Family places marker at Lorimier Cemetery

Old Lorimier Cemetery has roughly 1,500 grave markers commemorating burials. It now has one more.

The family of Henry Pape placed a memorial stone in the cemetery in his honor and in honor of the hundreds of other unknown and unmarked graves of the Civil War era. The ceremony was complete with family, friends and a cannon provided by the Turner Brigade. Civil War re-enactors from both the Turner Brigade and the 5th Missouri Calvary Company C fired rifles as a salute.

Henry Pape settled a few miles north of Cape Girardeau when the steamboat carrying him and his family ran ashore. Pape was a German immigrant who died as a result of his service as a Union soldier in the Civil War.

An increased interest in genealogy and the upcoming anniversary of the Civil War have made placing memorial stones more popular, according to Brenda Schloss, planning technician for Cape Planning Services. Schloss works with the Historic Preservation Commission, the group in charge of all the local landmarks.

"It might be something that happens more often in the future," she said.

Jeanette James was at the Pape ceremony in a Navy blue wool dress with gold trim as part of the Ladies' Auxillary for Sons of Union Veterans. She said her husband's ancestors are somewhere in the cemetery as well.

"They're here," she said. "We just don't know where."

Cape Girardeau Sextant Terrell Weaver said he places three to four memorial stones a year, but it's usually difficult to get one in Old Lorimier. The Historic Preservation Commission has to approve the stone and have proof the person was actually buried there.

It took Linda Pape two years to obtain appropriate evidence that her husband's great-grandfather, Henry Pape, was indeed buried in Cape Girardeau's first cemetery.

Family folklore told of his burial, but there was no stone in sight.

"I guess no one ever looked," Linda said. "I spent the day over there and couldn't find it."

In order to place a stone in Old Lorimier Cemetery, Linda Pape had to fill out an application, approach the Commission and give a sketch of the proposed stone and proof of burial, something that can be tough, considering the cemetery records were destroyed in the late 1800s.

"They want some kind of a proof," Weaver said. "And I don't know whether there's that much proof out there."

Once it is proved, locating the burial site is nearly impossible.

"We know where the cemetery boundaries are," Weaver said, but the 5-acre lot could potentially hold 6,000 to 7,000 bodies. Markers have been destroyed, stolen or moved by vandals over the years.

The Pape family didn't know where Henry Pape was buried in the cemetery, but his Army commission papers said he was buried in the city cemetery and Old Lorimier was the only one at that time.

They placed the marker among the other stones in the cemetery. The general location makes the stone not only a monument to Henry Pape, but to his unmarked Army companions as well.

"He never had a kind word said over his grave," Linda said. "He never had a flower, he never had things that were important."

Sunday she read a eulogy over the new marker. Although Henry Pape may not be buried directly under the white marble marker, he lies somewhere beneath it.

charris@semissouiran.com

335-6611 extension 246

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