The French Connection: The Louisiana and Missouri Dead

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Washington, Louisiana

The French settlers in Missouri and Louisiana (and other parts of the Americas) shared a style of iron grave crosses.

I talked about this when my mother and I visited an old cemetery in what used to be Vieux Mines (Old Mines), Missouri, a village with French roots.

My own French antecedents came to St. Louis, Missouri,  by way of the Quebec area, then to what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois, and settling the town of Florissant, Missouri.  At that time, Florissant was St. Ferdinand, and it was in the upper boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase area.

The cross in the photo at the top of this page is from the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Washington, Louisiana.

The crosses in the photo below are from the St. Joachim Cemetery in Old Mines, Missouri:

St. Joachim Cemetery, Old Mines, Missouri

Here is an iron cross from the French colonial cemetery in Kaskaskia, Illinois, circa 1770 to 1880.