Spencerburg Cemetery, Spencerburg village, Spencer Township, PIKE COUNTY MISSOURI
A full digital picture 2005 survey of the cemetery, markers, plus area plats, older burial lists can be browsed
at the Iowaz Photo Hosting Site, with hundreds of pics available.
A limited history of the area/village near the bottom of this page.

Iowaz Index Page
Iowaz Photo Hosting Site

Coming into old Spencerburg village from the south. The cemetery is an 1/8 miles to the east/right.

1972 list of surnames buried at Spencerburg Cemetery: Alford, Allison, Almonds, Ardery, Ayers, Baker, Ball, Benny, Beshears, Bigs, Bramlett, Brownell, Brunty, Bryan, Caldwell, Clark, Cleaver, Clifton, Collins, Cragen, Curtis, Daly, Dowell, Ellis, Ferrille, Fitzpatrick, Ford, Foster, Freels, Fuqua, Gates, Gay, Geery, Gentle, Gentry, Gramley, Grant, Gregg, Gordon, Guthrie, Hammitt, Hanger, Hazelwood, Howard, Hicks, Hutcherson, Inlow, James, Jellison, Johnson, Kelly, Keithley, Kirtley, Lacy, Laird, Lewis, Liter, Lott, Lust, MaGee, Maher, Maiden, Milan, Miller, Mitchell, Moore, Moss, Myers, McCollum, McCune, McDowell, Neal, Neville, Nichols, Nicholson, Nutt, Ocheltree, Ogle, Parker, Phears, Ragan, Rector, Reynolds, Rinker, Roberts, Robinson, Rose, Saffell, Shawl, Shotwell, Smith, Snedinger, Speagle, Stewart, Sutton, Tapley, Tippett, Tipton, Turpen, Virden, Ware, Weatherford, Wheeler, White, Wicks, Woodson.
Not all of these surnames or given burials can be/were found during the 2005 digital survey of the Spencerburg Cemetery.

Spencerburg Cemetery off to the east as one stands in the village area on the south road.

View from the SE corner post. The major portion of the remaining burials are to the north of the drainage area that runs
downhill from the corner post from SE to NW. The north area is basically outlined by the tree cover in the picture.
The digital photo survey on Iowaz Photo Hosting Site is divided into albums for the northern portion, the SE corner,
as shown near the post, and the SW corner area.

1972 list of surnames buried at Spencerburg Cemetery: Alford, Allison, Almonds, Ardery, Ayers, Baker, Ball, Benny, Beshears, Bigs, Bramlett, Brownell, Brunty, Bryan, Caldwell, Clark, Cleaver, Clifton, Collins, Cragen, Curtis, Daly, Dowell, Ellis, Ferrille, Fitzpatrick, Ford, Foster, Freels, Fuqua, Gates, Gay, Geery, Gentle, Gentry, Gramley, Grant, Gregg, Gordon, Guthrie, Hammitt, Hanger, Hazelwood, Howard, Hicks, Hutcherson, Inlow, James, Jellison, Johnson, Kelly, Keithley, Kirtley, Lacy, Laird, Lewis, Liter, Lott, Lust, MaGee, Maher, Maiden, Milan, Miller, Mitchell, Moore, Moss, Myers, McCollum, McCune, McDowell, Neal, Neville, Nichols, Nicholson, Nutt, Ocheltree, Ogle, Parker, Phears, Ragan, Rector, Reynolds, Rinker, Roberts, Robinson, Rose, Saffell, Shawl, Shotwell, Smith, Snedinger, Speagle, Stewart, Sutton, Tapley, Tippett, Tipton, Turpen, Virden, Ware, Weatherford, Wheeler, White, Wicks, Woodson.

This is basically the SE corner area of Spencerburg Cemetery, or the portion separated by the drainage waterway, which
comes up the hill from the NW and splits the burials into a northern portion on the hill top at the right side,
the SE corner, and the NW area which can be seen on the hill top on the pictures left side, and the picture below.
The digital photo survey on Iowaz Photo Hosting Site is divided into albums for the northern portion, the SE corner,
as shown near the post, and the SW corner area.

Above: SE corner area, viewed from near the south gate into the Spencerburg Cemetery.
Below: SW corner area, viewed from the middle of the Spencerburg Cemetery, with Spencerburg village in the background.

1875 Plat, T54N, R4W
Other plats may be located on the cemetery photo survey albums in the Iowaz photo site or are available by email.

Notes and thoughts regarding Spencer Twp and the Spencerburg area, which give a better overview of many of the surname burials in the Spencerburg Cemetery and other burial grounds along the Salt River Flowage in NE Missouri.

Utilizing "Of Spencer Township," complied by Mrs. J. Renny Reading, 1974, but with personal thoughts and ideas. Other material can be found in the History and Biographies of Pike Co, MO, and NE Missouri, plus reviewing online census data and descendent trees. The Pike County Genealogy Society in Bowling Green operates a library with numerous resources but really requires a personal visit. Old plat maps showing names around the Spencerburg area list many of the families buried in the Spencerburg Cem. Some of those maps may be found in the photo albums on Iowaz Photo Hosting Site

Spencer Twp, is on the western side of Pike Co, MO. Ralls Co and Peno Twp is on the north, Cuivre Twp on the east, Indian Twp on the south, and Audrain Co to the west.

Spencerburg Cemetery is likely the oldest burial grounds in Spencer Twp, other than the early 1820-1840 burials in family plots.

Early settlers into the Spencer township area were:
1799, Benjamin Spencer (name-shake for Spencer Twp)
1811, William Spencer;
1816, James Onstott, Fielder Gentle;
1819, Henry Burch (Rev. War vet.), John Tally (half Cherokke, hunter/trapper);
1820/21, William Brown, George Seeley, John Sutton, Amos Sutton, William Roberts, John Bowles;
By 1830, Caldwell, McPike, McCune, Reading, Biggs, Woodson, Tapley, Ware, Weatherford, Tribble, Crow, Whitledge. Adrian Ogle (bought land for 12+c/acre)

Settlers started moving into the Spencer Twp area beginning abt. 1816, with James Onstott given credit for being the first white to enter (claim/settle land) the Spencer Twp area. Like most early settlement in NE Missouri from the southern route through Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky.

Settlers came along the Mississippi River route, following the Missouri River to Boone's Lick then upward into NE Missouri, or they followed the Mississippi further north than came inland along the Salt River flowage, and the Salt River Trail.

James Onstott, arriving at St. L. village in 1815/16, met Thomas H. Benton and traveled northward along the Salt River Trail, camping on the prairie near where Bowling Green is located today. Onstott would move northwestward and locate near where Spencerburg would be platted in 1866. His cabin would be temporary shelter/headquarters for other early setters until they either continued their travels or with his help, made a local farmstead claim and built cabins. Onstott would later operated a grist/corn grinding mill and distillery near Spencerburg.

Most of the early settlers would be considered relatively poor, starting with small fields and limited resources. Some of the families that stayed for 2-3 generations, through hard work expanded their patch work farms into major farmsteads with large brick and frame homes. As an example the Jeff McCune estate would be over 1700 acres. .Many of these families, coming through the southern route, were also slave owners until the civil war.

Nearly all of the old farmstead buildings rapidly disappeared starting about 1960, with the drastic change from family communities/farms/business to 'corporate' America. There are still limited numbers of people with genealogy ties to the early families living in any of the rural areas of interest, but very few.

Early pioneers nearly always settled close/adjacent to streams, creeks, springs. In Spencer Twp, Spencer Creek flowage was the primary drainage system, which then ran into the Salt River toward east.