We’re proud to announce the launch of the Bellefontaine Cemetery website. We hope everyone enjoys exploring the Timeline, where you can find out more information on some of the historical and interesting people we have interred at the cemetery.

We will consistently be updating the site with additional people, information, events and more, so come back often. Thanks to our friends at Atomicdust who designed and developed the website!

George Warren Brown made his fortune as a manufacturer of shoes. The hexagonal mausoleum was designed in 1928 by Mauran, Russell and Crowell, St. Louis architects. Opposite is the circular mausoleum of A.D. Brown, older brother of George. He was an early president of Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company which he helped organize. His tomb was designed in 1910 by Isaac Taylor, another St. Louis architect.

George Taylor was a prominent St. Louis businessman before the Civil War. He served as the president of the Pacific Railroad beginning in 1860. His wife was a granddaughter of Auguste Chouteau, the co-founder of St. Louis. The magnificent red granite tomb is the work of George I. Barnett, the country’s first licensed architect who designed more than 2,500 buildings in St. Louis.

The red granite boulder marking the grave of George Vest is most fitting for the man who was known for his fight to maintain Yellowstone Park. Senator Vest represented Missouri for many years. A noted orator, his speech delivered in the Johnson County courtroom at Warrensburg describing the devotion of a man’s dog to his master became a classic.

This monument serves as a resting place for William M. (d. 1892) and Eliza J. (d. 1890). The totem-like red granite boulders forming an obelisk is unique among memorial art. At the base of the stone the inscription inspires hope and expectation. It reads, “Waiting” — “For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised.”