MARCELINE MIRROR, Marceline, Missouri, Friday, June 15, 1928
STEIN BURYING GROUND ONE OF THE OLDEST IN NORTH MISSOURI
Stein Cemetery, one of north Missouri's oldest burying grounds, is located four miles due east of Marceline, on a picturesque knoll overlooking the Mussel Fork Creek. Tradition has it that one of Daniel Boone's companions lies buried there. It is all that is left of an old Indian settlement and trading post. It was here that the French maintained a blacksmith to help the peaceful Indian farmers. The last known French blacksmith was named Hayden, who married an Indian and two of his children were among the first to find rest in the cemetery. About one-half acre of ground is all that is left of this ancient burial place. From the eminence on which it stands there is an uninterrupted view for miles up and down the Mussel Fork and far out across the rolling prairie land dotted by picturesque groves and farm houses. Only a few small trees remain on the prominence, Mr. William Stein to whom the land belongs, having cut nearly all the timber to improve his farm has unearthed quite a number of old tools used in the blacksmith shop in the early days, such as braces, reamers, riveting hammers, etc.. They are objects of considerable interest now. The shop stood apparently about the center of his farm.
After the French ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States, the government continued the policy of maintaining a smithy, and there appears to have been a large settlement in the vicinity. The Indians were quiet and peaceable, and until scattered by the inroads of the white settlers, made a living by farming and the chase. The headmen of the tribe lived north of where the Burlington tracks now lie. Headstones mark the resting places of a few, but many graves have been lost in the years that have passed since the cemetery was started. Five veterans of the Civil War lie there- Fred Noeldge, William Smith, Jim Holt, Gus Holt and Steve Swearngain; and one World War Veteran, Lee Still. Howell Pippin, born in 1797, was the last remembered blacksmith at the old smithy. He died about 1852. A daughter, Mrs. Minerva Mossbarger is now a resident of Marceline at the advance age of ninety years. Many members of the Pippin family rest there. Mrs. Frankie Henderson, an old Wyandotte Indian lived for many years a mile north of the cemetery. Many old settlers remember her. She died about thirty years ago. At the outbreak of the Civil War, her husband joined the rebel army and was killed in one of the first battles. Mrs. Henderson remained true to the union cause, however, and it was through her influence that a number of young impulsive men were restrained from uniting with the Confederate forces. Bije Nelson, her brother, died soon after the war.
The limestone bluff on the Mussel Fork just below the cemetery is also an interesting place. There Mr. Stein has found many fossil remains. Through some mighty cataclysm of nature, numbers of animals of unknown size and shape became imbedded in the cliff and fragments of their massive bones have been preserved for countless ages in the dry limestone. Mr. Stein has made quite a collection of these bones together with other curios. He knows the early history of the country and can talk entertainingly about it.