MONROE COUNTY MISSOURI
CLINTON or ST. PETERS CEMETERY
in OLD CLINTON or NORTHFORK
location, history, burials, pictures

Please note: Contact me for pictures of grave sites. In March 2003, I took a complete photo record of nearly all plots and all markers, and will share the information by burning a CD. I may continue taking a photo record of the cemetery over the coming years, however it is time consuming and due to the lighting required, it takes just the right kind of day, at the right time of day. This cemetery has been highly vandalized in the past and coupled with the age of the burials plus lack of extensive upkeep over the years, many of the graves and stone inscriptions are not recognizable. However, with the plots and graves photographed in sequence and with the burial listing, it may be possible for you to visualize where a relative is buried or guess at an unreadable marker. Many of the graves are unmarked. The condition of the cemetery and stones at this time is stable. It would take restoration to save many of the markers. Many of the markers will be lost in the next few years/decades.

The Old Clinton (St. Peter's Catholic) Cemetery was approached from this south road from the adjacent village of Jonesburg, or from the east along the Main Street of Clinton (at the bottom right of the picture). The Cemetery sits on top of a north/south ridge overlooking a broad expanse of the Salt River Valley. Today, in 2000, many burials are unmarked, there has been major vandalism to the old stones in the Cemetery. Many stones are piled up in clumps or have been "tossed" into the brush over the years. If by chance you have a relative buried in the Old Clinton Cemetery, and would like a search for the stone on my next visit, send me an email. Most of the remaining stones are the early marble type with inscriptions very hard to impossible to read due to lichen and acid rain erosion. The sister villages of Clinton and Jonesburg and the Cemetery are literally lost in time, as the original lots are still privately owned and have never been plowed by modern agriculture. The government bought up the east end of the Villages and surrounds lands for their Corp of Engineer water impoundment, the Cannon Dam Project, thus much of the River Bottom sits under water long enough to produce a relatively sterile natural environment because of the lack of habitat stability over any length of time. Inside the Village lots, the locals have dumped all types of garbage, furniture, cast-away materials including fencing and metal junk.

The first road into Clinton/Jonesburg from the east was a trail coming down a steep ravine in the upper right hand corner of the above map. It would have likely crossed the Salt River on the mill dam located in the upper right hand corner. The saw/grist mill and later wool carding mill would have been in that area, with the mill field right-center. The road in the lower right corner of the map would have been put used in the latter part of the 1800's and eventually the first steel frame bridge built. The old ford road was then abandoned and the main east entry in the villages displayed on the map.

In the above picture you would be standing in the old mill pond looking to the west. The old river ford and mill dam in back of you. The mill would be to the left and back of you. Main Street Clinton is at the upper left. St. Peter's or Clinton Cemetery is on the ridge straight back from the left side of the river. Due retention of water on the bottom land by the Corp of Engineer's impoundment, this area today, remains relatively biological sterile in terms of a long term natural community, as can been seen by the dead timber and appearance of the banks.

Monroe County, Missouri, was organized on January 6, 1831, from Ralls County, and named for James Monroe. Many of the early pioneers to take up land in Monroe County had family origins in the Kentucky area. The county seat is Paris. MONROE County is in the N. E. part of Missouri four counties south of the Iowa boarder and two counties west of the Mississippi River. Monroe County has an area of about 620 square miles. It is intersected by Salt river, and also drained by the Middle fork, South fork, Elk fork, and Long branch, effluents of the first named river, and by Crooked, Otter, and Indian creeks. The surface is undulating, and consists of about 1/3 prairies; the soil is moderately productive. Indian corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, hemp, and pork are the staples. In 1850 the county produced 793,145 bushels of corn; 43,669 of wheat; 130,412 of oats, and 629,412 pounds of tobacco. It contained 25 churches, 1 newspaper office, and 1954 pupils attending public schools. Stone coal abounds in several places; the rocks which underlie the county are limestone and freestone. Many of the streams furnish motive-power for mills. The 1854 population was, 10,541, of whom 8493 were free, and 2048, slaves.

Clinton in Monroe County Missouri, has also been called Sumerset Post-Office, and "Little Ireland". It was laid out by George Glenn, Samuel Bryant and S.S. Williams in 1836. They built the first store, mill and blacksmith shops in town. Jacob Kirkland was the pioneer blacksmith. Greenlee Hays and Major William Howell were once merchants in the town. The first church in Washington Township was located at Clinton and was built by the M. E. Church South. There was at one time a flourishing Catholic Church, St. Peter's, located at Clinton, with the St. Peter's or Clinton Cemetery nearby.

Clinton, (formerly Somerset) was/is 12 miles north, northeast of Paris; 6 miles west from Clapper, and 5 miles from Lakenan, Shelby Co., was settled in 1840 and contained 2 potteries. Population, about 230. Clinton was also known as North Fork, and the Catholic Church's name was St. Peter's, only the cemetery remains. Jonesburg, Missouri, was the rival town of Clinton, and divided from Clinton only be a small alley trail to the south. Jonesburg was laid out by Col. Gabriel Jones in 1836. Greenlee Hays opened the first store. James Coombs, Benedict Gough, Blakey and Lasley were early merchants. Jonesburg declined just as Clinton did, with the coming of the railroad ten miles to the north.

By the latter part of the 1850’s the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was in operation from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. The rails were about ten miles to the north of Clinton and the railroad towns and stops like Shelbina and Hunnewell sprang rapidly into existence leaving Clinton and Jonesburg to decline just as rapidly. By the late 1880’s about all that was left of the ancient and once ambitious little village of Clinton was a blacksmith shop and two potteries. George Leach was the proprietor of one and James Turner the proprietor of the other pottery. There was at one time a flourishing Catholic Church located at Clinton, but like the town became a thing of the past by the turn of the century. Today, the pioneer Cemetery on the northwest edge of what was Clinton, can still be found.

The North Fork Post Office in the late 1800’s was located one mile northwest of Clinton, at the residence of Samuel McDowell, who was postmaster. The first church in Washington Township was the Methodist Church built in Clinton by the families of William Fowler, John Strayer, John Adam Heckart, William Henniger, Henry Ashcraft and a few other members of the M.E. Church South. By the 1870’s the Methodist congregation would build a church a couple of miles east/northeast near Deer Creek, and the Clinton structure would become the Baptist church.

Burials in St. Peters' or Old Clinton Cemetery, Monroe Co, Missouri
(text data taken from St. Peters' Cemetery GenWebProject, link above)

Surname list: Alligaier, Beavine, Bell, Brown, Buckman, Clark, Combs, Conboy, Coombs, Cummings, David, Dixon, Durbin, Elliot, Ford, Gough, Greenwell, Jarboe, Lanham, Leake, Little, McAtee, Melton, mcGill, Miller, Moore, Powers, Riddle, Ridge, Robey, Saunders, Schofield, Smith, Upton, Winston, Worland, McGill.

The view is the south with Clinton on the right, Jonesburg directly in front. The Salt River bottoms would be behind you. The entrance into the Cemetery visible near the cedar tree on the left. It is clear that many of the graves are now unmarked.