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Further reading

• Experts restore headstones at 150-year-old Missouri cemeteryKBIA / Associated Press, July 2019, on the Jacob’s Ladder restoration and the volunteers behind it.
• Video: Standing up the Old Kessler CemeterySt. Joseph News-Press
• Kessler Cemetery, Easton Missouri, on FacebookPhotos, finds and updates from the preservation group.
• Stories in Stone: Cemeteries of Buchanan CountyClio tour. See the Bowen Cemetery entry for the 1839 grave of Johann Kessler, son of Sebastian and Scholastika.
• Easton, MissouriWikipedia: platted 1854, post office since 1855.
• Peter Richard KenrickWikipedia: the Bishop, and later first Archbishop, of St. Louis who received the 1847 Kessler deed.
• The History of Buchanan County, Missouri (1881)Transcribed county history with township histories and pioneer biographies.

Research resources

• Find a GraveSearch memorials for Kessler Cemetery and the Easton Catholic cemeteries.
• Diocese of Kansas City–St. JosephThe present diocese for St. Joseph (Easton) and Seven Dolors (Hurlingen) parishes.
• Archdiocese of St. Louis ArchivesThe 1847 deed was made to the Diocese of St. Louis, which then covered northwest Missouri.
• Missouri State ArchivesCensus, land, military and vital records for Buchanan County.

Credits

The history, family accounts and most photographs on this site come from the original Historic Kessler Cemetery website, with website and interpretive design by Carter Vincent, and from the research of Tim Wiedmaier and the preservation volunteers.

Photograph of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Easton, by SamuelNelsonGISP (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons. Portrait of Peter Richard Kenrick: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The newspaper clipping is from the St. Joseph News-Press.

Some details, including the exact number of burials, vary between sources. Recent reporting counts 73 graves, while the preservation group’s research points to nearly 100 men, women and children. Corrections and additions are welcome.