Forest Hill and Calvary Cemetery (Tour)

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Thomas J. Pendergast was a political boss who controlled many aspects of Kansas City in the 1920s and 1930s. After arriving in Kansas City in the 1890s, Pendergast worked for his brother James at his saloon and hotel located in the West Bottoms. James had established a position of local power as a member of the city council and used this position to protect his business interests which included gambling and prostitution. James retired from the city council in 1910 and passed away the following year, and Tom Pendergast followed indirectly in his footsteps, becoming a leader in the city and county's powerful Democratic Party. In 1925, Tom's power grew as a new city charter placed power in the hands of a city manager and Tom was able to control the selection of this manager. With city funds controlled by men Pendergast selected and contracts going to businesses he controlled, the political machine was able to increase their control of the city. Kansas City also gained local control over the police force, and with Tom selecting the leaders, vice industries like alcohol and gambling flourished. In the late 1930s, the Pendergast Machine started to slowly lose its firm grip on the city and county government as more voters supported reform candidates and investigations revealed questions about the city's emergency fund. In 1939, Pendergast was indicted for income tax evasion and served one year at the Leavenworth Penitentiary. He then retired to his home in Kansas City and died of heart failure in 1945.

2. Gravesite of John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil (1911-2006)

This is the final resting place of Baseball Hall of Fame inductee John Jordan O’Neil, Jr., known as Buck O'Neil throughout his professional career. O'Neil was born 13 November 1911 in Carrabelle, Florida and passed away at the age of 94, on 6 October 2006 in Kansas City, O’Neil. A standout first baseman and then coach in the Negro Leagues from 1938 to 1955. Highlights of his playing career include in four East-West All-Star Games and playing in two Negro World Series, 1942 and 1946. O'Neil also became the first African American coach in the Major Leagues in 1962 when he joined the staff of the Chicago Cubs. His fellow players call O'Neil "Skip" in recognition of his leadership and coaching, as well as his work scouting players. O'Neil is credited with recruiting and supporting more Negro League veterans to the Major Leagues than any other player or coach in history, and he was also one of the founders of Kansas City's Negro League Baseball Museum. O'Neil recruited a veritable rollcall of major leaguers such as George Altman, Gene Baker, Ernie Banks, Willard “Home Run” Brown, J.C. Hartman, Pancho Herrera, Elston Howard, Connie Johnson, Sweet Lou Johnson, Hank Mason, Satchel Paige, Hank Thompson and Bob Thurman, to name a few. In 2021, O'Neil was elected for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

3. Gravesite of Horace Peterson III (1945 – 1992)

The chapel at Forrest Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of the founder of the Black Archives of Mid-America, Horace Peterson. Peterson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri as a child. Peterson graduated from Central High School in 1964 and attended Arkansas A&M College in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1968.

4. Gravesite of Jim "Lefty" Lamarque

James Harding “Lefty” LaMarque was born in Potosi (73 miles south of St. Louis), Missouri on 29 July 1920. LaMarque was discovered by Kansas City Monarch secretary William “Dizzy” Dismukes who had read about Lefty’s pitching exploits with the Potosi Tigers in the St. Louis Argus. LaMarque then join the starting rotation of Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith, Booker McDaniel and Jack Matchett and play for the Monarchs until 1948.

5. Gravesite of Thomas Theodore Crittenden

Thomas Theodore Crittenden was a prominent Missouri lawyer who served in the United States Civil War with the 7th Missouri State Militia Cavalry on the Union side as a captain and later lieutenant. He served in the army from 1862 to 1864, after he was wounded at the Battle of Westport. Following his time in the army, Crittenden was appointed Attorney General, served in the United States House of Representatives for the 7th Congressional District, and was elected as governor of Missouri. Among other accomplishments during his term as governor, Crittenden is remembered for controlling the outlaw threat in Missouri by offering a $5,000 reward for Frank and Jesse James which led to Jesse James' assassination.

6. Confederate Monument at Forest Hill Cemetery

Confederate General Sterling Price led a repeatedly disappointing, though particularly destructive, campaign through Missouri from late August to early December in 1864. Known as Price’s Missouri Expedition, it eventually resulted in his Confederate forces being scattered and their presence in Missouri severely damaged, effectively ending the war on the Western border. By the time Price managed to flee to the southern half of Arkansas, innumerable casualties had accrued on both sides of the war, mostly coming from Price’s blunder at the Battle of Westport. Years after the war had ended, locals of the area wanted to give the Confederate dead, who had not been buried appropriately due to cost and time restraints at the time, the opportunity to be laid to rest in a cemetery. In the end, the bodies of over 70 Confederates were moved into Forest Hill Cemetery due to the growing infrastructure of the city and its streets. Starting in 1896 and finishing in 1902, the Daughters of the Confederacy constructed a monument to the troops with a white pillar of granite boasting a metal statue of a Confederate soldier standing vigilant with a rifle in hand. It remains standing and, like many Confederate monuments, is a source of controversy.

7. Gravesite of Joseph Orville "Jo" Shelby (1830-1897)

This is the burial site of Joseph Orville "Jo" Shelby, a man whose wealth came from the labor of the families he enslaved and who is best known for attacking abolitionists and leading Confederate raids during the Civil War. Shelby was born to a wealthy Kentucky family and moved to Waverly, Missouri, where the labor of enslaved people made him one of the wealthiest people in the area. Shelby operated a 700-acre plantation and ropeworks. An ardent defender of slavery, Shelby sided with Missourians who attacked Free Staters in Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. Shelby organized proslavery partisans during Bleeding Kansas, but towards the end of his life, Shelby expressed regrets for his violent actions against Kansans who opposed slavery in the crisis known as "Bleeding Kansas." When the Civil War started, Shelby led cavalry units for the Confederate army. Shelby remains widely regarded as an effective cavalry leader in raids against U.S. Army troops throughout Missouri. He also commanded troops in the Battle of Wilson's Creek and led a division during Price's Missouri Expedition before leading his remaining troops to Mexico to avoid surrender at the end of the Civil War. After the war, Shelby eventually returned to Missouri where he was a farmer. Late in life, Shelby was a U.S. Marshall and in this capacity, he appointed an African-American man as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, an action that was met with controversy. Shelby later voiced regret for the actions he took in Kansas. He told historian William Elsey Connelly: “I was in Kansas at the head of an armed force. I was there to kill Free-state men. I did kill them. I am now ashamed of myself for having done so.”

8. Gravesite of William Volker, Businessman and Philanthropist (1859-1947)

Known for his anonymous acts of philanthropy that ranged from small personal checks to help families in their hour of need to donating millions of dollars to support the creation of hospitals and schools, William Volker earned the nickname "Mr. Annonymous" for his private acts of generosity and kindness. Volker earned a fortune as a manufacturer of home furnishings, and he later earned the nickname of Kansas City's "First Citizen," a moniker that reflected the esteem of his fellow citizens. From 1911, when he decided to give away the bulk of his fortune to his death in 1947, scores of philanthropic and civic projects, ranging from the creation of Liberty Memorial to numerous schools and hospitals, received critical financial support from William Volker. Volker also provided the critical financial support that formed the core of the campus of today's University of Missouri Kansas City.

9. Gravesite of Hazel Browne Williams

Hazel Browne Williams, the first full-time African American professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, exemplified academic excellence throughout her career as an educator. A graduate of Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, Williams studied English at the University of Kansas, where she overcame racism and indifference from professors and was elected to the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

10. Corinthian Clay Ricks Nutter

This is the final resting place of Corinthian Clay Ricks Nutter, an educator who was among the leading advocates for the integration of public schools in Kansas City. A teacher, scholar, and recipient of numerous awards for civil rights. Nutter taught at Walker School in Merriam, Kansas, as well as Westview Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas. In 1949, she was involved in the Kansas Supreme Court decision Webb v. School District No. 90.

11. Gravesite of Leona Pouncey Thurman

Born in Russellville, Arkansas 1 July 1911, Leona Thurman attended Henderson Business College in Memphis before settling in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1931. She became attracted to the law profession as a career while working as a secretary for attorney James D. Pouncey, whom she married in 1937. Following her husband's death, Leona attended Howard University Law School. She received her law degree in 1949 and became the first Black woman to practice law in Kansas City.

12. Gravesite of J.C. Hall

Joyce C. Hall (better known as J.C. Hall) was one of the founders of Hallmark, a Kansas City-based greeting card company. He arrived in Kansas City in 1910 with two shoeboxes of postcards and the dream of starting a company where he could sell postcards by mail order. He was eventually joined by his older brothers Rollie and William and together, they founded the greeting card company that would become globally renowned. Along with Hallmark, J.C. and his son Donald developed Crown Center, Kansas City's "city within a city" that includes residential and office buildings, shopping, and entertainment.

13. Gravesite of Harold Roe Bennett Sturdyvant Bartle

This is the final resting place of Harold Roe Bennett Sturdyvant Bartle, better known as H. Roe Bartle. Bartle was an influential Kansas City mayor, Boy Scout Executive, and philanthropist who grew up in the small mining towns of Virginia. He became a lawyer in Kentucky before discovering his passion for the Boy Scouts. His work with the Scouts drew in thousands of young boys, thanks partially to his development of the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, a campers honor program. Bartle also served two terms as mayor of Kansas City, during which he persuaded the owner of the football team the Dallas Texans to move to Kansas City. The team was then renamed The Chiefs after Bartle's nickname Chief which he earned during his time with the Boy Scouts.

This Tour is a Virtual Museum or Site Tour.

Forest Hill and Calvary Cemetery

Created by Clio Admin on February 19th 2023, 5:47:18 am.

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Description

Covering 160 acres, this historic Kansas city cemetery was incorporated in 1888 and has grown to include both the historic Forest Hill Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery. It is located near the University of Missouri - Kansas City and the historic battlefield of Westport. The cemetery includes the final resting places of Kansas City residents from the Civil War to the present, from Confederate officers to innovative businesswomen and civil rights leaders. It was designed by notable Kansas City architect George Kessler and landscape designer Sid Hare.

Entries on This Tour

Forest Hill and Calvary Cemetery

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