ARNSBERG, MO.: A TOWN LONG SINCE GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

The gravestone of Adolph Tacke is one of the better kept stones in the German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church of Arnsberg Cemetery.

In 1937, Evelyn Sohn took this photo of the old grange and dance hall in Arnsberg. The hall no longer exists. Submitted photo

There once was a town located on Route KK between Friedheim and Old Appleton, today all that remains of Arnsberg is an old cemetery and some ponds where a mill once stood and a few sunken areas where buildings once stood.

There are a few homes in the area, but the town is gone. Alvin Sauer and family maintained the cemetery of the long since gone German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church of Arnsberg.

Sauer died last August and before his death the job of maintaining the cemetery rested on his family. Irene Detjen has been doing some of the upkeep for the cemetery, but descendants of people buried in the area are trying to organize a cemetery organization to insure the cemetery will be maintained in the future.

Mary Daume of Jackson has worked extensively on putting together a history of Arnsberg and now she is in the beginning stages of starting a cemetery association for what is the last tangible signs of the town that once existed in North Cape Girardeau County.

She hopes to stir up enough interest in the cemetery project to set up a perpetual fund and a regular cemetery fund to maintain the cemetery forever.

She also hopes that people will come forward with baptism records, marriage records and other documents that further tell the history of Arnsberg.

"We're just getting organized. We thought we should raise interest in the project first," Daume said.

Daume's uncle used to tell her stories about Arnsberg which was a town that was created by an immigrant from Arnsberg, Germany. Adolph Tacke at one time owned the entire town which he started in the 1880s.

Tacke came to America just before the Civil War and fought the war on the side of the Union.

He bought the land for what was to be Arnsberg in 1864 and in 1882 he built a saw mill, flowering mill and a mercantile store in the town.

The town consisted of the church, Tacke's mills and store, a blacksmith shop, grange hall and dance floor and a post office.

As Tacke went so did the town. After his death in 1909 the town began to fade away. By the 1940s, when a younger Mary Daume was taking a bus to school through the town it was mostly gone and the buildings were deteriorating or gone.

In Daume's history, she states one of the big reasons the church failed to grow was because of tuberculosis. The disease killed many of the members of the church.

Val Tuschhoff also has an interest in the cemetery association. She has ancestors buried in the cemetery.

"My ancestors and my husband's ancestors are buried there," she said.

She hopes to help with the project as much as she can and this spring she hopes to go to the cemetery to clean up and straighten some of the stones which are in some cases laying flat on the ground or leaning severely.

Tuschhoff said the town was booming at one time, but by the time she came along everything was deteriorating.

Her husband's grandfather used to tell stories about Indians trading in the town. Tuschhoff's father also told her stories about the town.

Tuschhoff's hopes are that they can stir up enough interest to either raise the money to take care of it or get people willing do hard work to maintain it.

A public meeting will be held to gauge interest in the project sometime in the future.