HART FAMILY CEMETERY, Harrison Township, Mercer County, Missouri

Directions:
From Cainsville, Missouri, take Highway N east until it ends at a "T"
intersection with Highway B. Across Highway B and a little to the
North is a narrow, gravel road.  Follow this road east until you
reach the first right hand turn.  Follow the road south, then east,
then south again as the road makes right-angle turns.  After the
second turn towards the south, look for the first telephone pole
on the east side of the road, after the road crosses a small gully.
Near this telephone pole is a earthen ramp that leads to the
cemetery, which is surrounded by trees.

Contact:
David Hughes
Thiersteineralle 79
CH-4053 Basel
Switzerland
+41-61-332 21 07
email: info@familylore.net

History:
The "Hart Family Cemetery" (for lack of a proper name) is a small,
sub-half-acre plot on what was once the farm of William Morgan Hart and
his second wife, Rebecca Hart.  William and Rebecca Hart moved to
what is now Harrison County (then Livingston County), Missouri in about
1838, and were among the first settlers of the "Goshen Prarie."

The cemetery was first used in 1854, to bury their 11 year-old son,
William O.B. Hart.  His grave, William (Sr.'s) grave and Rebecca's grave
are surrounded by a black, iron fence; there is a (mostly collapsed
now) barbed-wire fence that marks the boundaries of the cemetery.

The cemetery had been maintained, over the years, by one of their
granddaughters, Josephine ("Josie") Hart Thomas.  This task has now
been taken up by her children, nieces, grandnieces and grandnephews, 
and at least one great-grandniece.

The two large stones in this cemetery (William's and Rebecca's) were
toppled by a tornado that swept through the area in 1990 or 1991,
snapping Rebecca's stone in two.  The stones were later repaired and
placed back on their pedestles by Rebecca's great-granddaughter, Linda
Thomas.

Inscriptions:
The stones are listed here in decreasing order of age.

William O.B.
Son of
W.M. & R. Hart
DIED
Aug. 1854
11 Yr & 10 d's.
(This weathered marble stone is a rectangular tablet, no more than about
18 inches high.)


ADA
Dau. of
J&H REEVES
DIED
Apr. 6, 1864
AE 8ms. & 1 dy.
(This weathered marble stone is a little over a foot high.)


INFANT
Dau. of
J.E. & Elizabeth
HART
died
May 2, 1872
(This weathered marble stone is about a foot high.)
Footstone: I.H.


WILLIAM M.
HUSBAND OF
REBECCA HART
DIED
OCT 17, 1876;
AGED
72Y. 4M. 12D.
(on the base):M.B. Root, Ottumua, Iowa
(also on the base):
Dearest husband thou hast left us.
Here thy loss we deeply feel.
But as God that hath bereft us,
He can all our sorrows heal. 
(This weathered marble stone is about 8 feet tall (a little taller than
Rebecca's stone), in the form of a tall, narrow obelisk on a pedestal.
There is a carving of clasped hands over a Holy Bible.)
Footstone, with no inscription.


REBECCA
wife of
WILLIAM M.
HART
DIED
Mar. 21, 1891
AGED
76Y. 2M. 14D.
(on the base): Dearest children - Farewell. Be ____ of good comfort, be
of one mind. Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with 
you.
(This weathered marble stone is about 8 feet tall, in the form of a
tall, narrow obelisk on a pedestal. There is a carving of clasped hands
over a Holy Bible.)
Footstone: R.H.

Wayne Walton Hughes found an early, type-written listing of partial 
gravestone inscriptions for the Hart Family Cemetery (date and source 
unknown). This earlier listing does not show William O.B.'s gravestone, 
and lists three additional gravestones not visible in 1991: 

     Licurgus, son of J&H Reeves
     died Nov. 27, 1866
     age 7 mos 6 da 

(Licurgus was a brother of Ada Reeves.)

     _. Arilda, dau of J. P.
     & N. King
     died Oct. 19, 1861
     age 1 yr 5 mos 2 da

     J. C. William (or Williams)
     age 9 yrs 


Comments:
Rebecca Hart was the sister of Elizabeth Hart, William Hart's first
wife.

Many of William and Rebecca's children, as well as other descendents,
are buried in St. Paul's Cemetery, further north on Highway N.  Ada Reeves
must have been the daughter of Johnny Reeves, who settled in this area
at the same time as William and Rebecca:

"William Morgan's daughter Hannah Jane, born in 1834, relates in 
'Roger's History of Mercer County', published in 1911, that her 
husband's uncle, Johnny Reeves, and her father were the first settlers 
of what was referred to as the Goshen Prairie.  She states that there 
were Indians living in that area at the time her family settled there, 
and Hannah recalls them visiting her stepmother, Rebecca Hart. They were 
fed and at times would stop for the night at the Hart home, where they 
slept, wrapped in blankets, before the fireplace."
(Extracted from "Descendants of Peter and Dority Hart, 1740-1995, 
Virginia and North Carolina and Allied Families", by Ruth Gibbs Hart 
and Karen L. Cooper, 1996.)

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