My Corner Online
Old Lorimier Cemetery
This historic Lorimier Cemetery was was established in 1808 by Louis Lorimier and is only open by appointment or during a special event. Unfortunately, vandals seem to be drawn to do damage here and so mess it up for the rest of people. It is believe Charlotte Lorimer was the first person buried here in 1808 as the wife of Cape’s founder, Louis Lorimer, and she was a Shawnee Indian. It is believed that there were 1200 soldiers from the Civil War buried in the cemetery.
Legend has it that there was a tunnel from the Sherwood-Minton House, Cape Girardeau to Lorimier Cemetery to help slaves escape as an Underground Railroad. In addition, the house was used as a small pox hospital during the Civil War and soldiers who died may have been transported in the underground tunnel, or in the middle of the night, to be buried to a panicked reactions from the locals. Many have called these stories folklore, but then again there is also this wonder in the back of the mind whether there is any truth to it.
Photos
October 26, 2016
These photos were taken during a planned event whereby the Visitors Center opened up the cemetery for the public. Since I had never been inside the cemetery, I put it on my calendar and attended. For more photos, see the above slideshow video.
These photos are what can be seen from the back of the cemetery.
2010
I am trying to remember why my 2010 photos contain images from the back of the cemetery, down the hill, and out to the Mississippi River. It seems to be whatever genealogy research I was doing at the time indicated that hubby's ancestor's lived on the plot of land directly behind the cemetery which faces N. Spanish Street, and we were looking at that plot from both the east and the west ends of it to see what it looked like. I have no memory now of who it was that owned that land or if my memory is just bad. It could be that we were tracing the route of the underground railroad in some story we had been told or read. It would make sense that they followed the path from the back of the cemetery in that which I have photographed. I just do not remember now.
The first place I stayed off campus when in college at Southeast Missouri State University was this small apartment on the back side of 904 North Fountain. I suppose I took photos of it as we went by while taking other photos above in the area. Old Lorimier Cemetery is just a few blocks down. Oh, the stories I could tell about living here! Those stairs and that deck have stories to tell. I would come out the door and sit on the roof sometimes as well. There was no parking area behind the house as you see here, nor a mailbox. I parked on the other side in a driveway between the two houses. I used to change my own oil in my car there in that driveway. I met my husband for the first time right through that door. My bedroom had a window which is behind that tree, but that tree was not there when I lived there.