People of Sage Chapel Cemetery

Sage Chapel Cemetery was formally established as an African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Cemetery in 1881 at 8500 Veterans Memorial Parkway in O’Fallon, Missouri. There are 17 burials of African-Americans that were born and lived their lives prior to January 11, 1865 enslaved. There are 37 burials marked by permanent headstones whose biographies we provide. Many of those buried in Sage Chapel Cemetery were also members of Cravens Methodist Episcopal Church and Wishwell Baptist Church. All three of these African American Churches were on “the hill” which is today’s Sonderen Street. None of these churches remain standing or are in existence any longer and no records have been located as of 2018.

This list of names was begun in 1988 by Lucille Wiechens, and has been added to for the past thirty years by researchers Mary Hogan Smith, Karolyn Terpstra, Justin Watkins, Amy Steen and Dorris Keeven-Franke. All those listed have been documented by their headstones, obituaries and other newspaper articles, Social Security records, U.S. Federal Census Records 1850-1940, Marriage Records and other public records. Public records such as Missouri Death Certificates as found in the Secretary of State’s Office were also used in this research, and it must be noted that there are no Missouri death records available before 1910 or after 1968 (as required by law). This research was gathered to assist in the nomination of Sage Chapel Cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places. All names below are listed on the nomination to provide documentation of the period of significance 1881-2018.

For the biographies, other history such as family genealogical research, and oral family histories were also used. The City of O’Fallon Media Department and Joe Meier have provided hours of assistance in recording these, to which we are greatly indebted. The oral family history and family memorabilia of Nathan “Booker” Thomas, with Ms. Lorrie Otey are also greatly appreciated. Finally we are deeply indebted to Mrs. Mary Stephenson of St. Charles for the hours she has spent sharing her home, her family photographs and all of the stories, without whose help this never could have been accomplished.

All names linked below (underlined) were only meant to be a tribute because many never received that during their lifetime and were written by Dorris Keeven-Franke.  “As long as a name can be spoken, that person shall not be forgotten.”

Those whose names are in bold were born enslaved, prior to Missouri’s Emancipation Day on January 11, 1865.