(Ed's Note: these notes are from the Cemeteries of Brown County , Illinois, pages 153&154.)
In 1857, Bishop Juncher of the Alton Diocese established a small Catholic Cemetery in Section 9 of Mount Sterling Township. These were the catholic burial grounds until 1867, when Saint Mary's Church purchased the current site of Saint Mary's Cemetery in Section 8. Researchers located only one grave stone at the site of this cemetery, some reburials are documented, including Helena Weigand (1851-1865), John & Elizabeth Weigand's daughter. She had traveled with the wagon train to Mount Sterling in 1853, but was very young at the time. John Joseph's initial burial sight is unknown and may have been on the farm. He may subsequently been moved to this cemetery upon it's opening. The family may also have buried Catherine (Resch) Geisler (1860), Anna Mary Rasch (1865) and possibly Sebastian Geisler (1867) and Barbary Rash (1867) in this cemetery. The map below is an estimate of the first cemetery's location. This is the road that wanders to the northeast from Mount Sterling and Dutch Ridge.
The first burials of Saint Mary's Cemetery are near the caretaker's tool house, exactly where the Resch family is buried indicating that they were some of the first to use the new cemetery. Below are some pictures I took on one of my many site visits to Mount Sterling.
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