Maryland Catholics on the Frontier

The Migration into Monroe Co., Mo 

  St.Stephen's Cemetery                  A Brief History                 A Correction      

St.Stephen's Cemetery

Indian Creek, Missouri

 
This is just a brief listing of some of the persons buried in this cemetery.           See all known names lists below.

Sample of  Typical Listings

Abell, Marcellus

s/o Bernard Abell and Clarissa Wimsatt
b 1/22/1819 Marion Co, Ky,
d 6/4/1864 Indian Creek, Mo

Buckman, Benedict J.F. 

b 4/19/1817
d 1/22/1837

Burkman, John 

b 8/21/1791
d 5/5/1865

Buckman, Elizabeth
    (nee Roberts)

b 2/8/1795
d 3/3/1868

Cusack,  Patrick

b 1815
d 1876

Carrico, Catherine
    (nee Hardesty)

b 1818
d 3/13/1879

English, William

b 1829
d 1915

Elliott, Mary  A.T.L.

w/o Stephen Elliott
b 9/16/1814 Nelson Co, Ky.
d 6/12/1873

Green, Clement

b 3/4/1801
d 5/6/1874

Hager, Mary (Spalding)

w/o Thomas Hager (Ralls Co.)
d 1843

Hawkins, Nancy Ann 

d/o Leonard & Mary A. (Beaven) Hamilton
w/o Fielding S. Hawkins  married Ky
b 1831 Ky
d 9/27/1847

Miles, Richard 

s/o Josiah & Theresa (Carrico) both b Md.
m Elizabeth Yates 10/18/1825  Nelson Co,Ky.
b 2/14/1804 Ky
d 5/28/1891

Mills, Belinda A. 

d/o Joseph & Elizabeth (Abell) Pierceall
w/o 1st James Valentine Bright  Ky
w/o 2nd Stephen Mills    Ky
b 6/14/1813
d 11/28/1887

Mills, Stephen

b 2/23/1804 Ky
d 9/28/1885 Indian Creek, Mo

Pierceall, Joseph Madison

b ca 1788
d 1850

Pierceall, Clement

b 12/1776
d 1863

Spalding, Thomas

b 1815

Simms, Ignatius

b 5/15/1815
d 5/24/1865

Wimsatt, Ignatius

b 7/30/1807
d 5/5/1880

Yates, Thomas

b 1/23/1811
d 10/8/1894

 

The Known Surnames in this Cemetery

Adams Abell Bailes Beal Begley Bell Bick
Black Blickham Bodine Bono Borden Bosworth Bridgeport
Brossart Buckman Buell Byrne Calhoun Carrico Champion
Chitwood Christian Clements Combs Complin Conley Corbett
Crowley Curtis Cusack Dickson Dixon Doherty Donnally
Dooley Dye Elliott Engle English Farrelly Field
Finnigan Fitzpatrick Flannigan Ford Forrest Fowler Fry
Gatson Girtin Glahn Gough Graves Gones Green
Greenwell Hagen Hager Hamilton Hardesty Harrison Hawkins
Hayden Hays Hickman Higgins Hilbert Hills Hoar
Hodit Hodson Holmes Hughes Hubbard Hurley Isman
Janes Keith Key Knox Lanham Leake Leary
Lillis Little Logsdon Long McAllister McCann McCloud
McCurran McGabe McMahon McNelis Madden Maher Mahon
Martin Masterson Meyman Miles Mills Miskell Montgomery
Morkin Morrison Moss Moutaw Moyers Mudd Muehlbach
Murphy Nicholson Nolen O'Brien O'Daniel Osbourn Osborne
Parson Pierceall Pike Pohlmann Powers Quinn Reighley
Riechoff Riney Robinson Rogers Ryan Schrand Seward
Simms Simon Sims Skees Smith Spalding Sprinkle
Staton Steel Sullivan Tewell Thomas Tillett Tully
VanMarter Vaughn Weatherspoon Webber Westhoff Whitecotton Whalen
Whelan White Williams Wimsatt Woolfolk Woolfork Wright
Yates Yeager Yeger        

If you would like the tombstone information on any of these names, please e-mail me with your request.

There are others buried here, but the tombstones have become unreadable or destroyed by time and nature.


An excellent source of information is:

The St. Stephen's Church Register. 1833-1977

Family History Library  Film # 1019606  

 

Some Names in Church Register but not Currently Found in Cemetery

Adam Albright Anderson Blackwell Branham Burdett Catlett Cornwall
Hertel Hightower Hogan Hurd Jones Kelly Kendrick Koskilly
McCutchen McLeod Mitchell Morris Mulcahy Power Rice Richardson
Riley Sandifer Scobee Shoemaker Utterback Walker Zeiger  

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A Very Brief  History

The first English Catholics who sought the freedom to practice their religion, sailed to America on the "Ark and the Dove"  making land in Maryland in 1634.  

In 1649, the Toleration Act was passed by the Maryland Assembly, providing for Religious Toleration for every Christian. This was the official beginning of religious freedom in America. However, by 1654, Catholics were outlawed  in Maryland, as well as in Virginia and Massachusetts Bay.  

After the Revolutionary War, the ban on westward expansion was lifted.  In order to escape religious persecution, and  the increasingly poor Maryland farming soil,  they eagerly migrated into Kentucky.  Five colonies of Maryland Catholics moved between the years 1785 and 1792, to primarily the Nelson County area.

Some of  the families that settled this area during that time were: Abel, Hayden, Elliott, Jarboe, Pike Hagan, Mudd, Shircliff, Lancaster, Green, Spalding, Miles, Whelan, Mills, Pierceall, and Clement.

With the availability of land in Missouri, many of these families moved west once again, many into Monroe County, in the vicinity of  Indian Creek in 1832.  This is where they built the first St. Stephen's Catholic Church in 1838, although previous to this date services had been held in members homes.    

The first church was of logs, and was said to have burned to the ground. A frame building was erected in its place.  It too was destroyed by fire.  The next building was of brick and was the finest of its day in the county, built sometime between 1852-1856. This structure was leveled by a tornado on March 10, 1876.  This brick church was rebuilt once more, and still stands to this day.

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A Correction to Reported History

Many local news reporters through the years have reported mistakenly that the original settlers of Indian Creek were Irish.  Research has shown that there were about 109 original settlers.  The majority were of English descent and some were Welsh. However, of these original settlers, only 5 families were Irish.  These families were--- Whelan, Hagan, Murphy, Donnally,  and  O'Brian.