Original Arrow Rock?/Lost Cemetery

Contributed November, 2001 by Herb Shemwell. Transcribed by: C.J.Ellis.

Herb Shemwell is the great, great, grandson of Capt.George Bingham of Arrow Rock, Mo. His father, John Bingham was one of the original town founders and in fact, donated land for the town to be built on.  Herb was told that there was a lost cemetery - originally part of the Arrow Rock Cemetery that is just west of the town. Local officals and historians said it did not exist and no "old-timers" had ever heard of it. A preliminary search done the summer of 2001 yielded nothing except a bad case of poison ivy for his brother-in-law. In November, Herb and his sister ventured down to the Arrow Rock cemetery, meeting a cousin there. They walked a belt of trees identified as lining (at one time) an old county road - they walked for quite a ways with no result. Herb then began to think how cedar trees are often used to border cemeteries and homes and began to look for those. About 300 yards south of the main road they found 6 readable stones. Because of the heavy leaf cover and lack of tools - there may be more. One of these stones was of his GGGGrandfather John Bingham who died in 1838.

Herb submitted the transcriptions from the 6 readable stones they found. Herb suspects this may have once been a Bingham family plot. His cousin said that Herb's Grandfather told him that they had tried to move the bodies from this location into the main Arrow Rock Cemetery in 1916, but because the digging was bringing up bones and no caskets, etc. that efforts were suspended. If this is true, there might be a mention of this effort in the local newspapers available in the Mo. Hist. Soc. Library - Ellis Lib. in Columbia (MU Campus). According to Herb, the cemetery is on private land which he believes may belong to Bingham Turley's family.