perpetuate.”

Today, we should be glad the monument made it inside private gates.

The Monument Today

It’s hard to miss the monument inside Forest Hill Cemetery, yet so many don’t know it is there. Perched upon the top of a granite shaft high above the air is a Confederate soldier facing north. Inscribed on the monument reads: Erected by the Kansas City Chapter, 149 UDC, to the memory of 75 Confederate soldiers representing the states of Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois who fell at the Battle of Westport, October 23, 1864.

Dr. Neely believes that monuments are a part of our history. “Situated in highly public places, such as parks and cemeteries, monuments weren't just history, a remembering of what had happened in a particular place, but a conscious celebration of one person, event, or part of the past that civic leaders decided were worthy of honor.”

Today, we know that only one side of history- the history of the Lost Cause- is represented on this monument erected in the shadows of the Jim Crow era. “One of the most glaring problems with these Jim Crow era monuments was that they reflected the values and nostalgia of only one part of the body politic--white former Confederates,” Neely said.

Unlike the monument removed in 2017 public land at 55th and Ward Parkway, this monument amongst fallen soldiers rests on private property and many men that fought for the Lost Cause are buried all around it. It’s not the only remaining marker to Confederate soldiers in the area, but it holds importance in the fight to save those unmarked graves of fallen men left in the trenches of the battlefield.

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The Struggle to Save Historic Mount Pleasant Cemetery in South Kansas City

Harvey Holmes Kemper III, known as Kurt to friends and family, moved leaves aside as he searched for his great-great-grandfather, Urial Holmes’ final resting place. “It’s got to be here somewhere,” he commented as he clutched a 2012 photo of the gravestone.

Hiding underneath a carpet of leaves are hundreds of stories of survival, triumphs and the tragedies of pioneer life. In one historic cemetery in South Kansas City, an effort to revitalize and preserve what is left is underway.

Boy Scouts and volunteers work to bag leaves and brush on April 14th

When I started this journey several years ago, my first love, New Santa Fe Cemetery, was my inspiration. As a little girl, I fought the colonies of mosquitos in the summer and raced around the graves just up the street from my home. That cemetery was my catalyst even at seven years old, and I watched as the modest cemetery grew through preservation efforts, an added fence, and a little grass seed into one of the most beautiful pioneer cemeteries in all of Jackson County.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery hasn’t had its chance to shine- yet.

Sandwiched in between houses in Timber Hill Estates off 125^th Pl. and Wornall Rd. is Mount Pleasant Cemetery, also referred to in records as the King Burying Ground.  As early as 1840, before settlement was even legal, pioneers began using this land atop one of the rolling hills of Jackson Co. First, William King settled on the land and after his death and burial in 1857, the land passed to his children. In 1878, what was once known as King Burial Ground was renamed “Mount Pleasant Cemetery,” most likely due to the name of the country school only a few hundred yards away. By 1885, the land was sold to Joshua Self, son of John Self who is also buried at this sacred location. Today, the cemetery stands in a shadow of its former glory.

Avila University Day of Service volunteers 

A group of about 25 dedicated volunteers spent Saturday, April 14^th armed with rakes, chainsaws and hundreds of leaf bags in order to spruce up the burial ground that has fallen into disrepair. A team of Avila University’s “Dear Neighbor Day” volunteers, Boy Scout Troop 531, and passionate history buffs came to assist the effort to clean up six years’ worth of leaves, broken branches, and fallen headstones lying on their side.

Kurt Kemper's son is part of the Boy Scouts who volunteered to help the family find the resting place of their relative. Kurt's own father, Harvey stood in the shadows, overwhelmed that even as the leaves were removed, the headstone of his own great grandfather appeared to be missing. “This just isn’t right,” he commented as he shook his head side-to-side with a few tears welling in his eyes.

And there I stood, unable to give him a resolution.  It appeared to be gone.

A photo from 1999 showing Mount Pleasant Cemetery's condition

Urial Holmes (1811-1855), a Tennessee native who came to Jackson Co. in 1853 and settled near the Red Bridge, passed away at 43 years old in 1855. He, like many of the pioneers of southern Jackson Co., was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. His own son, also named Urial, relayed to the DAR that this gravesite was used for burials many years prior to even the deaths documented then.

In the 1934 survey of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, 43 graves still remained surrounded by private farmland held onto by the Self family. Descendants owned the land for many, many years until a developer bought the land and platted out Timber Hills Estates in 2003.

Headstones remain on their sides, and in
some cases, upside down at the cemetery

Because the cemetery was separated from land records (including one acre and ten feet square on the northeast corner), the developer never could morph the cemetery into a manicured lot to sell. So, the developer built right up to it. Somehow, the clause including the ten feet square in the northeast corner was… left out of the records of sale and only the one acre remained. The ten feet square described in 1960 as a “burial ground” is now part of a driveway.

Former residents of the subdivision informed me that the developer, in order to build near the cemetery, had to enclose the one acre with a fence. The developer complied, and a wrought iron fence borders three of the four sides.

To be clear, the cemetery was a mess for nine years, minus a few Boy Scout projects, as people bought lots and began construction on their homes. Building material was tossed into the dilapidated,  overgrown graveyard as Timber Hills Estates germinated into suburbia. We found building material scattered along the fenceline at the cleanup.

John Humphrey, a local lawyer with a taste for local history, discovered Mount Pleasant Cemetery when his parents began construction on a home in the subdivision in 2006.

He vividly recalls how incredibly peaceful this spot was in South Kansas City, tucked away and forgotten amidst the forest on top of the hill. The south side of the cemetery came to a downward slope. As John squirmed through the brush, trees and leaning headstones, he could hear running water below. A small creek peacefully passed through the natural landscape.

John Self (1803-1889)

“I can still see and feel vividly standing at that edge, basking in the warmest glow of the golden sun on my face, feeling incredulous that there was still this hidden heavenly wilderness in the middle of the part of town in which I'd grown up,” John fondly recalled.

This place was special, and he could sense the spirituality left behind by pioneers. “As I basked, I felt whatever it is one might feel when they are deeply touched by the lives and spirits of those who trod the same patch of earth before them,” John remembered.

It’s this moment that led John to ongoing efforts to help save what was left of the cemetery. And boy, how I am grateful to have him by my side.

In 2007, a cleanup led by Doug Vaughn of Fresno, Ca., descendant of John Self who is buried in the cemetery, reset headstones upright, removed many trees and placed two markers at the entrance of the cemetery.

John Self (1803-1889) was a true pioneer of Kansas City. He made the clapboards for the Chouteau warehouse and, according to his obituary, “helped to clear up the woods on the hills where Kansas City now stands.”

His grave is one of the few remaining, yet I find it quite ironic he is now overtaken by trees.

Ground Penetrating Radar report from 2012. Courtesy of Construction Solutions, Paola, Ks.

Ground Penetrating Radar was completed in 2012 at another cleanup initiated by Boy Scouts. Through this technology, one can see what anomalies or disturbed earth which lies below the surface. 76 grave sites were noted on the report and 35 headstones were found- four of which were buried underground.

2012 photo showing the overgrowth after just a few years of neglect

76 pioneers.

=35 headstones remained in 2012, and I counted 19 just the other day.

Even after the cleanup in 2012 relieved a majority of the chaos inside the fence line, the one acre tract continued to transform more into more of a vacant lot than a peaceful, historic cemetery. And, in my opinion, it is still exposed to vandals today. How else can we explain how graves seem to be missing in just six years?

When the first burials of Mount Pleasant Cemetery were interred, this section of Jackson Co. was not even open to legal settlement. Some families, such as John Shelton (1788-1854), took a gamble and moved from Virginia and squatted on land illegally just south of current-day Grandview, Mo. His five year-old son passed away in 1840 and was the oldest burial on record at the cemetery.

His stone has vanished after years of neglect and vandalism, as did the rest of the Shelton family's graves.

The remains of William M. See's above-ground vault
that was in exquisite condition in 1934

A photo from 1999 reveals that at least one of the Sharp family's headstone was completely in-tact. Tilman B. Sharp (1805-1889) was left standing then. But there is absolutely no sign of his grave now.

Another section of the cemetery showcases the remains of where an above-ground vault once stood atop the hills and was built for someone traveling on the Santa Fe Trail. According to the DAR Vital Records book published in 1934, this vault was built for William M. See who died at 21 years old in 1849 “while enroute west with his parents” and “after 84 years, the marble head stone and vault, above ground, are in excellent condition.”

 Only fragments of this vault remain, thus virtually erasing this burial from the site.

A small piece of headstone with the words "Nellie" was
discovered during the cleanup

John Humphrey jumped at the chance to help at the cleanup in 2012 and documented the discoveries on his camera.

He returned April 14^th and 28th of this year (2018) to assist yet again. He was surprised to see how much had changed in the years since the first cleanup. “It’s very disappointing to me that in so few years there are far fewer tombstones and grave markers than there were then.”

Adonna Thompson, Archivist at Avila University and leader of the team from the school, gingerly cleared off a small remnant of a headstone revealed as the leaves were hauled away. “It says ‘Nellie,’” she smiled as she brushed away the debris.

Only one “Nellie” is in the 1934 survey of the cemetery, and this 1890 grave of a one-year-old is still upright.

Adonna discovered a new grave – or, at least a piece of one- that has remained buried under brush for over 100 years.

Impressions in the earth show the locations of unmarked graves

“Avila was inspired to give back to our local community by helping to restore this cemetery,” Adonna explained. “Saving these culturally significant places is meaningful to Avila University and to me.”

As leaves were carefully removed by Boy Scouts, Avila University volunteers, and history buffs that answered my plea for help, large indentions in the ground were exposed.

These pits are indicators of graves. When burial vaults are not utilized, the coffins decompose and the ground sinks. These craters have become markers of graves by themselves. No headstone is needed to know someone lies beneath.

Urial Holmes (1811-1855)

Kurt Kemper walked the dirt floor of the cemetery one last time at the end of the cleanup April 14th to see if he could spot his great-great-grandfather’s grave. He was hoping to show it to his son who was there with his Boy Scout troop. Unfortunately, he was met with disappointment as the last leaf bags were carried to the curb. “We would like to find out where his tombstone has run off to since it has rested there peacefully for the last 160 years until recently it went missing,” Kemper explained.

The work wasn’t completed, and as I bundled up in the 39 degree weather, I, too, had to walk away for the day. After four hours of labor at the first cleanup on April 14th, we removed 297 bags of leaves and debris from the one acre landscape of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Piles of leaves and sticks remained, but I’m a pit bull. I wasn’t about to stop.

The following week, I returned to survey the cemetery, combing each section as carefully as I could. My eyes darted from my clipboard to the stones in front of me. I took photos of everything that I thought we may have missed.

As the sunlight peeked through and glittered the ground around me, I glanced to my right. There, standing before me, the headstone resting on its base, was Urial Holmes’ grave.

I fumbled for my phone, emotional and eager to pass along the good news to the Kemper family who had desperately searched under leaves for the remains of Urial. In all caps, I sent a simple text to Kurt: I FOUND URIAL!

Harvey Kemper gazes at his great-grandfather's grave
for the first time in decades with his grandson

Less than two hours later, the family gathered at the resting place of their descendant, overwhelmed and relieved that Urial Holmes had escaped vandalism.

So many others that chose Mount Pleasant as their final resting place weren’t so lucky.

Two weeks after the initial cleanup, a small group gathered again to finish what we had started. Broken branches and twigs were drug to the curb for removal by Grade A Tree Care. With the invaluable help from Cameron Fiser and his team at Monarch Lawn & Landscape, the remaining leaves (which I can only guess would have been another 300 bags’ worth!) were blown into a concentrated area to be mulched by their mower.

Within a few hours, one acre of land, deserted and desecrated, looked once again like a peaceful pioneer cemetery.

Overwhelmed and emotional, I sat back with my camera and the other volunteers and just… Looked. Gazed. Sighed. We did it.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery will survive.

With the help of the Timber Hills Estate HOA, trees will be trimmed and some will be removed. A chainsaw will take care of the newer volunteer trees that, if they remained, would further destroy the earth surrounding the sacred graves that have miraculously survived.

A cemetery now is exposed at the second cleanup April 24th

John Jackson of Integrity Stone, a company that specializes in the restoration of existing stone, answered my call for help. He has volunteered his services to reset the stones that do still remain.

It occurred to me throughout this process that the little community around Martin City really banded together to help save something that has been on my radar for years. We have resurrected the integrity of a sacred space that existed well before Martin City and the influx of suburban development.

It is our duty to preserve what has been left behind. The subject of preservation was an ongoing topic at the cleanup. Efforts must continue.  “Everyone buried here deserves at least that from us,” Kurt Kemper commented as we hauled brush to the curb.

The history of southern Jackson Co. can be found in the many stories left behind of these pioneers that chose Mount Pleasant Cemetery as their final resting place. Further restoration of this small burial ground will connect the future with the past as well as ensure that their sacrifices, lives and legacy are never forgotten. 

*More photos below!!

A special thanks to all of the volunteers who helped with this worthy cause:

Adonna Thompson and Avila University's "Dear Neighbor Day" Volunteers
Boy Scout Troop 531
Burr and John McGee, relatives of the Baxter family buried at Mount Pleasant
Cameron Fiser, Monarch Lawn & Landscape
Chris Wilson, relative of the McPherson and Watson families, buried at Mount Pleasant
Don and Lonnie Peters
Euston Hardware
Grade A Tree Care
Helen Van Hecke
Jackson County Advocate
John Humphrey

The Kemper Family, Urial Holmes' Descendants

Kolette Knittel, relative of John E. Watson, buried at Mount Pleasant
Larry and Clara Van Draska
Margo Aldridge
Martin City Telegraph

Laurie Duffey
Sharon Mickelson

Steve Hodgden
Steve Taylor
Timber Hills Estates HOA

To locate the cemetery: From 435, go south on Wornall to 125th Terr and take a left (east). Follow the road around until you see the cemetery on the left.

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