HISTORY OF PETERS CEMETERY
The history is recorded here based on volunteer research. If you have any history or personal stories to add/edit please contact me.
THE BEGINNING
1847
The German Community of Pleasant Ridge saw its beginnings when Henry and William Blume arrived in early 1840’s. In 1847 Reverend F. Lochner came from Ohio to pastor St. Johns Lutheran Church. The original church was a log cabin. The second was built and barely used a year when it burned to the ground. The third was dedicated on 10-31-1859 and is still in use today.
FIRST PERSON BURIED
1849
The first person is buried in Peters Cemetery, Heinrich Wessel
LAST PERSON BURIED
1916
The last person buried in Peters Cemetery, Johanna Albrecht Grote
PARCEL AND OWNER RESEARCH
2/23/2017
Maryville Heritage & Museum verified the parcel of land (#13-1-21-09-00-000-001) is owned by a church and not in the village of Maryville limits. Its classified as an unincorporated area. Because it is owned by a church, it is exempt from taxes; therefore there is no address on file. After a few phone calls, the parcel is 1.98 acres and owned by St. Paul's E Lutheran Church. Deed 296-6200. This is recorded in book #90, page #503.
ANCESTRY POST
2/28/2017
Interesting post found on Ancestry.com -
August Gerbig
Posted: 03 Jul 2001 02:00AM
Classification: Query
Surnames:
I am not a relative of any of the Gerbigs. However in the early 1980s, when I was teaching school in Maryville, IL, a student of mine took me to an old abandoned German cemetery. In fact, there wasn't even a road that led to it. We crossed a stream and climbed a hill and went through woods to get there. The area was overgrown and many of the stones unreadable. However one was very clear and it was inscribed with the following:
August Gerbig
1812-(no death date)
Caroline Gerbig
1839-1912
Ruhe In Frieden (Rest in Peace?)
I took a couple of slides of the grave. The cemetery seemed to be mostly German from the writings. It is located east of 157 and just south of where Keebler Road connects to it. This is just slightly north of Collinsville, IL. If you would like to contact me you can reach me at (xx email removed to protect user)
CLEANUP ATTEMPT
3/9/2017
Neighborhood attempts to organize a clean up, but no body showed up.
PRESENTATION AT MARYVILLE HERITAGE MUSEUM
3/20/2017
Maryville Heritage Museum was not aware of Peters Cemetery. Patty Werner presented a slideshow of history and photos for the group to learn about it.
OWNER FOUND
8/22/2017
The cemetery is owned by St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, located at 3277 Bluff Road, Edwardsville, Illinois 62025, phone # 618-656-1500, Rev. Dianne C. Grohmann
HISTORY INFORMATION FROM OWNER
8/23/2017
St. Paul’s was originally Lutheran, but over the years changed to UCC. The current church located at 3277 Bluff Road, Edwardsville, Illinois 62025 is actually the 3rd church. The land that it is sitting on now was donated by the Brockmeier family which were the founding members of the original log cabin church and the building was built in 1970.
The original church property, land parcel # 13-1-21-09-00-000-001 is 1.98 acres and is owned by St. Paul's E. Lutheran Church which is now St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. This was recorded in book #90, page #503 at the Madison County Recorder of Deeds office, in the maps and plats department in Edwardsville, IL.
The original church, located on land parcel # 13-1-21-09-00-000-001, was a log cabin and was hit by lightning and burned down (no years given). According to Rev. Grohmann, she believes there were still remnants of the original log cabin on the property. One of the grave markers for Blume, was the first Reverend of the church. Rev. Grohmann does not think that the toppled grave markers has anything to do with vandalism. She believes it is due to age and trees uprooting the stones.
The second church was built on the same property and was struck by lightning and burned (no years given).
At some point, some of the graves in the original cemetery were moved to the new cemetery located at the Church located at 3277 Bluff Road, Edwardsville, Illinois 62025. The Church was thinking that the last burial at the old cemetery was around 1950 or 1951.
When the Church was moved in 1970, they had a rite of way agreement with the farm that backed up to the original cemetery.
In the early 2000’s, the Church received a bequeath from a descendent of one of the original members who lived in the state of Washington, leaving money for the sole purpose of keeping up the original cemetery. Upon receiving this money, they learned that the “farm” had been sold and the Church no longer had a right-of-way to get to their land. They approached the new owner of the property, but they refused to give the Church the right-of-way. The Church hired an attorney, which cost them approximately $1000.00. This was a hardship for the Church because they are a very small congregation, but still, they tried to fight it. Needless to say they lost. At that time the Church decided there was no more they could do but return the bequeathed cash because the stipulation was for “upkeep” of the cemetery only.
In approximately 2005 or 2006, the Church was celebrating their 150th Anniversary. There was an elderly parishioner by the name of Doris Brockmeier Green Lloyd who knew all the history of the old cemetery and wanted to see it one more time. The Church decided to take the “youth” of the Church along with Mrs. Lloyd to try to get to the cemetery. At that time, there were no houses here, but the ground was starting to be developed. They were able to get a golf cart and drive Mrs. Lloyd to the cemetery. The Church held a ceremony and prayed over the graves as well as placed a wreath at the cemetery. The Church felt that was all they could do and have not been back since.
As Rev. Diane Grohmann explained, their congregation is very small and up in age and have very limited funds. Even if they could find a way to get back there, they probably would not be able to participate in the restoration/clean-up.
Doris Brockmeier Green Lloyd has since passed away. She was extremely knowledgeable in the history and genealogy of the Church. At her death, all her historical documents & papers were donated to the Glen Carbon Historical Society.