Who We Are: Angie

The Mourning Society wouldn’t be anything if it weren’t for an amazing group of volunteers that make our events so special. We’ll be shining a spotlight on our members throughout the 2021 fall season.

You still have three chances to come out and meet us in person this year at these upcoming events : Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery on October 2, Twilight Tours at the Campbell House on October 29, and A Haunted Christmas at the Bissell House on December 4.

If you are interested in joining the Mourning Society of St. Louis, you can find out more by clicking here or sending us a message.

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💀 How long have you been a member of the Mourning Society of St Louis and how did you get started?

I’ve been helping the Mourning Society for four years now. When they found out I volunteered at Bellefontaine Cemetery and owned horses, they asked me to help work horses into their events to add to the historic context of life in the Victorian era. Of course, I was thrilled to be asked!

💀 What role do you play in the group?

I get the honor of driving horses as a cemetery visitor during the annual Consolations of Memory event at Bellefontaine Cemetery. In 2019, I drove my friend’s mini horse, Trouble. I’m looking forward to driving my own horse, Axel, this year.

💀 What is your favorite Mourning Society event?

Consolations of Memory, of course. :)

💀 What is your favorite topic?

Um, all of it, really. All of the research and attention to detail the group does to ensure historical accuracy is amazing. If I really had to chose, it’s probably seeing the members personal collections of mourning items, especially the hair work.

Who We Are: Sherri

The Mourning Society wouldn’t be anything if it weren’t for an amazing group of volunteers that make our events so special. We’ll be shining a spotlight on our members throughout the 2021 fall season.

You still have three chances to come out and meet us in person this year at these upcoming events : Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery on October 2, Twilight Tours at the Campbell House on October 29, and A Haunted Christmas at the Bissell House on December 4.

If you are interested in joining the Mourning Society of St. Louis, you can find out more by clicking here or sending us a message.

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💀 How long have you been a member of the Mourning Society and how did you get started?

I have been a member of the Mourning Society since 2016 so for about 5 years now - I got started by attending your first Mourning and Consolations event at Bellefontaine Cemetery in 2015. I was looking for a Cemetery tour because it was October and wanted to find something a little creepy to do. I googled and found your tour and signed myself and some friends up. I had been involved in reenacting in the past and thought this would be interesting.

I attended and was blown away by the detail in the presentations and how inviting everyone was! I was enthralled by the sheer spectacle of it all. They even had a Victorian hearse!

I have always been drawn to the slightly creepy and macabre aspect of history and thought "THESE ARE MY PEOPLE!" and joined through their web site and have had a wonderful time in this amazing group ! and am lucky to count Kathrine, Edna and Tom as friends.

💀 What role do you play in the group?

I research and give presentations on historical figures and events in historically accurate ( as possible ) costume. I do sew my own fashions.

💀 What is your favorite Mourning Society event?

I would have to say it is the Consolations of Memory event at Bellefontaine Cemetery. I am always amazed at the historical wealth and treasure to draw from there! I love being able to bring light to these surprising and sometimes scandalous stories.

💀 What is your favorite topic?

I would have to say the suffrage movement. I think it is so important for people realize what this hard fought battle was all about. ! It was barely even mentioned in schooling . The more their history is told the more people will understand how all of us should be grateful for their courage and determination.

Celebrating Women's Suffrage in Missouri

We are very excited that we have been given the honor to represent the 1910-1919 decade and women’s suffrage at the Missouri First State Capital Historic Site’s Bicentennial Bash & Commemoration on Saturday August 7, 2021.

You can catch us at the Parade Through the Decades starting at 10 am and throughout the day performing marches, speeches and suffrage songs from the era. Come find us to learn more about the many amazing Missouri suffragists and women’s organizations that worked so hard to secure the vote for future generations.

If you are interested in joining us as a suffragist or suffragent please reach out to us using our contact form and chose the ‘membership’ option. There are no fees to join and we can offer guidance on creating your 1910s ensemble.

Mourning Society Update: Feb 2021

We are back for another exciting year of events with a few new additions. You can find all of the details that are available on our events page. All of our events this year will require masks and registration to ensure safe social distancing. As usual if you have any questions please reach out to us.

Little Boy Blue: Losing a Child at The Field House Museum Saturday, April 17, 2021: The Field House Museum is partnering with the Mourning Society of St. Louis on Saturday, April 17, 2021 to bring you Little Boy Blue, a presentation delving into the loss of a child in the 19th century. Tickets are available!

Exploring Victorian Spiritualism at the Gen Daniel Bissell House Saturday, June 19, 2021: Join us for this special event at the Bissell House as we cover a timeline of spirit communication in the 19th century from the early spirit rapping cases to automatic writing, dark séances and spirit cabinets.

Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery Saturday, October 2, 2021: This isn’t quite like all the other fall cemetery tours. Rather than portraying the spirits of those buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery we portray the living, breathing people of the era who were left behind to mourn the loss of a loved one.

Twilight Tours at the Campbell House Friday, October 29, 2021: Experience the Campbell House period rooms dimmed to gaslight brightness and draped for mourning. Guests get the unique opportunity to walk through the Campbell House at night and learn about Victorian mourning customs.

A Haunted Christmas at the Gen Daniel Bissell House Saturday, December 4, 2021: Join us as we revive the 19th Century tradition of telling Christmas ghost stories.

Mourning Society Update: Nov 2020

Thanks to everyone who came to see us at the Campbell House tour and the Mourning Society Members who helped make the event happen in this strange year we are all dealing with.

Update: A Haunted Christmas at Bissell House has been canceled due to safety concerns. We hope you’ll join us next year for an extra spooky event!

A Haunted Christmas at The Bissell House

Join us as we revive the 19th Century tradition of telling Christmas ghost stories at the General Daniel Bissell House on December 5, 2020 from 11am-3pm. Space on this tour will be limited. Masks are required. Tickets can be purchased through the St Louis County Parks. $4 per person in advance, $5 at the door.

Strange Graves: Marconnot Mausoleum

Mount Olive Cemetery Lemay, Missouri

I don’t fear death, but I do fear what comes after death and would like to have my body preserved forever

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When Joseph Marconnet died in December 1924 at the age of 64 he had lived a solitary life, preferring to live alone and keep only a small circle of friends and relatives. The Marconnet family were part of the early French settlement of Carondelet, best known for their sale of 21 acres of land to the City of St Louis for the creation of Carondelet Park.

During his illness with cancer, Joseph spent a great deal of time studying the ancient Egyptian mummification process, a popular topic after the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, and the preservation of Vladimir Lenin’s body in 1924. He left explicit directions in his will about the preservation of his own body. This task and a portion of his estate, the equivalent of around $52,000 today, was left to James J. Fitzgerald, president of Southern Undertaking Company. It was Joseph’s express wish to be laid to rest in a glass topped casket in his newly built mausoleum in Mount Olive Cemetery and that his body be on view to the public on the holy days of the Catholic Church.

He was placed in his tomb on January 3, 1925 after an intimate funeral at St Boniface Church with a few close friends and relatives in attendance. Prior to that his body was laid in state at the funeral parlor and later his home on Virginia Avenue in Carondelet where Joseph had lived the last 30 years of his life.

It took some time to decide exactly how the public would be allowed access to Joseph in the small space inside the mausoleum, but by April of 1925 the decision was made to install a glass panel in the door in order to allow the public to view him safely from the outside. With his family's approval the casket would remain open indefinitely. On Holy Thursday 1925 the lid of Joseph’s coffin was opened for the first time in his mausoleum for public view. There were few visitors that first day due to bad weather and no advance announcement in the papers, but as the weekend drew near more and more people arrived causing a back-up of several hours wait on the small road leading to the cemetery. Over time the crowds dwindled and in 1936, twelve years after his death, his family decided to finally close Joseph’s casket. Later a door with no window was installed out of concerns of vandalism.

Marconnet remained there until 2002 when a driver lost control of their truck while traveling the narrow cemetery road and struck the wall of his mausoleum. Joseph was taken to Southern Funeral Home, just as he had been 78 years earlier, where he remained for two months while his tomb was repaired. Later that year he was returned to his final resting place with family members and clergy in attendance.

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Strange Graves is a series by the Mourning Society of St Louis featuring St Louis’ beautiful, strange and historic burials. Post contributed by Katherine Kozemczak.

Strange Graves: The Morrison Cradles

Calvary Cemetery St Louis, Missouri

He is seen no more. Because God hath taken him.

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While wandering through the beauty of St. Louis’ Calvary Cemetery, gazing around at the rolling hills covered with trees and mausoleums and sculptures of angels and obelisks, you might be taken aback to suddenly come upon a stone monument of a baby girl in her crib holding a rattle, and alongside of that, a monument of a boy in a wheelchair. But when you know the story behind the stone, you may look at them in a very different way, maybe even through the eyes of their grieving mother.

The baby girl in her crib marks the grave of Julia Olivia Gill Morrison, known to her family as Olivia. In 1870 at age 14 months she contracted the measles. Then her two older sisters, Adele and Virginia, came down with whooping cough which she caught from them, and died. Her monument has her sitting upright in her crib wearing a baby bonnet tied in a neat bow under her chin and holding a toy rattle, a blanket draped around her, with a small lamb at the foot of her crib, representing the innocence and purity of childhood.

Next to Olivia is the grave of her brother John B. Sarpy Morrison, called Sarpy by his family. He contracted scarlet fever and was ill for some time before it finally claimed his life in 1876 at age 6 years. His monument is that of a young well dressed boy sitting up in a wheelchair with a blanket tucked around his legs which had become weakened from prolonged illness. The look on his face seems thoughtful and more knowing than that of a typical 6 year old boy. There are clusters of grapes and grape vines around the back of his beautifully carved wheelchair, symbolizing the Christian faith, and also symbolizing fruit ready for the harvest; death and rebirth. The wheels on his chair are broken, representing the end of his life on earth.

Behind these monuments rises a tall obelisk, marking the graves of their parents, James Lowery Donaldson Morrison (1816-1888), and Adele Sarpy Morrison (1842-1925). Adele wrote a fascinating 206 page memoir of her life, in which she gives us insight into the grief she experienced at losing two of her beloved children. She wrote the memoir to her two surviving daughters, Adele and Virginia, who were the eldest.

Of Olivia’s death she wrote, “When after 14 months she was called away, I felt my mother’s heart tried as it had never been before. I bethought that going before us all, she would be the star that would illumine our pathway and greet us at Heaven’s portal. Mine was a very lonely heart until God sent me little brother.”

That little brother was Sarpy, who then died 6 years later, and Adele was devastated. For 5 years she went only to the graveyard and the church, or to visit the older two daughters away at school, and she wore dresses of deep mourning. Adele said of this time, “Can you wonder that the sap was taken from my life, when this, the hardest of all blows, was sent to me?” She felt helpless, and feared that God might smite her again by taking another of her children. She could not swallow solid food, and could not even shed a tear, until her Uncle, knowing how she loved music, sent a zither player to her home, and listening to the music she wept for the first time. She came to love the zither so much that later in her life she said that if anyone wanted her back after she had died, a zither played over her grave would have that effect.

The sadness of the many years of Adele’s frequent visits to her children’s graves still hangs in the air at the Morrison plot, but it is softened by knowing that this family is now forever reunited.

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Strange Graves is a series by the Mourning Society of St Louis featuring St Louis’ beautiful, strange and historic burials. Post contributed by Edna Dieterle.

Strange Graves: Biddle Mausoleum

Calvary Cemetery St Louis, Missouri

Pray for the souls of Thomas and Ann Biddle.

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The couple buried within Calvary Cemetery’s oldest mausoleum, Ann Mullanphy and Major Thomas Biddle, were married in 1823.  She was the well educated daughter of Missouri’s first millionaire and he was a dashing military hero who had distinguished himself during the War of 1812.  Together they were a fashionable, well connected and seemingly happy couple until Thomas’ death in 1831. 

Major Biddle was involved in a political argument with Congressman Spencer Pettis, which quickly turned to personal insults and led to Pettis challenging him to a duel. Biddle accepted readily and the ensuing duel on August 27, 1831 left both men dead within a few days.  You can find a detailed post from the Missouri Historical Society about their famous duel on Bloody Island here.

After her husband’s death, Ann dedicated herself to charitable works in St Louis, even giving up her mansion on Broadway to the Sisters of Charity for use as an orphanage. She served as the president of the Ladies’ Catholic Association for Charitable Purposes, and in 1844 donated the lot on which the Church of St Joseph was built. In 1845 she made a gift towards a new orphanage for girls. including a lot worth $6,000 and an additional $3000 towards construction. In that same year she donated the land for the Biddle Market to the City of St Louis.

When Ann Biddle died in 1846 she made a final gift to Bishop Peter R Kenrick - a lot east of Tenth Street between Biddle and O’Fallon Streets for the purpose of founding an infant and widows asylum.  In addition to that, she left $8,000 for the construction of a mausoleum for herself and her beloved husband Thomas, on that same site, surrounded by the institutions that were a result of her passion for charitable works in the city.  George I. Barnett was commissioned to design the structure, and artist Leonard W. Volk was hired to sculpt the alto relievos for the tomb's interior.

Ann and Thomas remained in their temporary burial place at the Catholic Cemetery on Franklin Avenue until their Mausoleum was complete.  Their undertaker George Lynch said later that, when reinterning the couple, he found the bullet that killed Major Bissell among his remains and turned it over to the family.

Professor C. M. Woodward recalled, in an account from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, that he last saw the Biddle monument at 10th and Biddle Street in 1867.  The next trace of it can be found  in The Pictorial St Louis 1875, already having been moved to Calvary Cemetery by the archdiocese.  The five and a half mile journey between the original location and where the tomb and its occupants rest today likely took place in that eight year period.  St Ann’s Asylum, the last of the institutions created through Ann’s philanthropy, remained in operation there until 1905 when it moved to a new facility at Page and Union. Not long after, the asylum buildings were demolished and work began on the Henry School which still stands today.

It appears there were some changes made in the overall design of the mausoleum when it was relocated.  Almost all of the early reports include the inscription Pray for the souls of Thomas and Ann Biddle appearing on the monument but no trace of those words remain today.  An engraving of the mausoleum by John Warner Barber in Our Whole Country, Or, The Past and Present of the United States in 1861 depicts a much more complex structure with a domed cupola and a set of exterior columns.  The classical design and the beautiful marble interior remain today, albeit with a much smaller footprint and simpler profile than the one presented in the engraving.

The exterior of the tomb is constructed with buff sandstone and features two open arched entrances, directly across from each other, with a simple cross above each.  Today visitors are unable to enter the mausoleum, both for its protection and theirs, but the interior is easy to view from the outside.  A Corinthian column stands in each of the four corners drawing the eye up to the oculus in the tomb's domed ceiling which bathes the interior with light.  The two marble effigies of Thomas and Ann face each other, their dates of death inscribed below.

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Strange Graves is a series by the Mourning Society of St Louis featuring St Louis’ beautiful, strange and historic burials. Post contributed by Katherine Kozemczak.

Mourning Society Update: Sep 2020 🎃

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Perkins

Our favorite season is upon us and, although things will be a bit different this year, we are bound and determined to enjoy it. Our annual funeral reenactment, Consolations of Memory, Bellefontaine Cemetery is postponed until 2021 but you will be able to see us at the Campbell House the day before Halloween for their annual mourning themed tour (details below).

We are also rolling out online content throughout the month of October including a new series Strange Graves that will highlight the stories behind some of the St Louis area’s most beautiful, strange and historical burials.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up. There are already plans for new events and programming in 2021.

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Twilight Tours at the Campbell House - Friday October 30, 2020 6pm-9pm

Experience the Campbell House period rooms dimmed to gaslight brightness and draped for mourning. Guests get the unique opportunity to walk through the Campbell House at night and learn about 19th century mourning customs.

Tour times, ticket purchasing information and social distancing details will be added as soon as they are available through the Campbell House Museum.

Join this event on Facebook

The Democracy Limited - Prison Special

From prison to people

In February 1919 the women of the National Women’s Party went on a cross country railway tour to demand immediate action by congress on the women’s suffrage amendment and share the “brutal and lawless measures of the Administration to suppress the lawful agitation for suffrage” with the American public. The tour visited sixteen cities strategically including stops in several southern states where suffrage was not heavily supported. Twenty-Six of the ladies who participated in the tour had been imprisoned for their participation in the Washington DC pickets and watch-fire protests as part of the ‘Silent Sentinels’ and related their experiences to the awaiting crowds in every city they visited. Mrs Abby Scott Baker said of the tour

“We intend to make it clear to the people, that the administration is responsible for the fact that American women are forced to endure imprisonment in their effort to secure the passage of the amendment. The idea that prevails that President Wilson has done everything he could for suffrage. But the fact is that, though he spoke for it, he neither proceeded nor followed his speech, by any effective effort to secure the passage of the amendment; that he has never demanded a party caucus on this measure, as he has on those which he has pushed with vigor: that he has urged the election of men who he knew would vote against suffrage, has failed to denounce the ones who refused to support him on this issue as he has denounced his opponents on other issues"

The original plan for the tour included decorating their train-car with prison bars and suffrage slogans, but the United States railroad administration refused to permit the car to travel unless all decorations were kept inside the car to be viewed through the windows. Despite this setback and the expense of the tour (estimated to be around $20,000) the ladies set out quickly - just a month after it was announced that the issue of suffrage was being postponed indefinitely by the Senate.

Productions included speeches, songs and dramatic reenactments often performed by ladies in replicas of the prison uniforms they wore while detained in the Occoquan Workhouse. Pamphlets and flyers were distributed to the crowd with detailed accounts of their incarceration and a list of grievances against the Wilson administration. The crowds were large and even in places where it was not expected, they were moved to sympathy by the women’s experiences.

Congress passed the 19th amendment just three months after the end of the tour in June 1919. It would be another fourteen months before it was ratified by the states.

Sources: St Louis Globe Democrat 1919; New York Times 1919; The Suffragist, February 1, 1919, pg. 10

~K.Kozemczak

Suffrage in the news April 1920

St Louis Post Dispatch, April 22 1920

It may seem like by 1920 that the ratification of the 19th Amendment was a foregone conclusion, after all the women of Missouri had won the right to vote in their state the previous March, but by April of 1920 only 35 states had ratified the Amendment out of the required 36. The fight was still on to make suffrage a right for every woman in the country. Here’s what was going on in suffrage in April 1920:

-April 21, 1920 Campaigns for the Suffrage Amendment were waged in several states in the hopes that one of them will be the key 36th state to ratify. A delegation of 100 members of the Vermont Equal Suffrage called on Governor Clement with the request that he call a special session of the legislature to vote on the suffrage question. The St. Louis Star and Times

-April 22, 1920 Missouri women became part of the political process for the first time at the Democratic State Convention in Joplin, MO. Several women from across the state participated in the session including many who had been active in the suffrage movement. Notably, Mrs J W McKnight stood as the first women to preside at a State Committee meeting. St Louis Post Dispatch

April, 23, 1920 - Mrs Walter McNab Miller was selected by the Missouri Suffrage Association to represent the women of Missouri at the special session of the Connecticut Legislature for ratification of the 19th Amendment. When asked about this campaign she said 'There is no matter of greater moment to the women of the United States than the coming drive to be waged by women throughout the length and breadth of Connecticut This is even more important, because of the failure of Delaware to come to the rescue just as we were on the eve of a great victory for the women of our country’ The St Louis Star and Times

~K.Kozemczak

Three Missouri Suffragists you may have never heard of

Phoebe Couzins. Photograph by unknown, ca. 1904 Missouri History Museum Photograph and Print Collection / https://mohistory.org/collections/item/resource:146931

Phoebe Couzins was born in St. Louis in 1842. She was a member of the Ladies Union Aid Society during the Civil War, and after the War she joined the St. Louis Woman Suffrage Association, and later the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was the first woman to graduate from Washington University School of Law, in 1871. She only practiced law for 2 months before dedicating herself to the women’s suffrage movement. She was a very impressive public speaker, and lectured for Suffrage across the US. In 1887, she became the first female US Marshall in the country.

In her later years, Couzins changed her position and began to speak out against Suffrage, and against Prohibition. As a result, she lost many of her friends and supporters, as well as her sources of income. She died in 1913 in an unoccupied house in St. Louis, and her funeral at Bellefontaine Cemetery was attended by only her brother and 5 other people. She was buried wearing her US Marshall’s badge. She lay in an unmarked grave until 1950, when a headstone was placed by members of the Women’s Bar Association of St. Louis.

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Victoria Clay Haley was born in  Macon, Mississippi in 1877 and moved to St Louis as a child. She was the first vice-president of the St Louis Chapter of the Young Women’s Christian Association and president of the Federated Colored Women's Clubs of St. Louis as well as a talented writer and public speaker. She dedicated a great deal of time to public works and social causes including serving on the executive committee of the Frederick Douglass Home and the St. Louis chapter of the Colored Women's Unit of the Council of National Defense during World War I.

When the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference was held in St Louis in 1913, Victoria attended after noticing that the leaders of the conference had rejected a suffrage bill in Missouri that excluded black women. Some members of the conference and the Buckingham Hotel management attempted to remove her from the hall as the hotel did not serve black guests, but Victoria held her seat and with support from the conference leadership returned for additional sessions. She returned to the same conference the following year.

After the fight for the vote was won she directed outreach programs to black female voters and served as an alternate member of the Missouri delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1920.

Sources: Biographical Sketch of Victoria Clay Haley written by Nell Shea, fl. 2017 (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street, 2017); & St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri 04 Apr 1913, Fri

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Rose O'Neill is known best for her Kewpie dolls, but she was also a feminist, suffragist, writer, and liberated woman. She spent time in New York and Branson, MO, using her considerable fame to campaign for women's voting rights between 1914 and 1918.  She was frequently in attendance at suffrage parades and often found that her artistic fame came in handy in drawing attention to the unfair treatment of women and minorities. She supported many worthwhile causes such as the Red Cross and the National Tuberculosis Society.

The Kewpie Korner Kewpiegram by Rose O’Neill appeared in newspapers across the United States from 1917 through 1918. These small cartoons with poems promoted woman suffrage and other controversial subject matter.

An April 14, 1915, profile of O’Neill for the New York Tribune featured some of O’Neill’s more strident statements in support of suffrage:

Man has made and ignorantly kept woman a slave. He has forced upon her certain virtues which have been convenient to him. He has damned as intuition her greatest virtue, knowledge.

…

Woman is the philosopher. What she knows man must figure laboriously through logic. For centuries she has borne the greatest insult of the world, but she is now to be emancipated.

Sources: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Bonniebrook Museum

Thank-you to our contributors: Jeanne Spencer, Edna Dieterle & Katherine Kozemczak

March events canceled due to COVID-19 precautions

Our March events Voting Daughters Opening Reception at the Foundry Arts Centre- Friday, March 20, 2020 and Standing Together - Saturday March 28 - 10:00 am to 11:00 am- at the St Louis County Library Headquarters have been canceled.

There will be news soon about more suffrage events this summer and you can preview our fall line-up on our events page. Stay safe everyone!

Please reach out to us with any questions.

Spring 2020 Updates

It may not feel like it yet but Spring is right around the corner. Here’s what we have coming up:

Voting Daughters Opening Reception - Friday, March 20, 2020 - 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM - at the Foundry Art Centre. "Voting Daughters" is an art exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's rights to vote and how that has impacted our modern landscape. Join us at the opening reception for a suffrage performance!

image courtesy of Jennifer Perkins

Standing Together - Saturday March 28 - 10:00 am to 11:00 am- at the St Louis County Library Headquarters. Celebrate 100 years of women's suffrage with the St Louis Suffrage League as we highlight the journey of the movement from the founding of the Women's Suffrage Association of Missouri in 1867, to the St Louis Golden Lane Protest of 1916 and finally the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920! This is a living history event. Audience participation is encourage

Suffragists Wanted!

If you have been interested in joining the Mourning Society or getting involved in reenacting / historical clothing now is a great time to get started! The years between the end of World War I and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment are a great jumping off point and we have a ton of events coming up this year celebrating 100 years of women winning the right to vote. We need ladies and gentleman to fill our ranks. Even if you don't feel comfortable with a speaking part, having you with us cheering, signing and joining in really makes our events better. There are no membership fees to join and we have guides to help you create your interpretation. Visit our FAQ or Contact Us for more information.

Mourning Event Preview

We will be really busy with suffrage events this year, but we are looking forward to getting back to more mourning and death related events later this year and in 2021. Be on the lookout for news about new events through our social media pages. Our annual mourning events are already scheduled so make sure to add them to your calendar: Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery on Saturday October 3, 2020 and Campbell House by Candlelight on Friday October 30, 2020.

December Updates 2019

We are closing in on our last event of 2019 at the Bissell House on December 7th. We hope you can join us at the first of what we hope to be a yearly event highlighting the spookier side of 19th century Christmas traditions. This is a great chance to see the Bissell House which is usually only open by appointment. Admission is only $4 and includes refreshments!

A Victorian Holiday at the General Daniel Bissell House Saturday, December 7, 2019; 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Visitors to the General Daniel Bissell House will enjoy a unique holiday experience. Costumed interpreters will be on hand to tell Christmas ghost stories and play Victorian parlor games with guests. A gentleman will be on hand to provide brief tours of this grand old 19th century mansion.

This event is part of A Spirited Holiday Past along with 27 other historic sites, museums, and privately-owned homes joined together to present a grand holiday tour. For this one-day event, each venue will be decorated in a festive flair and serving refreshments. Many sites will also have special entertainment, whether it be a costumed skit, music, or seasonal activity. Make sure to check out the other sites that are part of this event including Bellefontaine Cemetery and The Campbell House!

This month and next will be busy with planning and booking new events for 2020 including a full schedule of suffrage themed events celebrating the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment and of course more death and mourning themed events. Make sure to check our event page for full details.

Please reach out to us with any questions or comments. You can use the contact form right here to send us a message.

Christmas with the Mourning Society

This year will be our first foray into the spooky side of 19th Century Christmas celebrations at the General Daniel Bissell House on Saturday December 7th from 10am to 3pm. The Bissell House is usually open by appointment only, so don’t miss out on this rare chance to visit with us at this beautiful historic home!

Visitors to the General Daniel Bissell House will enjoy a unique holiday experience. Costumed interpreters will be on hand to tell Christmas ghost stories and play Victorian parlor games with guests. A gentleman will be on hand to provide brief tours of this grand old 19th century mansion.

Refreshments will be available. Call 314-615-8800 or by email jmagurany@stlouisco.com with questions! $4 per person, no advance reservations needed.

The General Daniel Bissell House was built between 1812 and 1820 and is an outstanding and early example of the Federal style of architecture in the Missouri Territory. Daniel Bissell was an important figure in the early military history of the region, and the house reflects its occupancy by five generations of his family before they gave it to St. Louis County in 1961 with many of its original furnishings. The house is open for tours by advance reservation only.

This event is part of A Spirited Holiday Past - Twenty-nine historic sites, museums, and privately-owned homes are once again joining together to present a grand holiday tour. For this one-day event, each venue will be decorated in a festive flair and serving refreshments. Many sites will also have special entertainment, whether it be a costumed skit, music, or seasonal activity. Create your own tour or utilize the themed tours to enjoy the holiday spirit of yesteryear.

November Updates 2019

This October has been extremely busy, sort of stressful and ultimately successful thanks to the support from our amazing Mourning Society members, site volunteers and staff, attendees and of course our partners at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum, Lafayette Park Conservancy, Jefferson County Library, and The Campbell House Museum.

We are taking a bit of a break from events but we are well on our way to planning more weird, wonderful, out of the ordinary historical experiences for you in 2020.

Also on our radar for next year is the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Leading into that celebration The St Louis Suffrage League will be marching in the Downtown St Louis Veteran’s Day parade on November 9th, 2019 and we will have a full schedule of events starting in March for Women’s History Month. If you are interested in marching with us or getting involved in our suffrage reenactments contact us for more information.

image courtesy of Curt Dennison

You can see us for our last event this year on December 7th, 2019 at A Victorian Holiday at the General Daniel Bissell House where we will be reviving the 19th century tradition of Christmas ghost stories. There will also be parlor games and other holiday entertainments.

As always, please reach out to us with any questions or comments. You can use the contact form right here to send us a message.

October Updates 2019

We had amazing weather this past weekend for our annual event Consolations of Memory. The rain held out until just after our last tour. Thank you to all of our attendees, volunteers and Bellefontaine Cemetery staff for making a memorable day for everyone.

It was a busy day for all of us, so if you didn’t get a chance to talk to us about something or thought of any questions you’d like to have asked please reach out to us here.

We have three more events this October starting with Death, Mourning & Memory at Lafayette Park this Sunday October 13th at 3:00 pm. This special lecture presented by our Mourning Society Members John Avery and Edna Dieterle is part of the Lafayette Park Conservancy Lecture Series.

Following that we have one more lecture Artificial Life: A History of Photography and Death at the Jefferson County Library Northwest Branch on Saturday October 19th at 1:00 pm and a very special evening tour of the Campbell House Museum on Friday October 25th starting at 6:00 pm: Campbell House by Candlelight. The Campbell House tour is close to being sold out so don’t wait to reserve your tickets.

We are hard at work planning our 2020 line-up with some new death themed events and several opportunities to celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment with the St Louis Suffrage League.

Consolations of Memory 2019

Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn.

There are limited numbers left in all three tours as of this morning. Register soon before time runs out for this free event! Click here to register

This October 5th, 2019 will be our fifth annual tour at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum. We are incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful location for this special event every year. We owe a big Thank-you to all of the staff and volunteers at the cemetery for everything they do. If you haven't joined us before we hope you will this year.

About the tour

This isn’t quite like any other cemetery tour you’ll attend this fall. Rather than portraying the spirits of those buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery we portray the living, breathing people of the era who were left behind to mourn the loss of a loved one.

The theme of our 2019 is a simple one: The 19th Century Cemetery. As you make your way through the cemetery you will encounter Mourning Society members exploring grief and mourning, the rural cemetery movement and societal views on death and burial.

We’ll make our way to Hotchkiss Chapel for the funeral of 16 year old Maurice D. Blaine who died in August of 1866. This will be followed immediately by a procession down one of the bygone carriage paths to an old family lot for the burial service.

This event is free and open to the public but we do ask that you register with Bellefontaine Cemetery as space is limited.

Tours begin at 10am, 12pm and 2pm. Once you are parked, please proceed to the registration tent for assignment of your guide who will lead you through the stations of the event.  Complimentary parking and public restrooms will be available. Enter at the main gate of the cemetery and you will be directed to the parking area.

This is a rain or shine event (except for excessive lightning.)

About Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum

Find out more about all of our 2019 Fall Events

2019 Event Updates and more

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Perkins @fuzzy_baby_monsters from our event Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery

Things are a bit quiet for us over the winter months but behind the scenes we’ve been planning some fun, interesting, educational and creepy events for 2019. We’ll be covering some of that here but there is more information to come as we iron things out for this coming fall.

If you missed it we were featured in two episodes of the excellent St Louis Podcast Blinders Off: Necropolis Pt 1 and Necropolis Pt 2. You can listen on SoundCloud or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Make sure to check out their other great episodes about St Louis Parks, The Whiskey Ring Scandal and more.

This spring we’ll be celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage in Missouri. Women finally won the long fight for the right to vote here in in March of 1919 and just a few months later Governor Gardner called a special session of the Missouri Legislature to ratify the 19th Amendment making Missouri the 11th state to do so.

~St Louis Suffrage League Meeting, Saturday March 9, 3pm – We’ll be meeting up at a special historic location to discuss St Louis Suffrage History, our upcoming events and building your late teens interpretation. If you are interested in attending this meeting or you want to find out more please contact us.

~Living History Fair at Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saturday June 8, 9am – Join us for this event celebrating the 100 year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in Missouri. Learn about the women and men of the St Louis Suffrage movement from the founding of the Women’s Suffrage Association of Missouri in 1867 to the creation of the St Louis League of Women Voters in 1919.

Fall 2019 is already coming together with a few additional events in the works. Make sure to follow us here, Facebook or Instagram to join this year’s Cemetery Scavenger Hunt. Our regular events at Bellefontaine Cemetery and The Campbell House are already on the calendar. Details about exhibits and registration will be posted as they are available.

~Consolations of Memory at Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saturday October 5, 10am – Our annual 19th Century funeral reenactment

~Twilight Tours at the Campbell House, Friday October 25, 6pm - A special evening tour of the Campbell House Museum with a focus on death and mourning in the 19th Century.