Collection: Walnut Grove Cemetery - Boonville

Originally, a two acre walnut grove on land owned by William S. Myers on the east edge of town just sough of the Thomas Nelson estate was purchased, and the cemetery was designed around the grave of Missouri's first Senator, David Barton whose remains were move in 1853 from their original resting place in the old City Cemetery where he had been buried in 1837. McVicker believes part of the motivation for moving Barton's remains may have been related to the fact that the first Missouri State Fair was scheduled to open at Boonville on grounds just to the north of the cemetery in the same year. Jacob Wyan was also re-interred at Walnut Grove along with a number of others.

The cemetery remained under the control of the Aehle family until 1880 when it was sold to a corporation formed by Charles C. Bell, who also arranged the purchase of additional acreage and superintended a re-landscaping of the grounds, replacing many of the old and diseased walnut trees with the cypress trees that